Overview on Development of Remote Teaching Laboratories: from LabVIEW to Web Services

For last years, a large number of universities have been focusing their attention on the opportunity of making students capable to observe experimental activities, from their home and at any time, through Internet. The realization of remote laboratories for engineering disciplines, in particular for a measurement course, presents further problems, since it is required that students interact with remote circuit and handle measurement instruments. The crucial task is, hence, to implement Web/Internet-enabled applications that can be fully controlled and monitored from remote locations. There is a wide variety of solutions enabling the remote control of measurement instrumentation; each one is characterized by its peculiarities, advantages, and drawbacks. In the paper an overview on the most adopted technologies is performed. Particular attention is paid on Web services technology that proves to be a general solution, suitable for each type of application