Acoustic Measurements Using Virtual Instrumentation

Steve Temme of LISTEN, Inc. gave an thought-provoking presentation September 14, 1999 on virtual instrumentation optimized for acoustical test and measurement. He was assisted by Mark Dailey during the informal Q & A period.

Temme began by describing the state of T&M equipment before inexpensive, powerful PCs and software came on the scene: dedi- cated instruments for electronic measurements but with no opti- mization for electro-acoustical use; proprietary software and unique interfaces; DOS-based programs; and proprietary (black- box, "keep-your-hands-off or else!") data acquisition units.

PC-based systems can be multi-channel and have analog and digital sound cards, all with great resolution and s/n. Combine this with a virtual instrument suite -- ala National Instruments LabView or equivalent -- and you have a very powerful electro-acoustic data acquisition, processing and display system in a pack-

age hardly larger than a laptop PC (not including
peripheral devices such as mics and their power sup- plies.). The power of the system,
beside the software that LISTEN, Inc. has developed,

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