Data Acquisition
Data acquisition (DAQ) is the process of collecting, measuring, and analyzing data from various sources using sensors, instruments, and computer systems. It involves converting physical phenomena such as temperature, pressure, sound, light, or motion into digital form for processing and analysis. This process relies on key components, including sensors and transducers that convert physical signals into electrical signals, signal conditioning systems that modify and enhance these signals, and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that transform analog inputs into digital data. DAQ hardware serves as the interface between sensors and computers, while DAQ software processes, visualizes, and stores the collected data. This technology is widely used in industrial automation for monitoring machinery performance, in medical devices to track patient vital signs, in environmental monitoring for measuring air quality and weather conditions, in scientific research for data collection during experiments, and in IoT and smart devices for remote sensing and analytics.
