Students will be able to work with both physical and virtual instruments. Virtual instrumentation is a computer-generated means of duplicating the function and impression of traditional electronic instruments by giving the operator a visual look at specific electronic pulses or operations. LabVIEW creates the same function, measurements, and level of accuracy as the real instrument it is replicating. Using LabVIEW and traditional instruments together will allow students to compare digital and analog processing. While the trend today is to digitize and process, many real instruments still use analog techniques.
Computers are digital processors and handle information as a series of discrete data points.
Real instruments often measure and generate data in analog fashion-a continuous signal comprised of infinite data points. Both ways of presenting data have their strengths, but the ability to access and compare both at the same time is a powerful learning tool. They may well be the most sophisticated learning tools available to engineering students anywhere. We even paid attention in our planning to aesthetic details, including a pleasing color that students will find attractive. Credit has to go to many people for a remarkable team effort.