Although it sounds far off, it’s closer than you would think. Intel says it is almost ready to be integrated into devices. One company, Foci Fiber Optic, even has plans for mass production starting in early 2010. Some reports have speculated that Intel has postponed plans to integrate USB 3.0 into its chipsets until 2011 showing preferences to its own Light Peak technology. Regardless of which technology gets standardized, either will help eliminate many of the high-speed data streaming challenges presented in data acquisition applications today.

-Chris

The idea is straightforward: provide a common (Windows-based) API for interfacing with sensors so your applications can be hardware- or even vendor-agnostic. (For those of you thinking that this sounds a lot like IVI (interchangeable virtual instruments) for benchtop instruments, you’re on the right track.) The official product name is the “Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform,” and their list of supported sensor types includes GPS, accelerometer, light, compass, camera, microphone, temperature, etc. Microsoft seems to be targeting mobile and portable applications – those involving laptops, netbooks, or maybe even smartphones (one day).

The API itself is relatively simple; there’s already ample documentation on MSDN under “Sensor API.” With plenty of examples for light sensors and GPS receivers, it’s clear that this is intended for location-aware applications. However, it does not appear that this API will be targeting the test and measurement space anytime soon. For one, the list of supported sensor types is a bit too narrow (so far), and there is no straightforward way to handle important settings such as sampling rate, triggering, excitation, etc. That being said, some enterprising engineer will surely figure out a way to make it work.

After Windows 7 is officially released later this month, we will likely hear more about this new feature. In fact, you may even see your thermocouples show up in Control Panel one day. In the meantime, however, check out Microsoft’s Windows Sensor and Location Platform page for more information.

-Charlie

There are two groups of optical sensors: instrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic optical sensors change the property of light within the fiber itself, while extrinsic optical sensors change the property of light outside the fiber. An example of extrinsic optical sensor is a simple on/off light detector, which outputs a digital ’1′ when there is light and a ’0′ when light is not present. Extrinsic sensors are often used in security systems, toys and more.

Intrinsic optical sensors are not quite as common as extrinsic sensors. An example is Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. FBG sensors are created by “etching” periodic variation of refractive index to create a mirror that only reflects a certain frequency of light, or commonly known as color. As the fiber is expands/contracts due to strain or temperature variations, the color reflected by the FBG changes.

The optical fiber with embedded sensors can be seen mounted on the wing

Optical strain gauges are being evaluated and used by NASA, and you can see them mounted on an aircraft wing. They are also used by civil engineers in structural monitoring for buildings and bridges.

Engineers and scientists are now starting to see value in optical sensing and instead of adapting telecom technologies for sensing, are designing new innovative products and solutions tailored for measurement applications.

What are the advantages over electrical sensors you ask? It’s immune to corrosion, electro-magnetic inteference and lightning, it allows for many sensors on one single fiber, and requires no calibration. It’s a dream come true! – Nathan

So you probably have heard about USB 3.0, the faster, better, next generation USB. In fact, its name also points to the improvement in speed: USB 2.0 was called hi-speed USB, and now the new USB 3.0 is called “Superspeed”. Clever, no? USB 3.0 has been in the news for 2 years now, with nothing to show.

Well, it’s quickly becoming a reality. Just recently, the USB-IF organization created a peripheral development kit, which includes two PCIe extensible host controller interface (xHCI) for USB 3.0, a USB 3.0 cable, and some documentation. This kit will give USB 3.0 device developers something they can develop on.

The added speed will give you capabilities for applications like USB 3.0 Blueray, and be very useful for high-performance, synchronized and simultaneous data acquisition.

So keep your eyes peeled, it’s coming to a PC near you! – Nathan
USB 3.0 Development Kit