Virtual Instrumentation is the use of customizable software and modular measurement hardware to create user-defined measurement systems, called virtual instruments. Virtual instrument may refer to: A Software synthesizer A program that implements functions of an instrument by computer, sensors and actuators. ...
'Traditional' instrumentation systems are made up of pre-defined hardware components, such as digital multimeters and oscilloscopes. Because of the lack of software, these systems are more limited in their versatility than virtual instrumentation systems. The primary difference between 'traditional' instrumentation and virtual instrumentation is the software. The software enables complex and expensive equipment to be replaced by simpler and less expensive hardware; e. g. analog to digital converter can act as a hardware complement of a virtual oscilloscope, a potentiostat enables frequency response acquisition and analysis in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with virtual instrumentation. Digital Multimeter: electronic device used to measure and provide precise readings of voltage, current and resistance in an electrical circuit. ... A Tektronix model 475A portable analogue oscilloscope, a very typical instrument of the late 1970s. ... This article or section should include material from AD converters In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D, or A to D) is a device that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... A Tektronix model 475A portable analogue oscilloscope, a very typical instrument of the late 1970s. ... A potentiostat is a device that keeps the potential at the working electrode constant relative to the reference electrode. ... Frequency response is the measure of any systems response to frequency, but is usually used in connection with electronic amplifiers and similar systems, particularly in relation to audio signals. ...
Leveraging commercially available technologies, such as the PC and the analog to digital converter, virtual instrumentation has grown significantly since its inception in the late 1970s. Additionally, software packages like National Instruments' LabVIEW and other graphical programming languages helped grow adoption by making it easier for non-programmers to develop systems. This article or section should include material from AD converters In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D, or A to D) is a device that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... LabVIEW (short for Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench) is a platform and development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments. ... Visual programming language (VPL) is any programming language that lets users specify programs in a two-(or more)-dimensional way. ...
References
"About Virtual Instrumentation" National Instruments, Accessed December 8, 2005
"The Evolution of Virtual Instrumentation" Data Translation, Accessed December 8, 2005
"Virtual Instruments in Electrochemistry" Accessed January 10, 2006
The kantele is the oldest Finnish folk instrument, and is classed as a cordophone, that is, an instrument whose sound arises from a string stretched between two fixed points.
The instrument was tuned to a diatonic scale between its bass and top notes which could, depending on the tuning of the central string, be either major or minor.
With the new instruments and instrumental styles, the music, too, changed, and in the second half of the 19th century contemporary dance music was generally played in those few places where the kantele had survived as a folk instrument.
A traditional instrument might contain an integrated circuit to perform a particular set of data processing functions; in a virtualinstrument, these functions would be performed by software running on the PC processor.
Virtualinstrumentation with LabVIEW proves to be economical, not only in the reduced development costs but also in its preservation of capital investment over a long period of time.
Virtualinstrumentation is fueled by ever-advancing computer technology and offers you the power to create and define your own system based on an open framework.
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