RTD sensors provide more accuracy over a narrower temperature range, but are more expensive and harder to wire. And being powered, resistance-based sensors, the excitation power provided actually can cause a shift in readings due to the “self-heating” phenomenon. This must be compensated for in order to ensure accurate readings.

And today, infrared sensors are becoming more and more mainstream and affordable. These “array” sensors offer more resolution and range, and the ability to see, in effect, thousands of points at the same time. Finally, being “contactless,” they allow you to measure temperature without touching the test subject: important when the subject is going to explode or move very quickly, and attaching wires is problematic or even impossible.

Imagine that you can record the same test with a conventional optical camera and an IR camera at the same time, and still add analog sensors, GPS, or whatever else is needed. And all the inputs are completely synchronized, no matter that their update rates might be.

The convergence of these technologies has blurred the lines between the “classic” instruments, and the creation of more flexible and versatile instruments. This has been well underway since the turn of the century less than 10 years ago. There is no doubt that based on the pace of these new technologies, and the seemingly boundless imagination of today’s test engineers for finding new and better ways to tackle test and measurement applications, these advancements will only continue.

It used to be that engineers would have a scope, a data recorder, a power analyzer, a video acquisition system, an FFT analyzer, a sound power meter — all separate instruments. But now this has converged (or is in the process of) into a single, more flexible device, or devices with multiple personalities. That is the real power of technology convergence as it has come to affect data acquisition today.

This article was written by Grant M. Smith, President of Dewetron, Inc., Charlestown, RI. For more information, visit http://info.hotims.com/10970-121.