Synthetic Instruments an overview : Synthetic Instruments

Abstract: Abstract The rapid development within the field of measurement methods and techniques and software design that has taken place over the last years offers new possibilities for designers of measurement systems through the use of virtual instruments as building blocks. The concept of virtual instrumentation is developed within the interchangeable virtual instrument foundation. A closely related term is “synthetic instruments”, which is often used for essentially the same concept, but it is even more software oriented. Synthetic instruments as a research field are in an initial stage and a quick search on “Synthetic instruments” in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) explorer match close to 30 documents. IEEE explorer is a database that provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings, and all current IEEE Standards. This Master Thesis is a theoretical work extracted from study material, IEEE documents and web-resources referenced. The work gives the reader an overview of the Synthetic Instruments and their functionality with respect to hardware and software. The papers were analyzed based upon the various trends in the research, development and productizing phases. For this approach; kernel architecture of an ideal synthetic instrument has been introduced as a prototype around which current technologies and applications can be addressed. The major areas of focus in the architecture are the data conversion and signal conditioning; the knowledge of its working under current implemented technologies has been highlighted and discussed in regards to the software and hardware trends. The defense industry holds the major influence. The work was aimed towards giving a state-of-the art introduction to synthetic instrument technology; also in order to provide the work an introductory nature, only one hardware & software example has been discussed.