iHomeX: An Internet-Enabled Laboratory for Long-Term Experiment Management

Developing longtime laboratory experiments is a challenging problem, which requires users to frequently get to the laboratories. “iHomeX” tries to tackle this problem by opening real laboratories to remote access: people working on the experiments are required to go to the laboratory and physically arrange their setups, but later on they can manage the experiment from home. The proposed solution can be used in many environments, but is especially useful in the case of long time tests, such as experiments related to electronic component failures, material fatigue, and corrosion. “iHomeX” lets researchers to remotely change the experimental parameters, while observing the effects of each action not only on signal levels, but also by following the experiment by means of a webcam. “iHomeX” remote laboratory has been employed and validated by the students of the M.Sc. course in corrosion science proving to be a useful and low cost solution.