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Smartphones continue to gain popularity with average
consumers, including scientists and researchers. These devices are more than
just a phone, they are essentially portable computers. For this reason,
researchers at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto,
California, are starting to look at using smartphone applications as test and
measurement tools.
The institute has been testing identified applications that
could benefit from smartphone tools. Testing was implemented after a thorough
evaluation of the necessary steps for developing such tools, and building
proof-of-concept prototypes to demonstrate their feasibility.
Limitations thus far include an overall lack of signal conditioning
in consumer smartphone products, which show to be a major initial barrier in
development. However, their findings show that the impact of using smartphones
in the test and measurement realm would have a significant impact on
applications like electric utility-related inventorying, asset inspections and
mapping, and customer service functions.
Do you see this idea taking off?
Source: R&D
Magazine
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Re: Test & Measurement: There (Will Be) an App for That
