While tablets and smartphones cannot replace ubiquitous PC or PC-based measurement platforms like PXI, they offer unique benefits when used as extensions to a test system. When The Nielsen Company surveyed consumers in 2011 to understand why they were using tablets instead of traditional PCs, the top reasons cited included user experience improvements like superior portability, ease of use, faster startup time and longer battery longevity. Given this information, the expected use cases for mobile devices within automated test include test system monitoring and control and test data and report viewing.
While today’s technology offers solutions for monitoring or remote reporting via mobile devices, test organisations will need new expertise to unite the networking, Web services and mobile app portions of the solution.
“Development of next-generation single-chip T&M instruments using the latest extreme ultraviolet technology will help increase the operating margins without any compromise on the functionality. With the rapid rise in communication technologies like 3G and 4G, the implementation of remote testing will reduce the costs significantly,” says Paras Dagli, executive director, Dynalog (India).
In short, the Internet and the seemingly never-ending demand for more mobile computing devices and capability means that future generations of T&M equipment will also continually be challenged to deliver faster, better and easier to obtain results!
The author is an executive editor at EFY
