System and method for remote data acquisition, monitoring and control

A system comprising:

• a remotely situated sensor that senses information;
• a remotely situated data acquisition system interfaced with the sensor to receive data from the sensor;
• a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyzer interfaced with the sensor in parallel with the data acquisition system to receive information from the sensor in the form of time domain data points and to transform the data points into a lesser number of frequency domain data points to facilitate transmission;
• and
• a locally situated workstation that receives the data from the data acquisition system, that receives the frequency domain data points from the FFT analyzer and that controls the sensor via input in response to the data and data points.

A system comprising:

• a remotely situated plurality of sensors that sense information to generate digitized sensor signals;
• a data acquisition system for acquiring the digitized sensor signals from the plurality of sensors;
• an interface device associated with the data acquisition system that converts the digitized sensor signals into an output data signal transmission stream;
• a transmission apparatus that transmits the output data signal transmission stream from the interface device;
• a local interface device situated remote from the sensors that receives the output data signal transmission stream from the transmission apparatus and converts the output data signal transmission stream into a digital central control system data input;
• a central control system that receives the digital central control system data input and sends the data input as a set of central processed data;
• a central processing transmission apparatus that relays the sent set of central processed data;
• a locally situated workstation that receives the sent set of central processed data from the central processing transmission apparatus;
• and
• a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyzer interfaced with the plurality of sensors and workstation to receive information from the plurality of sensors in the form of time domain data points, to transform the data points into a lesser number of frequency domain data points that can be digitized by the interface device to facilitate transmission as a set of output data signal transmission stream from the plurality of sensors to the transmission apparatus.

A method comprising:

• remotely monitoring an operating test object with a plurality of sensors to generate time domain data points;
• remotely transforming the time domain data points to frequency domain data points with a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyzer;
• and
• transmitting the frequency domain data points to a local workstation.

A method comprising:

• remotely monitoring an operating test object with a plurality of sensors to generate sensor signals;
• remotely digitizing the sensor signals;
• remotely converting the digitized sensor signals into an output data signal transmission stream;
• transmitting the output data signal transmission stream to a local interface device;
• converting the output data signal transmission stream at the local interface device into a digital central control system data input;
• sending the set of the central transmission processed data through a central processing transmission apparatus to a workstation;
• displaying the set of central transmission processed data at a workstation display wherein an operator views the processed data;
• selecting a sensor and inputting a selected sensor command according to the displayed set of central transmission processed data;
• transmitting the selected sensor command through the central processing transmission apparatus to a remote controlled switching apparatus;
• and
• selecting a sensor according to the selected sensor command in the remote controlled switching apparatus.