Patent ID: 8744807

Claim:
A method for collecting and processing data, comprising: in a processor, exchanging data collection set-up data through a data collection plug-in software interface with a data collection device to configure the processor to collect measurement data from the data collection device; collecting measurement data from the data collection device; in the processor, receiving, by a data analysis set-up data through first and second data analysis plug-in software interfaces from first and second data analysis software packages, the analysis set-up data from the first data analysis software package defining a first predefined subset of the measurement data to be provided through the first data analysis plug-in interface to the first data analysis software package, the analysis set-up data from the second data analysis software package defining a second predefined subset of the measurement data different from the first subset to be provided through the second data analysis plug-in interface to the second data analysis software package; based on the analysis set-up data received through first and second data analysis plug-in software interfaces from first and second data analysis software packages, configuring the data analysis manager module to provide only the predefined subsets of the measurement data to the data analysis software packages through the data analysis plug-in interfaces for analysis and to accept analysis results from the data analysis software packages; providing only the predefined subsets of the measurement data to the data analysis software packages through the data analysis plug-in interfaces for analysis; accepting analysis results of analyses of the predefined subsets of data from the data analysis software packages through the data analysis plug-in interfaces; and annotating the measurement data with the analysis results.