Legacy equipment HMI OCR
Older machines show temperatures, cycle counts and set points on their operator panels, but the controller behind them is closed or unsupported. A camera reads selected fields from the screen and a trained OCR model records each value with its time.
THE PROBLEM
The data is on the screen and nowhere else
Injection moulding machines, ovens, extruders, test rigs and packaging lines often run on controllers that are ten or twenty years old. The machine maker may no longer support them, the protocol is proprietary, or the warranty forbids connecting anything to the PLC.
Yet the HMI shows exactly what production and quality teams want: barrel temperatures, cycle time, shot count, alarm codes, batch numbers. Today someone photographs the screen on a phone or copies values onto a sheet.
Reading the screen optically gets that data out without touching the controller, the program or the warranty.
HOW WE SET IT UP
Selected fields, trained for your screens
Choose the fields
We agree which values on which screen matter, such as a temperature, a counter or a status line. The model reads those regions and records each with its time.
Trained on your displays
HMIs differ in fonts, colours and layout. We train the OCR model on sample images of your screens, and retrain it if the layout changes.
Screen access planned with operators
The camera needs a consistent view of the right screen. We work with your operators on mounting and on which page is shown at capture time.
Data next to the rest of the line
Readings land in RIOD Live or your own server alongside data from Modbus-capable machines, so old and new equipment appear in the same reports.
AT A GLANCE
HMI OCR in brief
- What is measured
- Selected displayed parameters with capture time
- Hardware
- Vision AI optical meter reader on a mounting plate in front of the HMI
- Model
- OCR model trained on your screens, retrained when layouts change
- Power
- External power from the machine area, or battery for occasional reads
- Data
- MQTT over TLS 1.2 to RIOD Live or your own server, PDF and Excel exports
- Integration
- Sits alongside Modbus machine data in one platform
- Planning notes
- Display access and model training are agreed in the pilot
FAQ
Questions buyers ask us
How do I get data from an old machine without connecting to its PLC?
Point a camera at the operator screen and use an OCR model trained on that display to read selected values. The controller, its program and its warranty stay untouched.
Does it work on any HMI?
It works on HMIs whose screens the model has been trained on, and training on your own screen images adapts it to their fonts and layouts. Each new screen layout needs sample images and a short training and validation step.
What if the screen changes pages?
We plan with your operators which page is shown at capture time, and the model can read a page title to confirm it has the right screen.
Is OCR better than a Modbus connection?
Each has its place. Where the controller exposes Modbus and you are allowed to connect, a gateway gives faster and richer data. HMI OCR is the route when the controller is closed or connecting is off-limits.
Machines with data stuck on the screen?
Send us photos of the HMI screens and tell us which values you need. We will plan the camera position and the model training with you.