Virtual Instrument Technology or will start a new era

Virtual instrument technology is continuously developing and innovating. Looking at its development history over more than 20 years, we can see that because the virtual instrument technology is based on commercially available technologies, it can integrate the newly developed science and technology. In this way, engineers can enjoy the fastest and most convenient way to create a higher performance test system.

The combination of instrumentation and measurement technology and computer technology has not only greatly improved the accuracy of measurement and the level of intelligent automation, especially the rapid development of computer hardware softening and software modularization of virtual instruments, and its integration with networked system resource programs. Optimizing the performance configuration has created more and more favorable conditions for the rapid improvement of the intelligent level of instrumentation.

In the instrument and instrument structure design, instrument manufacturers used to provide users with intelligent virtual instrument plug-and-play instrument drivers in the form of source. In order to simplify the end user's operation and development process, and constantly improve the operating efficiency, as well as the programming quality and programming Flexibility, related instrument manufacturers made a new set of intelligent instrument driver software specifications based on the VXI plug-and-play bus instrument driver standard, and made various improvements in the following aspects of virtual instrument structure and performance.

First, consider a high-level programming interface that takes into account the user's intuitive, easy-to-use, and maximum operating efficiency, and maintains the original VXI bus plug-and-play standard, to provide the same functional function call format.

Secondly, on the basis of the latest Labwindows/CVI5.0 built-in development tools, intelligent instrumentation is used to enable IVI instrument drivers to be generated automatically under human-computer interaction. This simplifies a large number of programming tasks. The quantity and the unified programming structure and style of the driver also greatly facilitate the use and maintenance of users at different levels.

Once again, a series of smart methods are applied to identify, track and manage all the various instrument states and settings so that users can directly enter all low-level settings, and through intelligent state management, so that users can, according to their needs, “test development” and “normal Run "switch between the two modes at will. In Test Development mode, the drive can intelligently automate a series of status checks to help detect various programming errors. When the program is debugged and put into use normally, the user can switch to the "normal operation" mode so that the driver software can run at a high speed. This not only ensures the safety and reliability of the instrument, but also allows the software to be put into high-speed operation at any time and maximize its operating efficiency.

In addition, because of adopting various intelligent methods, the driver can realize multi-threading and safe operation at the same time, and perform multi-thread parallel test; at the same time, the driver also has powerful simulation function, and can be developed and tested without connecting actual instruments. program. The last characteristic is that the driver operation is only related to the test function, and has nothing to do with the interface bus mode adopted by the instrument. Only an initialization function InitwithOptions is used to distinguish between the instrument interface bus and the regional different usage.

In short, because the virtual instrument adopts a series of intelligent and automated means, it has completely changed the operating efficiency of the VXI bus plug-and-play standard instrument driver, the programming structure, style is inconsistent, programming is difficult, the quality is low, and the workload is large. Maintenance troubles and a series of defects, thus achieving a comprehensive and unified operation under conditions of high efficiency, high quality, safety, reliability, ease of use, and flexibility, shows the profound impact of intelligent automation technology on the rapid development of virtual instruments and the entire instrumentation industry.

Application of Virtual Instrument in Life Science

The characteristics of the virtual instrument The basic characteristics of the virtual instrument is that the computer participates in the test, that is, integrates control, calculation, and measurement. It makes full use of computer resources to make the hardware software and greatly promote the multifunctional development and utilization of the analytical instrument. The test speed is fast. During the test process, the adjustment, recording and data processing, as well as the display and output automation can be captured by the computer to capture the high-speed transient signal level; the data processing has high measurement accuracy, more accurate analysis results, and good performance; instrument technology The update is fast, in a sense, it can be seen as a personal laboratory (instrument), and it is easy to use, flexible, and bus-oriented. The function is defined by the user and can be easily connected to the network, peripherals, and applications. The above characteristics are even more the need for new technologies faced by analytical instruments in the research of life sciences and medicine.

Application of Virtual Instrument in Teaching Lab

This is especially true for laboratories where some teaching equipment is not modern enough, and it can be taught remotely. The use of virtual instruments to establish a development platform can greatly promote the reform of teaching experiments. At present, the application of analytical instruments in life and pharmaceutical scientific research is becoming more and more important, and it has become an extremely important field for the application of analytical instruments. Research on molecular biology, full analysis of blood, determination of various protein structures, testing of human genes, analysis of various amino acids, pharmacological analysis of pharmacodynamics, precancerous diagnosis, rapid analysis of various types of diagnosis, etc. If it is an instrument There are only a few functions, and even one result is given, or the measurement error is very large, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive in the application, and the cost is uneconomical.

The virtual instrument concept can be used to make the instrument hardware universal and make its development technology simpler, while increasing the workload of the instrument software greatly, making the instrument's value, capability, and development difficulty. The development cycle depends or mainly depends on the software, ie The so-called software is an instrument that classifies and combines analytical instruments in life sciences and medical research. It is networked and multi-functional, multi-result, and multi-purpose. The popularity of miniaturization in hardware is like that of a personal computer. This is a promising and not too distant prospect in the field of life science research, clinical diagnosis, pharmacological efficacy research, and even field research in agricultural fields.