LEMA App
The user interface to control the system is done with a mobile device. This approach has two key characteristics that provides a lot of value to the user and the system.
The first, the system cost is reduced because it doesn’t need to ship with a stand alone computer user interface with an expensive screen. Furthermore, extra buttons and feedback displays do not need to be added to the equipment. Such human machine interfaces found on industrial equipment are extremely expensive.
Instead we put a low cost Bluetooth LE radio on the control computers. Now the user can use any compute platform available to them to run the system. The LEMA™ Mobile application runs on Android, iOS, and Windows.
Secondly, moving the user interface software to a mobile phone or laptop allows for a rich and easy user experience which is not normally associated with industrial machines.
There are many other notable advantages to building the UI on a powerful mobile device. Typically, these devices have access to the internet. This opens the door for many interesting workflows which were not previously possible.
For example, the mobile application will allow for digital payment processing, cloud based system analytics and diagnostics, social media integration and even advertising for the entrepreneurs who own the system.
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Every LEMA site forms a “LEMA Network” which consists of one or more nodes working together. The main controller can communicate with the internet via Ethernet, Wifi or a Cellular Network. This software tracks equipment performance and production metrics and records it to a database. It allows LEMA to monitor the performance of products in the field.
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LEMA controllers communicate with the internet. The owner of the LEMA equipment can make a formal LEMA user account using the LEMA Mobile application shown below. This application is cross-platform and can run on iOS, Android and Windows. The LEMA Mobile app can monitor and control the equipment using Bluetooth.
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Developing markets have effectively bypassed using physical credit cards for daily transactions and instead, companies like Safaricom and MTN have setup very popular “mobile money” systems. This simple mechanism presents an effective way for LEMA to process payments for its services.
For on-demand services such as drinking water, a customer automates LEMA Water payments and the equipment distributes the amount of water or electrical energy that was purchased.
