Patent ID: 7554524

Claim:
A data acquisition system that employs an input device to obtain data from a user, the data acquisition system comprising: a digital protractor operative to generate and forward event data to a computer when contacted by a user; a physical connection system that communicatively links the digital protractor to the computer; and a computer suitable to execute programs, wherein the programs are stored in a memory of the computer, including: an operating system that manages access to event data received from the digital protractor; an underground drainage application including a user interface with a plurality of controls configured to accept input utilizing a graphical input device; and an event handling routine operative to map the controls of the underground drainage application to a corresponding surface area of the digital protractor and process event data received from the digital protractor including: receive a user-generated event from the digital protractor; and identify and call an appropriate event handler of the underground drainage application based on the mapping of controls from the underground drainage application to the corresponding surface area of the digital protractor.