Industrial Vehicle Touchscreen Widgets for Gloved Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial vehicle operators face challenges in efficiently navigating through large amounts of information on user interfaces, particularly in cold environments where gloved operation complicates navigation.
Innovation Solution
The system includes a touch screen display with gesture recognition, memory for executable instructions, and a processor that defines widgets, controls their display, and allows icons to activate menu portions or move widgets to designated spaces, enhancing operator efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If operators manually navigate through multiple screens and menus to access information, then comprehensive information access is enabled, but operator time and effort increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-loads and displays thumbnail previews of multiple screens simultaneously on a single dashboard screen. This allows operators to see information from multiple screens at once without having to navigate through them sequentially, effectively performing the navigation action in advance by presenting all options upfront.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a traditional single-screen sequential navigation interface to a multi-screen dashboard view that displays multiple screen contents simultaneously in a two-dimensional grid layout. This dimensional change allows operators to access information from different screens without moving between them, eliminating the need for scrolling and clicking through multiple pages.
2Ease of operation
If traditional touch screens require precise clicking and scrolling, then detailed navigation is possible, but operation becomes difficult when wearing gloves
Solution Approach 1:
The dashboard is segmented into multiple discrete thumbnail regions, each representing a different screen or piece of information. Operators can selectively expand only the specific thumbnail they need by tapping it, rather than having to scroll through or navigate through multiple screens sequentially. This segmentation allows for easier selection when wearing gloves.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface dynamically responds to operator input by expanding selected thumbnails to full view and collapsing others. This dynamic behavior allows the system to adapt to operator needs in real-time, providing detailed information only when requested, which simplifies the interaction model for gloved operators who cannot perform precise scrolling or clicking.
3Loss of information
If multiple widgets are displayed simultaneously, then information density increases, but screen space and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The dashboard implements a nested structure where multiple screen thumbnails are contained within a single dashboard view. Each thumbnail can be independently expanded to reveal its full content, creating a nested hierarchy of information display levels. This allows high information density in the collapsed state while maintaining full accessibility to detailed information when needed.
Data Source
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Figure 2A
AI summary
A display and processing device (202) for an industrial vehicle (100). The display and processing device (202) comprising: a touch screen display (152) that receives touch gesture commands from a vehicle operator; memory storing executable instructions; and a processor in communication with the memory. The processor is configured to: define a plurality of widgets (502(N), 740, 750, 760), wherein each widget (502(N), 740, 750, 760) comprises a visual representation of a current state of an associated function of the industrial vehicle (100); control display of a subset of the plurality of widgets (502(N), 740, 750, 760) on a portion of the touch screen display (152) defining a plurality of widget spaces (606, 608); control display of an icon tray on the touch screen display (152) comprising one or more icons (730), wherein at least one of the one or more icons (730) corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of widgets (502(N), 740, 750, 760); and display a first menu (764) associated with one of the plurality of widgets (502(N), 740, 750, 760) when the one widget (502(N), 740, 750, 760) is displayed in one of the plurality of widget spaces (606, 608) on the touch screen display (152) and a first menu portion (761) of the one widget (502(N), 740, 750, 760) is activated by the vehicle operator; wherein: (i) the first menu (764) comprises a list, a sidebar, or a scroll wheel, and a display of options in the first menu (764) is altered by one of a tap gesture, a swipe gesture, or a slide gesture on the touch screen display (152), the options within the first menu (764) being color-coded with a different color; and/or (ii) the first menu portion (761) of the one widget (502(N), 740, 750, 760) is activated by the vehicle operator touching or selecting the first menu portion (761), when executing the executable instructions.