| 摘要 |
The invention discloses methods and apparatus based on tabular concepts which greatly simplify the configuration, maintenance and run-time operations of a broad range of electronic equipment control systems, including, but not limited to: (a) industrial controls, (b) supervisory control and data acquisition, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and (c) home automation, including systems or stand-alone equipment, such as video recording devices. The tabular concepts of the invention are applied in three primary stages, namely (i) data input or configuration, including automated data population, (ii) generic operating rule application to tables of rules data variables, and (iii) English (or other) language translations of the current rule sets, for ease of verification. By each of these methods alone and through combination of all of these methods, the current invention makes the configuration and operation of automated equipment easily accessible to persons who do not have technical skills in either process control, automation, or software programming. Development of software for automatic control of equipment is also greatly simplified by these inventions. |
| 主权项 |
1. A method of adapting a computer to control a device, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) setting up the computer, wherein said setting up comprises constructing a generic operating rule; (b) receiving by the computer input data from a user, wherein the input data include at least one of: a parameter to be controlled, a desired value for the parameter, and a range of values for the parameter; (c) the computer populating the generic operating rule of Step (a) with the input data received at Step (b), to convert the generic operating rule to a unique operating rule; (d) displaying the unique operating rule of Step (c) as a natural language expression; and, (e) the user verifying the unique operating rule displayed at Step (d),wherein the computer is adapted to control the device by executing the unique operating rule verified at Step (e). |
