A remote diagnosis tool via Internet

Personal Computers (PC) are getting cheaper because of fast development in Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Random Access Memory (RAM). Consequently the cost/performance ratio keeps on decreasing in the past 10 years. Three years ago, the cost of a 486 PC with 90 MHz CPU was about $2500. Now we are able to purchase a Pentium 450 MHz PC that is at least 10 times faster than the 486 with essentially the same cost. It is now becoming realistic to use a PC for many real-time applications. This motivates us to develop PC based real-time Health Monitoring (HM) tools instead of special purpose DSP based tools. There are three major advantages of using PC-based HM tools. First, it is easier and flexible to implement complicated algorithms by using high-level languages than using assembly languages. Consequently significant labor costs can be saved in the algorithm development stage. Second, a PC can process and display HM results quite easily in windows environment. Third, once a PC is being used, remote HM through Internet becomes a reality. This technology allows for the monitoring of the system process in a remote site by many people, even for those who stay at home or are in flight. A remote diagnosis tool via Internet was developed by Intelligent Automation, Inc. Several versions of the remote monitoring tools were designed and developed based on National Instruments' software known as Labview and Component Works. Real-time experiments clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the tools.