Multimedia methods for Web-based engineering labs

This paper describes the modern means and methods for establishing engineering labs that can be accessed anywhere around the day and based on multimedia technologies. Technical foundation for each method will be investigated and compared with each other. These methods primarily adopt one or more of the conventional programming techniques, such as; Java, Visual Basic, and LabVIEW besides interfacing tools for signal acquisition and processing. A simple application will be illustrated where the task of which is to monitor a white Gaussian noise through the Internet. Practical results ensured the feasibility of such application with no extra system complexity and can be achieved without much programming elaboration. Hence, most of our practitioners appraised such experiment and concurred with the remotely operated labs over those that require their physical presence.