It's What You Know

This article explains the use of data acquisition in different fields of work apart from engineering. The article also presents a case study to research on disease transmission. A step-by-step feeding chart gives researchers an obvious way to see exactly how and when the disease is transferred, a crucial tool they can use in their quest to end that point of contact. In another case study, a piano maker is gathering waveforms with data acquisition hardware and software, but to a much different end. Sound engineers at Czech piano maker Petrof use an extensive acoustic measurement system to assure that the sound quality of Petrof pianos is top of the line. Many manufacturers turn to personal computers running Windows software. Petrof engineers got around the problem by implementing data acquisition hardware that lets them collect data continuously and interpret it in tandem in accompanying software. They use hardware from Microstar Laboratories of Bellevue, Washington, and MATLAB visualization software from MathWorks in Natick, Massachusetts.