What is HMI? An Extensive Guide About Human-Machine Interface

How are you accessing this piece of information? Is it through your mobile device or some touch gadget? Or is it using your laptop/ desktop computer? Whatever the medium you are using to access this information is simply a Human Machine Interface, aka, HMI.

Anything that helps a human to communicate with machines and vice versa is an HMI. HMI may fall under different categories like touch screens and displays, membrane switches, and keypads. That’s how important an HMI is in all machines.

How does HMI work?

The working process of a user interface or human-machine interface is simple. The engineers who design and manufacture HMI make sure it is user-friendly that even children can operate them with fundamental instructions from their parents. About the working, how long does it take you to learn a switch in On/off mode? You know the answer – HMI is that simple to operate.

However, depending on the type of interface connected to operate the machine, the learning curve may look slightly different yet simple. For better understanding, you must hear out the different types of Human Machine Interface or Man-Machine Interface (MMI).

What are the different types of HMI solutions?

There are different types of human-machine interface solutions; the most popular and commonly used types are membrane switches, keypads, touch screens, and displays.

Melrose Membrane switches

What kind of industries use human-machine interfaces?

A human-machine interface is an inevitable element in various industries. We shall see HMIs often in manufacturing industries, as an interface is a must to process human instructions with machines as an interface. The IT industry also equips HMIs as user interfaces for the same purpose with a combination of software and hardware.

The processing industries which possess the characteristics of a manufacturing industry also depend on man-machine interfaces. The food industry and oil & gas are some of the examples of processing industry types.

Automotive, pharmaceutical, mining operations, SCADA systems, robotic applications, transportation, print electronics, commercial applications, and consumer-specific products are other kinds of industries and products, which use MMIs.

Best industrial practices to follow in HMI technology

 Like any other element of a machine, the interface needs to follow definite industrial standards. These standards define how these connecting buds weigh in terms of safety and quality terms. To ensure the best, every HMI manufacturing company follows a set of standards during the production to the testing stage. The HMI prototyping, which is the starting point of any successful project must follow them, if not the result will go south.

The best HMI manufacturing companies take certifications from the governing bodies to ensure every product they design and manufactures follows safety and quality tests. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides such certifications that ensure the best of doing something; in this case, to ensure HMI manufacturing follows safety and quality standards.

HMI manufacturers like Melrose follow industry-specific certifications like AS9100D certification alongside ISO to make sure they offer the best. SCADA systems need such fine quality HMIs that shoot the best. So, what exactly is a SCADA system? How is SCADA differ from HMI?

What is the difference between SCADA and HMI? HMI vs. SCADA – An overview

 Imagine SCADA as the sea world, everything as a whole! The sea creatures, connected beaches, the trees, underwater worlds of the Atlanteans, the islands in the middle, ships that move across the sea – basically everything in the sea world! The sea world referred to here is the best definition for SCADA. It is the whole – a large system that connects with HMI, PCIs, RTUs, software systems, analytical instruments, and DPC.

What you see in the sea world or interact; the outer surface where the ships go around, the whales that swim across the sea, and the beaches is more like the HMI part. It is the interface of the thing that connects with us, the users.

To hear from the Atlanteans or see the underwater castle, the deep sea turtles, lost treasure – one needs to go deep into the sea. Going deep to the entire system refers to other elements like PCIs, RTUs, etc. And it needs to be connected to the sea world, which is the SCADA system in our case.

In this scenario, what you see or how you get connected to the outer part with a machine or an entire SCADA system is HMI.

HMI is a part of the entire SCADA system that displays something to us or the users (output) or the way we give instructions to the machine by changing the controls (input). HMIs means to connect humans with the machine, where SCADA is the whole part of the system.

Well, there are more definitions to learn – we will see them in the upcoming write-ups. Before that, you may need to know some history lessons. I will make sure you don’t get into a boredom state with history (cross-fingers).

The evolution of Human-machine interfaces

Let me take you back to the past; it is good to take a look back at history to know how things shaped to the present. Here is the time-line that explains the story of HMI.

The story of HMI – Dawn of a new user interface


HMI History

Advantages and disadvantages of using HMIs

The well-matured human-machine interface has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of HMIs:

  • Making human-machine interaction possible
  • A dual-way interaction enhances clear communication; easily add inputs as instructions, and display output to understand the results
  • Improve efficiency and time-consumption
  • Aid for all industries with innovative solutions
  • Shrinking the dimensions from gigantic to tiny gadgets
  • Improvements in productivity
  • Complete control of the machine in hands
  • Suitable for data saving, translation, and recording

Disadvantages of HMIs:

  • The risk of vulnerabilities in machines with internet connectivity
  • The chances of human-errors lead to malfunctions
  • An increase in competition may tempt companies to launch their product before proper quality assurance
  • Prototype designs made by inexperienced engineers lead to poor quality and fragile safety standards

Applications of HMI – Wider, wider, and wider

The applications of HMI are popular, which we already discussed in the section that described the industries using HMIs. Here are some of the applications that use HMI as the front-face.

What are the challenges faced while integrating HMI devices?

The major challenge faced by HMI manufacturers is more like a blessing. Do you know why is it a blessing? Challenges bring in innovations, innovations that are futuristic to ease the working. What we see now is a result of such challenges faced in the past times.

Let us see some of the concerns that challenge the HMI solution providers;

  • The life of a touchscreen diminishes due to natural causes
  • The need for a high power supply in big machines
  • Wear and tear due to high usages
  • Flickering and failure of HMI backlights due to lack of quality
  • The learning curve is not that simple
  • The improvements in outdoor touch display visibility
  • Not every company follows safety and quality standards
  • Design failures due to lack of multi-layer testing inabilities

What is the cost of HMI technology?

In the above sections, we have learned one key thing – HMI applications are extensive! Does that mean the cost varies based on the application? Yes, you are correct. The price depends on the scope of the application and the custom features added to it.

A simple example is our mobile devices. The price range of qwerty mobile devices and smartphones with touchscreen displays vary because you know the difference. Of course, you know it, don’t you? The ATM screens use resistive touchscreens with low resolution, whereas certain devices use advanced touchpads and display solutions with high resolution.

Latest trends in HMI technology – The future

Trend analysis is one of the crucial actions taken by HMI manufacturers to ensure an easy-to-use system. As the technology grows super-fast at the speed of light, production and manufacturing businesses need to find HMI providers who consider innovation in technology alongside other factors.

While choosing the top HMI providers, it is important to know what kind of trends are in action these days. Here are some of the useful trends involved in HMI technology.

  • Multiple HMI systems with device-specific operating systems
  • HMI-integrated digital cockpit system
  • OLED touchscreen display solution for consumer electronic products
  • Voice-activated HMI devices
  • Wearable HMI; Help machine operators to carry around HMI solution for close monitoring in multiple environments
  • Gesture-technology based HMI devices
  • VR/AR-based HMI devices
  • Haptic technology and NLP based HMI solutions

We can see more advanced trends in HMI technology in the upcoming days.

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