Voice Recognition Technology Is Changing How You Work with Machine Tools

You may not feel that you need to be able to talk to your machine tools. But voice-activated human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are coming to the machine tool industry, and the advantages probably are going to be greater than you think. Makino already has the technology in beta testing, and the application in standard products is just around the corner.

For now, it is a hands-free way to execute a number of control and information display functions—one operator to one machine—with commands like, “run part program 208 . . . stop coolant . . . change tool to T-15,” and so on. It can also serve up critical job documentation such as setup sheets.

The next big payoff will be when the same interface works for all your machines, regardless of brand or control. Ultimately, the voice-activated HMI will provide access to your entire shopfloor network, with connectivity to machine monitoring and predictive maintenance applications…READ MORE.