Human Machine Interface (HMI)

A Human-Machine Interface (HMI) is a user interface or dashboard that connects a person to a machine system or device. While the term can technically be applied to any screen that allows a user to interact with a device HMI is most commonly used in the context of an industrial process. Although HMI is the most common term for this technology it is sometimes referred to as Man-Machine Interface (MMI) Operator Interface Terminal (OIT) Local Operator Interface (LOI) or Operator Terminal (OT). HMI and Graphical User Interface (GUI) are similar but not synonymous: GUIs are often leveraged within HMIs for visualization capabilities.