Automatic generation of human-computer interfaces from BACnet descriptions

Abstract

We present a methodology by which interfaces can be generated for application areas that have standards for definition of systems within that application area. The methodology includes organizational rules that describe the general nature of information for the application area, operational rules that describe the way users interact with that data, and optional user preference rule by which users can tailor the interface for a more meaningful experience. We show that by developing multiple sets of operational and user preference rules our approach can provide for universal access. We demonstrate the methodology for applications defined by BACNet, a standard for defining building control and monitoring systems and which can be used to also define general Internet of Things systems. We provide a brief description of BACNet objects and show how the application area leads to organizational, operational, and user preference rules for BACNet systems. We also illustrate the approach applied to a second application area to show the generality of the method.