Being a Sci-Fi fan, I have a kind of affection for B class movies that feature aliens.
One of my long time favorites is the 1982 version of “The Thing”, John Carpenter’s take on the Howard Hawks 1951 film called “The Thing from Another World”, which was adapted from a John W. Campbell novella titled “Who Goes There”.
The movie deals with the misfortunes of a scientific team living in a research base in Antartica. After a series of events they are faced with an alien life form that has a parasitic behavior, adapting itself to its current host and environment, then mutating into increasingly gory incarnations.
The alien takes as hosts the base’s sledge dogs, then the scientists one by one until …Well let’s not spoil the movie. The fact is that you can never guess which will be the next host and what shape the alien will take then.
The special effects are really good and the guys that did the creature design surely must have had a lot of fun.
Just one advise, don’t watch this movie while taking dinner, specially if that dinner features meat.
Now you may be wondering what does that movie has to do with my usual topic, Process Automation.
Well, it happens that while checking the Control Global website, I found out a new device made by E+H that really got my attention. It’s called the Memograph M RSG45 and if it had appeared in the market some years ago it would have been described as a datalogger.
But after checking out the range of features and characteristics I reached to the conclusion that it did so many things or adapted itself in so many ways to fulfill typical process automation applications that it could properly be called “The Thing”.
Like the shape shifting John Carpenter’s creature, the Memograph can be adapted in a variety of configurations.
It works as a datalogger for the devices connected to it and you can connect quite a few devices: up to 20 HART devices and up to 14 digital inputs. (I/Os are provided by add-on cards featuring galvanically isolated universal inputs (U, I, TC, RTD, pulse, frequency),).
It also functions as a HART gateway since it can collect HART data from the sensors without interfering with the measuring loops. HART data becomes accesible via an Asset Management Tool such as Field Care using FDT/DTM technology, the Memograph’s DTM is a Comm DTM.
It has an embedded web server and features WeBDAV, so you can transfer the data logged to a PC via HTTP without additional software.
And it features connectivity with Profibus DP, Profinet, Ethernet I/P and Modbus.
It even can be operated via any USB keyboard or mouse.
That’s the hardware part of the history, the software offers mathematical functions and operations, the possibility of sending alarms via SMS, batch management report software, wastewater and energy reporting software, the option of tamper proof data logging and NAMUR NE107 advanced diagnostics.
So you get the idea: its not just a dataloguer, it’s a Thing. And a quite smart one by the way.
So much functionality in a box that is 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm, including a 7” TFT display is surprising. There’s even an Ex version for applications featuring hazardous areas.
All this functionality is modular, that is you can start with a basic device an then start to add I/Os software modules and outputs as necessary, communication options are also modular.
So you get the idea this gizmo can mutate and adapt itself to its application environment as John Carpenter’s “Thing”.
Calling this device a “Thing” obviously makes us think about the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) trend. In this concept, as you may be already aware, the traditional single purpose devices are becoming multifunctional, configurable “Things” that are difficult to classify in traditional categories.
I guess that in the short term we’ll start to see more and more of these smart “Things”. Fortunately, I think they will be an useful variety of shape and function shifting devices, not gruesome creatures like the one imagined by John W. Campbell in the 50’s.
By the way I’m not related to E+H, John Carpenter or any mutating alien life form species, so you can rest assured that after reading this post no mutating alien life form will take you as a host.
Regarding E+H, as typical European companies, they selected a typical functional name for the Memograph that is related to its function. But I ‘d really like it to be named “The Thing”.
Mirko Torrez Contreras is a freelance Process Automation consultant who has watched almost every existing Sci-Fi movie available, from old japanese Tokusatsu tv series like “Ultraseven”, through typical “Star Wars” franchises to splendid classics like “2001, a Space Odyssey” or “Blade Runner”.
He is currently trying to present Process Automation with a lighter and more humorous approach, which surely will attract lighter and more humorous individuals to this too conservative field of work.