Data acquisition

Data acquisition systems, abbreviated by the acronyms DAS, DAQ, or DAU, typically convert analog waveforms into digital values for processing.

There are also open-source software packages providing all the necessary tools to acquire data from different, typically specific, hardware equipment.

These expensive specialized systems were surpassed in 1974 by general-purpose S-100 computers and data acquisition cards produced by Tecmar/Scientific Solutions Inc.

Examples of this include temperature, vibration, light intensity, gas pressure, fluid flow, and force.

A data acquisition system is a collection of software and hardware that allows one to measure or control the physical characteristics of something in the real world.

A sensor, which is a type of transducer, is a device that converts a physical property into a corresponding electrical signal (e.g., strain gauge, thermistor).

Various other examples of signal conditioning might be bridge completion, providing current or voltage excitation to the sensor, isolation, and linearization.

The device driver performs low-level register writes and reads on the hardware while exposing API for developing user applications in a variety of programs.