An Internet-Based Interactive Embedded Data-Acquisition System for Real-Time Applications

In this paper, we present the principles of a low-operational-cost but flexible Internet-based data-acquisition system. The main core of the system is an embedded hardware running a scaled-down version of Linux: a popular choice of operating system for embedded applications. The embedded device communicates through general packet radio service (GPRS), which makes it accessible from anywhere in the world through a Web server built into the embedded device. In addition, GPRS provides a bidirectional real-time data transfer allowing interaction. The proposed system eliminates the need for server software and maintenance. A novel approach is introduced to minimize the operational costs while operating with a large amount of data. The system is demonstrated to be suitable for different embedded applications by attaching several real-time modules through appropriate interfaces.