| CPC G06T 19/003 (2013.01) [G06T 2219/024 (2013.01)] | 16 Claims |
|
1. A computer-implemented human-machine interaction method used to assist a user to retrieve and create information about a complex system represented by a hierarchical system model stored in a database and displayed as a corresponding nested three-dimensional workspace structure on a screen of a display unit of a human machine interaction, HMI, user interface, said screen having a limited screen size and a limited screen resolution, wherein said hierarchical system model is processed to plan, monitor and control said complex system,
wherein the computer-implemented human-machine interaction method performs the following steps iteratively to provide a seamless semantic zoom between infinite nested three-dimensional workspaces representing the hierarchical system model;
loading in a first step a three-dimensional workspace associated with a selected parent block using an associated, unique URL, representing a system component of said complex system, wherein the loaded three-dimensional workspace of said parent block contains a scene of deeper nested child blocks of said parent block defined as subordinates of said parent block in the hierarchical system model stored in the database and positioned in the loaded three-dimensional workspace of said parent block;
displaying in a second step the three-dimensional workspace by projecting the scene of deeper nested child blocks of said parent block onto the screen of the display unit by means of a virtual camera associated to said parent block which is positioned in a three-dimensional coordinate system within the loaded three-dimensional workspace of said parent block;
revealing or hiding in a third step content areas of visible displayed child blocks of said parent block depending on a reveal/hide criterion,
wherein the reveal/hide criterion is calculated by a microprocessor of a processing unit of the HMI user interface in real time based on among others the size of the respective child block, the screen size of the screen of the display unit and based on the distance between the virtual camera associated to said parent block and the respective child block of said parent block wherein the distance is calculated as an Euclidean distance between the position of the virtual camera and the position of a center point of the block; and
displaying in a fourth step deeper nested child blocks corresponding to lower hierarchical levels of the hierarchical system model stored in the database if a content area of a children-area type of a child block is revealed based on the reveal/hide criterion, by projecting the scene of deeper nested child blocks of the respective child blocks of the parent block onto the screen of the display unit via an intermediate, virtual projection of the scene of deeper nested child blocks of child block onto said child block;
repeating the third step and the fourth step until all deeper nested child blocks and associated content areas are displayed according to the reveal/hide criterion used in the third step and in the fourth step,
wherein in a zooming operation to zoom in or to zoom out across an infinite number of hierarchical levels of the hierarchical system model the virtual camera of the selected parent block is moved in a z-direction of the coordinate system of the three-dimensional workspace of the selected parent block perpendicular towards projection of the scene of deeper nested child blocks of said parent block
wherein in a zooming-in operation if a predefined switchover criterion is fulfilled a switching from a current three-dimensional workspace and the virtual camera associated with the parent block to another three-dimensional workspace and to the virtual camera associated with a child block of said parent block is performed automatically and seamlessly,
wherein in a zooming-out operation if a predefined switchover criterion is fulfilled a switching from a current three-dimensional workspace and the virtual camera associated with a child block to another three-dimensional workspace and to the virtual camera associated with the parent block of said child block is performed automatically and seamlessly.
|