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.
