Information Design Support Device, Information Design Support Method, and Program

Abstract

To reduce the time and labor of an operation performed by a monitor of a plant to obtain concerned information.SOLUTION: An information design assisting device according to an embodiment of the present invention assists in designing information related to a power facility as information including an object class and a concern combined with each other. The information design assisting device includes a UI editing unit and a UI providing unit. The UI editing unit provides an interface for creating a UI by combining a plurality of components with respect to a combination of the object class and the concern. The UI providing unit causes a display unit to display the UI created for the combination of the object class and the concern.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 12

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] An embodiment of the present invention relates to an information design support device, an information design support method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there is known a technique for customizing the display screen of a system for monitoring a plant in order to efficiently monitor the operating status of the plant installed in an electric power facility, etc. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a graphical configuration system that enables quick editing of reusable graphical elements when creating display graphics to be used for user display in a plant monitoring system.

[0003] In the technology described in Patent Document 1, a lead graphics designer of a graphical configuration system creates a template graphical element having a quick configuration form, and other graphics designers edit the quick configuration form to obtain a desired graphical element. Thus, while the prior art customizes an interface for monitoring the plant's operational status at the data item level, it does not customize or model at a larger level, taking into account the thoughts and interests of the plant supervisor. As a result, the plant supervisor may have to perform tedious operations to obtain information of interest. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-130174 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] The problem that the present invention aims to solve is to provide an information design support device, an information design support method, and a program that can reduce the amount of work that a plant monitor has to do to obtain information of interest. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An information design support device according to an embodiment supports the design of information relating to power facilities, which are social infrastructure facilities, as information combining object classes, which are information categorizing the types of the power facilities by defining multiple data items, and one or more concerns, which are information expressing a user's interest in the power facilities. The information design support device includes a UI editing unit and a UI providing unit. The UI editing unit provides an interface for creating a user interface (UI) by combining multiple components for a combination of the object class and the concern. The UI providing unit displays the UI created for the combination of the object class and the concern on a display unit. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a system 1 including an information providing device 100 according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a definition of an object class 160B stored in the storage unit 160. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in a storage unit 160. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a definition of a UI class 160D stored in a storage unit 160. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of information provided in accordance with UI class 160D shown in FIG. 4. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of the configuration of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in the storage unit 160. [Figure 7]FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data provided corresponding to concerns having an inclusion relationship. [Figure 8] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data provided corresponding to a concern having a transition relation. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data provided in response to concerns having an associative relationship. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of data provided corresponding to concerns having an associative relationship. [Figure 11] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing executed by the information providing device 100. [Figure 12] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a system 1 including an information providing device 100 and an information design support device 200 according to an embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. [Figure 14] FIG. 20 illustrates another example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. [Figure 15] FIG. 20 illustrates another example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. [Figure 16] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining a containment relationship of concerns in a UI class 230C. [Figure 17] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining a transition relationship of concerns in a UI class 230C. [Figure 18] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining an associative relationship of concerns in a UI class 230C. [Figure 19] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining an associative relationship of concerns in a UI class 230C. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Hereinafter, an information design support apparatus, an information design support method, and a program according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0009] [Overall configuration] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a system 1 including an information providing device 100 according to an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the system 1 includes, for example, a power facility 10, a terminal device 50, and the information providing device 100.

[0010] The power facility 10 is, for example, a power generation plant, which includes power equipment such as generators, turbines, pumps, valves, boilers, etc. In the following description, the power facility 10 is assumed to be a power generation plant, but the present invention is not limited to such a configuration and can generally be applied to facilities having multiple pieces of equipment to be monitored.

[0011] The terminal device 50 is a computer device such as a personal computer, a tablet terminal, or a smartphone. The terminal device 50 accesses the information providing device 100 via the network NW and acquires information about each piece of power equipment installed in the power facility 10. A user of the terminal device 50 browses the acquired information about each piece of power equipment using a web browser on the terminal device 50 or the like.

[0012] In the prior art, when a user wanted to view information about a power facility, the user would specify on a terminal device 50 the name and identification ID of the power facility 10 for which the user wanted to view information, and then check each data item of the corresponding power facility. In other words, the prior art provided information about the power facility to the user in units of data items, and did not provide information to the user in units of information that organically grouped multiple data items about the power facility based on the user's interest (i.e., units at the "conceptual level"), such as "operational status," "operation status," and "accident status." As described in detail below, the information providing device 100 of the embodiment provides information about the power facility based on information that combines an object class, which is information that categorizes the type of power facility by defining multiple data items, and a concern, which is information that represents the user's interest in the power facility, thereby enabling the user to receive information at the "conceptual level."

[0013] [Configuration of information providing device] The information providing device 100 is a server device that provides the terminal device 50 with information about each piece of power equipment installed in the power facility 10, and includes, for example, an information acquiring unit 110, an object class identifying unit 120, a concern receiving unit 130, an information provision type determining unit 140, an information providing unit 150, and a storage unit 160. The information acquiring unit 110, the object class identifying unit 120, the concern receiving unit 130, the information provision type determining unit 140, and the information providing unit 150 are realized by, for example, a hardware processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing a program (software). Some or all of these components may be realized by hardware (including circuitry) such as an LSI (Large Scale Integration), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or may be realized by a combination of software and hardware. The program may be stored in advance in a storage device (a storage device with a non-transitory storage medium) such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or flash memory, or may be stored in a removable storage medium (a non-transitory storage medium) such as a DVD or CD-ROM and installed by inserting the storage medium into a drive device. The storage unit 160 is, for example, an HDD, flash memory, or random access memory (RAM). The storage unit 160 stores, for example, time-series data 160A, object classes 160B, an object class / concern correspondence map 160C, and UI classes 160D. For convenience of explanation, this embodiment describes an example in which the functions of the information providing device 100 are realized by a single physical server. However, the present invention is not limited to such a limitation. For example, the functions of the information providing device 100 may be implemented as software on a cloud-based platform provided by multiple physical servers.

[0014] The information acquisition unit 110 acquires time series data related to each piece of power equipment from the power facility 10 via the network NW, and stores the data as time series data 160A in the storage unit 160. For example, the information acquisition unit 110 acquires time series data such as the flow rate, head, and ON / OFF state of a pump installed in the power facility 10, time series data such as the aperture, temperature, and ON / OFF state of a valve installed in the power facility 10, and time series data such as the rotation speed, output, and ON / OFF state of a turbine installed in the power facility 10.

[0015] Although not shown in FIG. 1 , the storage unit 160 also stores in advance equipment ledger data for each piece of power equipment installed in the power facility 10, in addition to the time-series data 160A. The equipment ledger data refers to data for managing each piece of power equipment in the power facility 10. For example, in the case of a pump, the equipment ledger data includes data such as an identification number, model number, serial number, manufacturer, manager, and installation date. The equipment ledger data may be periodically updated by the information acquisition unit 110 by receiving the latest data from the power facility 10, or may be manually input and updated by the manager of the information providing device 100.

[0016] The object class identification unit 120 identifies the object class 160B corresponding to the power equipment when the user specifies, on the terminal device 50, the name or identification ID of the power equipment about which the user wishes to view information, or when a predetermined event (e.g., an accident) occurs with respect to the power equipment. For example, when the user inputs or selects the identification ID of a condensate pump on the terminal device 50, the object class identification unit 120 identifies the object class 160B corresponding to the condensate pump based on the correspondence between the identification ID and the object class 160B stored in advance. Furthermore, for example, when a predetermined event occurs with respect to the power equipment, the object class identification unit 120 identifies the object class 160B corresponding to the power equipment about which the event occurred based on the correspondence between the identification information of the power equipment stored in advance and the object class 160B.

[0017] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a definition of object class 160B stored in storage unit 160. FIG. 2 shows the definition of object class 160B of pump A as an example. As shown in FIG. 2, object class 160B is information in which, for example, properties and formats are associated with each other. In the case of FIG. 2, object class 160B of pump A includes, as properties, items such as an identification number, a model number, a serial number, a manufacturer, a person in charge, a status, an installation date, a flow rate, and a head. The identification number, for example, has a character string type and is a number for uniquely identifying the power equipment. The model number, for example, has a character string type and is a number for specifying the model of the power equipment. The serial number, for example, has a numeric type and is a number for specifying the product number of the power equipment. The manufacturer, for example, has a character string type and is information for specifying the manufacturer that produced the power equipment. The person in charge, for example, has a character string type and is information for specifying the person in charge of managing the power equipment. The status, for example, has a Boolean type and takes a value of true when the power equipment is in operation and a value of false when the power equipment is in a stopped state. The installation date, for example, has a date type and is information indicating the date on which the power equipment was installed in the power facility 10. The flow rate, for example, has a numeric type and is information indicating the amount of liquid that can be discharged per unit time when the pump is operated. The head, for example, has a numeric type and is information indicating the height to which the pump pumps the liquid. In the case of a pump having object class 160B of Pump A defined in FIG. 2, the identification number, model number, serial number, manufacturer, person in charge, status, and installation date are stored in advance in the storage unit 160 as equipment ledger data, and the flow rate and head are acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 from the power facility 10 and stored in the storage unit 160 as time-series data 160A.

[0018] When a user specifies, on the terminal device 50, the name or identification ID of the power equipment about which the user wishes to view information, or when a predetermined event (e.g., an accident) occurs with respect to the power equipment, the concern receiving unit 130 displays, on the terminal device 50, the user's interest in information about the power equipment, i.e., candidate concerns, and receives the user's designation of the concern. Concerns are matters of interest that a user may have in common with respect to different types of power equipment, such as the "operational status," "work status," and "accident status" of the power equipment. On the other hand, the details of the information that a user wishes to view are generally different between, for example, the "operational status" of a pump and the "operational status" of a valve (for example, a user may wish to view the head as the "operational status" of a pump, but the head is information specific to the pump and is unrelated to the "operational status" of a valve). Therefore, in this embodiment, a UI class 160D that defines the details of the information to be provided to the user for each combination of object class and concern, and an object class / concern correspondence map 160C that stores the information output format (text, image, audio, etc.) are provided, and detailed information appropriate for the combination of object class and concern is provided to the user. In other words, even for the same concern, if the object classes are different, different detailed information about the power facility is provided to the user.

[0019] The information provision type determination unit 140 uses the combination of the identified object class and the accepted concern to search the object class / concern correspondence map 160C to determine the UI class 160D and information output format that correspond to the combination. The information provision unit 150 provides information about the power facility to the terminal device 50 in accordance with the determined UI class 160D and information output format. The object class / concern correspondence map 160C is an example of a "database," and the UI class 160D and information output format are examples of an "information provision type."

[0020] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in the storage unit 160. As shown in FIG. 3, the object class / concern correspondence map 160C associates information such as UI classes (or paths to UI classes) and output formats with combinations of object classes and concerns. While FIG. 3 exemplarily shows object classes such as Pump A, Pump B, and Valve A, the object classes may also include object classes related to other power facilities such as turbines, generators, and boilers. Furthermore, while FIG. 3 exemplarily shows concerns such as "operation status," "work status," and "accident status," the concerns may also include other concerns such as "site status," "performance status," and "alarm occurrence status." The information provision type determination unit 140 determines the information provision type by referring to the object class / concern correspondence map 160C, thereby enabling it to provide the user with detailed information related to the power facility that is appropriate for each combination of object class and concern in an output format appropriate for the current situation (e.g., outputting audio information when an accident occurs).

[0021] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a definition of UI class 160D stored in storage unit 160. FIG. 4 shows, as an example, a definition of UI class 160D corresponding to a combination in which the object class is Pump A and the concern is "operational status." The left side of FIG. 4 defines that the pump's identification number, model number, serial number, manufacturer, person in charge, status, and installation date are to be displayed as equipment information, and the right side of FIG. 4 defines that a curve showing the relationship between the pump's flow rate and head is to be displayed as a performance characteristic. In this way, by defining in advance the detailed format of information to be provided to the user according to the combination of object class and concern, the user can reduce the effort required to check each data item one by one to obtain information of interest.

[0022] 5 is a diagram showing an example of information provided in accordance with UI class 160D shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5, information providing unit 150 generates actual data to be provided to terminal device 50 by inputting, into UI class 160D, equipment ledger data and time-series data 160A of the power equipment for which the user wishes to view information. At this time, information providing unit 150 can identify the power equipment for which data is to be input based on the name or identification ID of the power equipment specified by the user on terminal device 50, or the occurrence of a predetermined event (e.g., an accident) for the power equipment. Information providing unit 150 transmits the generated actual data to terminal device 50 via network NW.

[0023] In the object class / concern correspondence map 160C of this embodiment, as an example, a UI class is defined for each combination of object class and concern, but the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, one UI class may be defined for each concern, and the detailed items of the UI class may branch depending on the object class to which it is applied. For example, if UI class 160D in FIG. 4 is generally defined as a UI class corresponding to "operational status," a branching may be set such that when this UI class is applied to pump A, "responsible person" is displayed, but when this UI class is applied to pump B, "responsible person" is not displayed.

[0024] [Type of concern] Next, the types of concerns defined and displayed in this embodiment will be described with reference to Figures 6 to 10. Figure 6 is a diagram showing another example of the configuration of object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in storage unit 160. In addition to the data items defined in object class / concern correspondence map 160C shown in Figure 4, object class / concern correspondence map 160C shown in Figure 6 further includes data items such as inclusion relationships, transition relationships, and association relationships.

[0025] An inclusion relationship refers to a relationship established between a concern and multiple concerns obtained by further breaking down the content of the concern. For example, if a user wants to know the “status” of a certain power facility, the user is likely to want to know the “operational status,” “work status,” “site status,” and “alarm occurrence status” of the power facility as further details of the “status.” That is, interest in the “status” potentially includes interest in the “operational status,” “work status,” “site status,” and “alarm occurrence status.” Therefore, when a concern (parent concern) has an inclusion relationship with another concern (child concern) in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C (i.e., when the other concern is stored in the “inclusion relationship” data item of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C), the information providing unit 150 provides information about the power facility according to the UI class 160D corresponding to the parent concern as well as the UI class 160D corresponding to the child concern. Alternatively, when there are multiple child concerns, the UI class 160D corresponding to the parent concern is defined as a combination of the UI classes 160D corresponding to the multiple child concerns.

[0026] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of data provided corresponding to concerns having an inclusion relationship. The left part of FIG. 7 shows the inclusion relationship defined in the first row of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C shown in FIG. 6 , and the right part of FIG. 7 shows data related to the “status” of pump A provided by the information provider 150 based on the inclusion relationship. As shown in the left part of FIG. 7 , the “status” concern includes the concerns of “operation status,” “work status,” “site status,” and “alarm occurrence status.” Therefore, the information provider 150 defines a UI class 160D corresponding to the “status” of pump A by combining a UI class 160D corresponding to the “operation status” of pump A, a UI class 160D corresponding to the “work status” of pump A, a UI class 160D corresponding to the “site status” of pump A, and a UI class 160D corresponding to the “alarm occurrence status” of pump A, and provides information related to the pump in accordance with the defined UI class 160D corresponding to the “status” of pump A.

[0027] More specifically, for example, as shown in the right part of FIG. 7 , the information provider 150 displays information on the work status, site status, and alarm occurrence status below the equipment information and performance characteristics, which are UI class 160D corresponding to the "operation status" of pump A. This display method, in which information from UI class 160D corresponding to multiple child concerns is combined and displayed as information from UI class 160D corresponding to a parent concern, is referred to as a "dashboard format." For example, in response to a user clicking on information from UI class 160D corresponding to a child concern on the terminal device 50, the information provider 150 may display the information corresponding to the child concern in more detail (e.g., enlarged).

[0028] A transition relationship is a relationship that exists between a concern and another concern that a user is expected to be interested in after resolving the concern. For example, if a user wants to know about the "visit inspection plan" for a certain power facility, the user is expected to want to "conduct the inspection" after checking the inspection plan. Furthermore, the user is expected to want to "conduct a diagnostic analysis of deterioration" after "conducting the inspection." In other words, interest in "planning the inspection" can potentially transition to interest in "conducting the inspection," and interest in "conducting the inspection" can potentially transition to interest in "diagnostic analysis of deterioration." Therefore, when the object class / concern correspondence map 160C has a transition relationship in which a certain concern (pre-transition concern) transitions to another concern (transition destination concern) (i.e., the other concern is stored in the data item of the "transition relationship" in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C), the information providing unit 150 first provides information about the power equipment according to the UI class 160D corresponding to the pre-transition concern, and then provides information about the power equipment according to the UI class 160D corresponding to the transition destination concern.

[0029] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of data provided corresponding to concerns having transition relationships. The left part of FIG. 8 shows the transition relationships defined in the eighth and ninth lines of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C shown in FIG. 6 , and the right part of FIG. 8 shows data related to the “visual inspection plan” for pump A provided by the information provider 150 based on the transition relationships. As shown in the left part of FIG. 8 , the concern for “visual inspection plan” transitions to the concern for “visual inspection implementation,” and the concern for “visual inspection implementation” transitions to the concern for “deterioration diagnostic analysis.” Therefore, the information provider 150 provides information about the pump in accordance with the UI class 160D corresponding to the “visual inspection plan” for pump A, then provides information about the pump in accordance with the UI class 160D corresponding to the “visual inspection implementation” for pump A, and then provides information about the pump in accordance with the UI class 160D corresponding to the “deterioration diagnostic analysis” for pump A.

[0030] More specifically, for example, as shown in the right part of FIG. 8 , the information providing unit 150 displays information in the UI class 160D corresponding to "Implementation of Inspection" for pump A to the right of information in the UI class 160D corresponding to "Plan of Inspection" for pump A, and further displays information in the UI class 160D corresponding to "Diagnostic Analysis of Deterioration" for pump A to the right of that information. This display method of displaying information in the UI class 160D corresponding to the destination concern after information in the UI class 160D corresponding to the pre-transition concern is referred to as a "flowchart format." For example, in response to a user clicking on information in the UI class 160D corresponding to the pre-transition concern or the destination concern on the terminal device 50, the information providing unit 150 may display the information corresponding to the pre-transition concern or the destination concern in more detail (e.g., enlarged).

[0031] In this embodiment, with regard to the transition relationship of concerns, the term "later" does not necessarily mean that the timing of displaying the information is shifted (i.e., information corresponding to the destination concern is displayed later than information corresponding to the pre-transition concern). For example, as long as the transition relationship is clearly indicated by a notation such as an arrow, information corresponding to the destination concern and information corresponding to the pre-transition concern may be displayed simultaneously.

[0032] An associative relationship is a relationship that exists between a concern and another concern that a user is expected to be interested in in relation to the concern. In this sense, inclusion and transition relationships can also be considered types of associative relationships, but associative relationships imply weaker associations than inclusion and transition relationships. For example, if a user wants to know the "operational status" of a certain power facility, it is also expected that the user, in relation to checking the operation status, will also want to check the "inventory status" and "inspection plan" of the power facility. In other words, interest in "operational status" can potentially be related to interest in "inventory status" and "inspection plan." Therefore, when a concern (associated concern) has an associative relationship with another concern (associated concern) in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C (i.e., the other concern is stored in the "associated relationship" data item of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C), the information providing unit 150 displays the information of the UI class 160D corresponding to the associated concern in a manner linked to the information of the UI class 160D corresponding to the associated concern.

[0033] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of data provided corresponding to concerns having an associative relationship. The left part of FIG. 9 shows the associative relationship defined in the first row of the object class / concern correspondence map 160C shown in FIG. 6, and the right part of FIG. 9 shows data related to the "operational status" of pump A provided by the information providing unit 150 based on the associative relationship. As shown in the left part of FIG. 9, the concern of "operational status" is related to the concerns of "inventory status" and "patrol inspection plan." Therefore, the information providing unit 150 displays information related to the "inventory status" and "patrol inspection plan" of pump A in a manner linked to information related to the "operational status" of pump A.

[0034] More specifically, for example, as shown in the right part of FIG. 9 , the information providing unit 150 may selectably display information about "inventory status" and "patrol inspection plan" below information about the "operational status" of pump A. The information providing unit 150 may display the information about "inventory status" and "patrol inspection plan" as slides, switching the display at predetermined time intervals, or may switch the display in response to a user clicking an arrow displayed on the slide. This display method, in which information about multiple associated concerns is selectably displayed in a slide format, is referred to as a "slideshow format." For example, the information providing unit 150 may display information corresponding to the associated concern in more detail (e.g., enlarged) in response to a user clicking on information about the associated concern displayed in slideshow format on the terminal device 50.

[0035] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of data provided in association with concerns. For example, as shown in the right part of FIG. 10, the information providing unit 150 displays information about "inventory status" and "inspection plan" selectably below information about the "operational status" of pump A. The information providing unit 150 displays information about "inventory status" and "inspection plan" as a list of selectable items, and displays information about "inventory status" or "inspection plan" in response to a user clicking on a selection item displayed in the list. This display method of displaying information about multiple associated concerns in a selectable list format is called a "navigation format."

[0036] 7 to 10, for convenience, the information providing unit 150 displays information on only one of the inclusion relationship, transition relationship, and associative relationship on the screen. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. When a concern has multiple relationships with multiple other concerns, the information providing unit 150 may display information on all of those relationships on the same screen. For example, when a concern (first concern) has an inclusion relationship that includes another concern (second concern) and at the same time has an associative relationship with yet another concern (third concern), the information providing unit 150 may display information on the first concern at the top of the same screen, information on the second concern below that, and information on the third concern below that.

[0037] Furthermore, in the above descriptions of Figures 7 to 10, the information providing unit 150 determines whether a concern has an inclusion relationship, a transition relationship, or an associative relationship with another concern by referring to the pre-defined object class / concern correspondence map 160C. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. The information providing unit 150 may determine whether a concern has an inclusion relationship, a transition relationship, or an associative relationship with another concern based on the user's concern designation history. For example, if a user frequently checks information about the "work status" after checking information about the "site status," the information providing unit 150 may determine that the "site status" concern has an associative relationship with the "work status" concern. In this case, if the information providing unit 150 determines that a concern has an associative relationship with another concern in the same object class, it determines that these concerns have an "associative relationship with something" in the object class. Furthermore, for example, if a user checks information about a plurality of other concerns after checking information about the "site situation," the information providing unit 150 may determine that the concern of the "site situation" has an associative relationship with these plurality of concerns. In this case, the information providing unit 150 may accept a user's designation by displaying a list of options for selecting one of the plurality of concerns in order of frequency of past confirmation.

[0038] Furthermore, as another embodiment, the information providing unit 150 may determine an inclusion relationship, transition relationship, or associative relationship between concerns based on the designation history of a user with high engineering skills (the level of skill can be determined based on, for example, the registration period or job title of the user registered in the information providing device 100), and may display multiple concerns to a user with low engineering skills in accordance with this inclusion relationship, transition relationship, or associative relationship. For example, if a user with high skills frequently checks information about the "work status" after checking information about the "site status," the information providing unit 150 may determine that the concern for the "site status" has an associative relationship with the concern for the "work status," and when a user with low skills checks information about the "site status," the information about the "work status" may be selectably displayed in a slideshow format or a list format.

[0039] [Operation flow] Next, the flow of processing executed by the information providing device 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 11. Fig. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing executed by the information providing device 100.

[0040] First, the information acquisition unit 110 acquires, from the power facility 10, time-series data relating to the power equipment installed in the power facility 10 (step S101). Next, the object class identification unit 120 determines whether the user specifies, on the terminal device 50, the name or identification ID of the power equipment for which information is desired to be viewed, or whether a predetermined event has occurred for the power equipment (step S102).

[0041] When the user specifies, on the terminal device 50, the name or identification ID of the power equipment about which information is to be viewed, or when it is determined that a predetermined event has not occurred for the power equipment, the object class identification unit 120 executes the process of step S102 again. On the other hand, when the user specifies, on the terminal device 50, the name or identification ID of the power equipment about which information is to be viewed, or when it is determined that a predetermined event has occurred for the power equipment, the object class identification unit 120 identifies the object class corresponding to the power equipment (step S103).

[0042] Next, the concern receiving unit 130 displays candidate concerns for the power facility specified by the user on the terminal device 50 and determines whether a concern specification has been received from the user (step S104). If it is determined that a concern specification has not been received from the user, the concern receiving unit 130 waits until a concern specification is received from the user. On the other hand, if it is determined that a concern specification has been received from the user, the information provision type determining unit 140 uses the identified combination of object class and received concern to search the object class / concern correspondence map 160C to determine the UI class 160D and information output format corresponding to the combination of the object class and concern (step S105). The information providing unit 150 provides information about the power facility in accordance with the determined UI class 160D and information output format (step S106). This completes the processing of this flowchart.

[0043] According to at least one of the embodiments described above, an information provision type of information to be provided to a user is determined based on an object class corresponding to the power facility where a user has specified an event or where a predetermined event has occurred, and a concern that the user has about the power facility, and information about the power facility is provided according to the determined information provision type. This reduces the amount of work required for a plant supervisor to perform operations to obtain information of interest.

[0044] [Configuration of information design support device] As described above, the storage unit 160 stores in advance UI classes 160D corresponding to combinations of object classes and concerns, and the information providing device 100 determines the UI classes 160D to display by referring to the object class / concern correspondence map 160C. That is, the UI classes 160D are created in advance by, for example, an engineer who is familiar with the management of the power facility 10, taking into consideration the combinations of object classes and concerns, and are stored in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C. The following describes an information design support device 200 that supports the creation of UI classes 160D.

[0045] 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a system 1 including an information providing device 100 and an information design support device 200 according to an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 12, the system 1 includes the power facility 10, the terminal device 50, the information providing device 100, and the information design support device 200.

[0046] The information design support device 200 is a server device that provides the terminal device 50 with a development environment function for supporting the creation of the UI class 160D, and includes, for example, a UI editing unit 210, a UI presentation unit 220, and a storage unit 230. The UI editing unit 210 and the UI presentation unit 220 are realized by, for example, a hardware processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing a program (software). Some or all of these components may be realized by hardware (including circuitry) such as an LSI (Large Scale Integration), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or may be realized by a combination of software and hardware. The program may be stored in advance in a storage device (a storage device having a non-transitory storage medium) such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or flash memory, or may be stored in a removable storage medium (a non-transitory storage medium) such as a DVD or CD-ROM, and installed by inserting the storage medium into a drive device. The storage unit 160 is, for example, a HDD, a flash memory, a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc. The storage unit 230 stores, for example, an object class 230A, a UI component 230B, and a UI class 230C.

[0047] In the following description, the information design support device 200 and the terminal device 50 are separate entities, and the user uses, for example, a web browser (an example of a "display unit") on the terminal device 50 to utilize the functions of the development environment provided by the information design support device 200; however, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, the functions of the development environment provided by the information design support device 200 described below may be installed as an application on the terminal device 50, or the information providing device 100 described above may also have the functions of the information design support device 200.

[0048] The UI editor 210 provides an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B, such as text boxes, shapes, property values ​​of object classes, graphs, images, or videos, for a combination of an object class and a concern.

[0049] 13 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. As shown in the right part of FIG. 13, for example, a user selects "Pump A" as an object class and "Operational Status" as a concern on the terminal device 50, and the UI editing unit 210 provides the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating a UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "Operational Status." Note that the UI editing unit 210 may provide a function for the user to edit the UI class 230C not only by selecting an existing object class and concern but also by defining a new object class or concern.

[0050] When the name of an object class is selected on the screen of the terminal device 50, the UI editing unit 210 refers to the object class 230A stored in the storage unit 230, acquires the properties of the object class, and makes them available for editing the UI class 230C. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the object class of "Pump A" includes, as properties, items such as an identification number, model number, serial number, manufacturer, person in charge, status, installation date, flow rate, and head. Therefore, the UI editing unit 210 makes these properties associated with the object class of "Pump A" selectable and can embed them in the UI class 230C to be created, as shown in the lower right of FIG. 13.

[0051] As shown in the left part of FIG. 13 , the user, for example, inputs characters into a text box TXTBX, which is a type of UI component 230B, on the terminal device 50. In the example of FIG. 13 , the user inputs "pump operation status" into text box TXTBX1 and "equipment information" into text box TXTBX2 on the terminal device 50. The user then draws a shape such as a rectangle SQ1 on the terminal device 50. The user then drags and drops, for example, an identification number PR1, a model number PR2, and a serial number PR3 as properties from a property list on the terminal device 50, thereby making it possible to display the values ​​of these properties.

[0052] Fig. 14 is a diagram showing another example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. Fig. 14 shows a situation in which the user has completed defining the facility information for the UI class 230C in the scene shown in Fig. 13.

[0053] As shown in the left part of FIG. 14, the user inputs "performance characteristics" into the text box TXTBX3 on the terminal device 50, for example. Next, the user embeds a graph in the UI class 230C by, for example, calling a graph function, which is a type of UI component 230B, on the terminal device 50 (for example, by right-clicking the mouse). At this time, for example, the UI editing unit 210 presents a dialog box that prompts the user to specify explanatory variables and target variables of the graph, as shown in the left part of FIG. 14, and the user can define the graph by, for example, selecting explanatory variables and target variables from a list of properties.

[0054] In the example of Figure 14, the user selects flow rate as the explanatory variable and head as the objective variable. As a result, a performance curve showing the relationship between flow rate and head is defined in UI class 230C. Through the above processing, UI class 230C identical to UI class 160D shown in Figure 4 is created for the combination of the object class "Pump A" and the concern "Operational Status."

[0055] In this embodiment, a simple example of specifying explanatory variables and target variables is shown as a graph function, which is a type of UI component 230B. However, for example, the user may create a more complex mathematical model in advance as a plugin and store it in the storage unit 230, and the UI editing unit 210 may call the plugin stored in the storage unit 230 and embed it in the UI class 230C.

[0056] The UI presentation unit 220 transmits the UI class 230C created for the combination of the object class and the concern to the terminal device 50 for display. At this time, the UI presentation unit 220 may display the created UI class 230C as a template as shown in Fig. 4, or may display it as actual data as shown in Fig. 5 by inputting production data stored in the information providing device 100 or sample data stored in the information design support device 200 into the UI class 230C. Thereafter, the created UI class 230C is deployed as a UI class 160D in the storage unit 160 of the information providing device 100.

[0057] 13 and 14 show interface screens when a user creates a UI class 230C for each combination of an object class and a concern. On the other hand, for the same concern, even if the object classes are different, common (or partially common) UI items may be defined. In such cases, it is not efficient to manually create a UI class 230C for each combination of an object class and a concern.

[0058] FIG. 15 illustrates another example of an interface for creating a UI class 230C by combining multiple UI components 230B. As shown in the right portion of FIG. 15 , a user selects, for example, “operational status” as a concern and “pump A,” “pump B,” and “valve A” as object classes on the terminal device 50. At this time, the UI editing unit 210 provides the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating a UI class 230C corresponding to the “operational status” concern. The created UI class 230C is commonly applied to the object classes “pump A,” “pump B,” and “valve A.” For example, after editing UI items common to the object classes “pump A,” “pump B,” and “valve A,” the user may switch to the interface illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14 and edit UI items specific to each object class. This allows efficient creation of UI classes 230C for multiple object classes having common UI items for a certain concern.

[0059] Next, an interface for defining inclusion relationships, transition relationships, and association relationships of concerns in the UI class 230C will be described with reference to Figures 16 to 19. Figure 16 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining inclusion relationships of concerns in the UI class 230C. As in Figure 13, a user may select, for example, "Pump A" as the object class and "Status" as the concern on the terminal device 50, and the UI editing unit 210 may provide the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating a UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "Status."

[0060] 16 , the UI editing unit 210 displays a list of multiple concerns as candidates for being included in the "status," i.e., as included concerns. For example, on the terminal device 50, the user can drag and drop "operation status," "work status," "site status," and "alarm occurrence status" from the list of included concerns to embed the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "operation status," the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "work status," the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "site status," and the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "alarm occurrence status" into the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "status." When an inclusion relationship is defined for a certain UI class 230C, the inclusion relationship is reflected in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in the information providing device 100.

[0061] Fig. 17 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining a transition relationship of concerns in the UI class 230C. In the case of Fig. 17, for example, a user selects "Pump A" as an object class and "Inspection patrol plan" as a concern on the terminal device 50, whereby the UI editing unit 210 provides the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "Inspection patrol plan".

[0062] 17 , the UI editing unit 210 displays a list of multiple concerns as candidates for the next transition of a concern, i.e., as transition destination concerns. For example, on the terminal device 50, the user can drag and drop "Deterioration diagnostic analysis" from the list of transition destination concerns for the concern "Perform inspection visits." This causes the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern "Deterioration diagnostic analysis" to be displayed after the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern "Perform inspection visits." The user can also drag and drop "Alarm notification" from the list of transition destination concerns for the concern "Deterioration diagnostic analysis." This causes the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern "Deterioration diagnostic analysis" to be displayed after the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern "Perform inspection visits." As a result, a UI class 230C is defined in which the transitions are in the order of "perform inspection patrol," "diagnose and analyze deterioration," and "notify alarm" for the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "planned inspection patrol." When a transition relationship is defined for a certain UI class 230C, the transition relationship is reflected in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in the information providing device 100. Note that even in this case, the term "later" does not necessarily mean that the timing of displaying information will be shifted; for example, as long as the transition relationship is clearly indicated by a notation such as an arrow, information corresponding to the destination concern and information corresponding to the pre-transition concern may be displayed simultaneously.

[0063] 18 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining an associative relationship of concerns in the UI class 230C. In the case of Fig. 18, for example, a user selects "Pump A" as an object class and "Operational Status" as a concern on the terminal device 50, and the UI editing unit 210 provides the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "Operational Status."

[0064] As shown in the lower right corner of FIG. 18 , the UI editing unit 210 displays a list of multiple concerns as candidate concerns related to the “operation status,” i.e., as related concerns. For example, on the terminal device 50, the user drags and drops “inventory status” from the list of associated concerns to selectably display a UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class “Pump A” and the “inventory status” concern as a slide on the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class “Pump A” and the “operation status” concern. The UI presentation unit 220 slides information about “inventory status” as a selection item, and displays the information about “inventory status” in more detail (e.g., enlarged) in response to the user clicking on a selection item displayed on the slide. When an associative relationship is defined for a UI class 230C, the associative relationship is reflected in the object class / concern correspondence map 160C stored in the information providing device 100.

[0065] 19 is a diagram showing an example of an interface for defining an associative relationship of concerns in the UI class 230C. In the case of Fig. 19, for example, a user selects "Pump A" as an object class and "Operational Status" as a concern on the terminal device 50, and the UI editing unit 210 provides the terminal device 50 with an interface for creating the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the concern of "Operational Status."

[0066] As shown in the lower right corner of FIG. 19 , the UI editing unit 210 displays a list of multiple concerns as candidate concerns related to the "operation status," i.e., as related concerns. For example, the user drags and drops "inventory status" from the list of associated concerns on the terminal device 50 to selectably display the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the "inventory status" concern on the UI class 230C corresponding to the combination of the object class of "Pump A" and the "operation status" concern. The UI presentation unit 220 displays information about "inventory status" as a list of options, and displays information about "inventory status" in response to the user clicking on an option displayed in the list. Through the above processing, the inclusion relationships, transition relationships, and association relationships of concerns are defined in the UI class 230C.

[0067] 18 and 19 illustrate the case where a user manually sets associative relationships for concerns. However, as described above, associative relationships for concerns can also be obtained by, for example, learning each user's associative tendencies based on the user's concern designation history. Therefore, the information providing unit 150 may display only one of the associative concerns obtained by learning and the manually set associative concerns, or may display them simultaneously so that they can be distinguished. Furthermore, for example, the information providing unit 150 may display manually set associative concerns by default, and as learning of each user's associative tendencies progresses, concerns that are frequently specified by users may replace the concerns displayed by default.

[0068] According to at least one of the embodiments described above, an interface for creating a UI to be provided to a user is provided in accordance with a combination of an object class, which is information categorizing the type of power facility, and a concern, which is an interest the user has for the power facility, and information about the power facility is provided based on the created UI. This reduces the effort required for a plant supervisor to perform operations to obtain information of interest.

[0069] In the present embodiment, the present invention has been described as being applied to a plant installed in an electric power facility or the like, by way of example. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration and can be applied to monitoring various social infrastructure facilities, such as water supply, gas, medical facilities, roads, railways, and airports. For example, when the present invention is applied to water supply facilities, a water tank, a water distribution pipe, and the like can be set as object classes, and an operation status and an inspection status can be set as concerns. Furthermore, when the present invention is applied to gas supply facilities, a bulk storage tank, an overfill prevention device, and the like can be set as object classes, and an operation status and an inspection status can be set as concerns.

[0070] Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included within the scope and spirit of the invention, as well as within the scope of the invention described in the claims and their equivalents. [Explanation of symbols]

[0071] 10...power facility, 50...terminal device, 100...information providing device, 110...information acquisition unit, 120...object class identification unit, 130...concern reception unit, 140...information provision type determination unit, 150...information providing unit, 160...storage unit, 160A...time series data, 160B...object class, 160C...object class / concern correspondence map, 160D...UI class, 200...information design support device, 210...UI editing unit, 220...UI presentation unit, 230...storage unit, 230A...object class, 230B...UI component, 230C...UI class

Claims

1. An information design support device that supports designing information about electric power facilities as information that combines an object class, which is information that categorizes the type of the electric power facilities by defining a plurality of data items, and one or more concerns, which are information that express a user's interest in the electric power facilities, a UI editing unit that provides an interface for creating a UI (user interface) by combining a plurality of components for the combination of the object class and the concern; a UI providing unit that displays the UI created for the combination of the object class and the concern on a display unit. Information design support equipment.

2. the one or more concerns comprises a plurality of concerns; the UI editor provides the interface for defining a relationship in which a first concern of the plurality of concerns encompasses a second concern of the plurality of concerns; the UI providing unit causes a display unit to display the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the first concern and the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the second concern together. The information design support device according to claim 1.

3. the one or more concerns comprises a plurality of concerns; the UI editor provides the interface for defining a relationship in which a first concern among the plurality of concerns transitions to a second concern among the plurality of concerns; the UI providing unit causes the display unit to display the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the first concern, and then causes the display unit to display the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the second concern.

3. The information design support device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. the one or more concerns comprises a plurality of concerns; the UI editor provides the interface for defining a relationship in which a first concern of the plurality of concerns relates to a second concern of the plurality of concerns; the UI providing unit causes the display unit to display the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the first concern in a manner linked to the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the second concern. The information design support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. the UI editor provides the interface for defining, in a list format, a relationship in which a first concern among the plurality of concerns is related to a second concern among the plurality of concerns; the UI providing unit causes the display unit to display, in the list format, the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the first concern and the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the second concern. The information design support device according to claim 4.

6. the UI editor provides the interface for defining, in a slide format, a relationship in which a first concern among the plurality of concerns is related to a second concern among the plurality of concerns; the UI providing unit causes the display unit to display, in the slide format, the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the first concern and the UI corresponding to the combination of the object class and the second concern. The information design support device according to claim 4.

7. The computer Support is provided for designing information relating to electric power facilities as information combining object classes, which are information categorizing the types of the electric power facilities by defining a plurality of data items, and one or more concerns, which are information expressing a user's interest in the electric power facilities; providing an interface for creating a user interface (UI) by combining a plurality of components for the combination of the object class and the concern; displaying the UI created for the combination of the object class and the concern on a display unit; Information design support method.

8. On the computer, The system supports the design of information relating to electric power facilities as information combining an object class, which is information categorizing the type of the electric power facilities by defining a plurality of data items, and one or more concerns, which are information expressing a user's interest in the electric power facilities; providing an interface for creating a user interface (UI) by combining a plurality of components for the combination of the object class and the concern; displaying the UI created for the combination of the object class and the concern on a display unit; program.

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