In the area of consumer electronics, multi-touch has not only changed the ergonomics of devices, it has changed user habits as well. In industrial automation, this technology has the potential to make machine operation more intuitive, faster and safer – in essence, to bring about a revolution in ergonomics for machine and system visualisation units.
At the SPS/IPC/Drives exhibition in Nuremberg, B&R introduced devices that allow multi-touch input in industrial environments.
It promises an increase in usability by simplifying system operation while increasing the level of safety at the same time. Operations where one hand is used to open up a menu while the other sets parameters setting are definitely a possibility. This would eliminate the need to jump back and forth between sub-menus.
Operational safety can also be increased by implementing methods such as blocking certain actions until an additional button is pressed simultaneously with the other hand.
B&R Industrial Automation
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