Industrial Machine Soft Key Control for Context-Based Display
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing control devices for industrial machines face difficulties in displaying all soft keys on a single screen due to limitations, leading to user inconvenience and increased operational burdens as users need to navigate through multiple layers to find necessary soft keys, especially when unrelated keys are displayed.
Innovation Solution
A control device and method that utilize a key input processing unit, input content determining unit, storage unit, soft key allocation selecting unit, and soft key display processing unit to dynamically display only the soft keys corresponding to the necessary operations based on the input content, using a soft key definition information table to allocate and display relevant soft keys on the display device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If all soft keys are displayed on a single screen, then user operation convenience is improved, but display device limitations prevent this from being achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The soft key display region dynamically changes its content based on the input content entered by the user. The control device determines which soft keys to display according to the currently input content, making the display adaptive rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by showing only relevant soft keys (improving ease of operation) without requiring increased display area.
Solution Approach 2:
Different soft keys are displayed in different regions or layers based on their relevance to the current input content. The control device allocates soft keys to different display regions according to their association with the input content, allowing important soft keys to be prominently displayed while less relevant ones are placed in secondary regions or layers.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple layers of soft keys are displayed to show all keys, then completeness of soft key availability is improved, but user operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control device extracts and displays only the soft keys that are relevant to the current input content, separating them from unrelated soft keys. By taking out only the necessary soft keys and displaying them in the foreground while keeping unrelated ones in the background or hidden, the system maintains soft key availability without increasing operational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The display of soft keys across multiple layers becomes dynamic based on input content. The control device adjusts which soft keys appear in which layers according to their relevance to the current input, making the multi-layer structure adaptive rather than fixed, thereby reducing the need for users to navigate through all layers.
3Adaptability or versatility
If unrelated soft keys are displayed alongside relevant keys, then completeness of function availability is improved, but user identification difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control device extracts and highlights soft keys that are directly related to the current input content, separating them from unrelated soft keys. By taking out the relevant soft keys and displaying them prominently while placing unrelated ones in the background or hiding them, the system maintains full function availability while significantly improving soft key identification ease.
Data Source
AI summary
A control device controls display of a display device for displaying a display screen for setting operations of the control device that controls an industrial machine and soft keys for operating the display screen. The control device includes: a key input processing unit that receives input from an input device; an input content determining unit that determines a content of the input received by the key input processing unit; a storage unit that stores a soft key definition information table in which operation contents on the display screen to be allocated to the soft keys are defined in advance; a soft key allocation selecting unit that selects the operation contents to be allocated to the soft keys; and a soft key display processing unit that displays the soft keys allocated with the operation contents selected by the soft key allocation selecting unit on the display device.