METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USER CONTROL BY DERIVING NEXT STATES OF A PROCESS FROM A CURRENT STATE AND BY PROVIDING A VISUAL PRESENTATION OF THE DERIVED NEXT STATES

摘要

A user interface includes a process model unit (34) forpredicting one or more allowable next states, from a currentstate of a process, and a display processing unit (26) forderiving, for each of the allowable next states, arepresentation of the allowable next state. The displayprocessing unit has an output coupled to a display screen(30) for displaying each of the representations (30b-30g) inconjunction with a representation (30a) of a current stateof the process. The user interface further includes anactuator control unit (22) that is coupled to an inputmechanism whereby a user selects one of the displayedrepresentations of one of the allowable next states. Themotor control unit controls the process to cause it to entera new current state that corresponds to the selected derivedrepresentation. In one embodiment, the display screen has atouchscreen capability whereby the user selects one of therepresentations by physically touching the display screenwithin an area associated with a selected one of the derivedallowable states.