NI LabVIEW Drivers for Wireless Sensor Networks
by Design World Staff
Sunday, October 22, 2006
National Instruments announced new LabVIEW
drivers for wireless sensor networks, giving engineers and scientists
working with these devices the ability to fully integrate their ZigBee,
IEEE 802.15.4 or proprietary wireless sensors into the National
Instruments LabVIEW graphical development environment. The free driver
software works with sensors from three wireless-sensing leaders –
Accsense, Accutech and Crossbow Technology – and includes communication
functions and example programs compatible with sensors from each vendor.
Wireless
sensor vendors typically offer fixed-functionality application software
for wireless sensor network configuration, communication and
monitoring. Now with NI LabVIEW, developers using wireless sensors have
an open and flexible development environment to customize an
application or integrate data from the wireless network with other data
acquisition, analysis or reporting functionality. LabVIEW also includes
more than 600 graphical and text-based math and analysis functions that
developers can use to process data acquired from wireless sensor
networks. Additionally, the software includes a fully documented
template to quickly build a LabVIEW interface for wireless sensors not
natively supported by the driver software.
“These new LabVIEW
drivers for wireless sensor networks extend the LabVIEW platform to the
growing number of wireless interfaces such as ZigBee and IEEE
802.15.4,” said John Hanks, NI director of measurement and control
hardware. “Connectivity to these wireless sensors opens up a whole new
level of functionality for environmental monitoring, research,
industrial monitoring and test applications for engineers and
scientists.”
With these LabVIEW drivers, which can be downloaded at www.ni.com/wsn,
engineers and scientists now have an open and flexible alternative to
software solutions for new wireless-enabled applications.
About the Instrument Driver Network
The
Instrument Driver Network is the industry’s largest source for LabVIEW
and LabWindows/CVI instrument drivers. Engineers and scientists can
visit www.ni.com/idnet
to access more than 5,000 instrument drivers from more than 225 vendors
supporting wireless, GPIB, Ethernet/LAN, USB and serial I/O
communication buses.
Pricing and Contact Information
Wireless Sensor Networks LabVIEW Driver
Contact Sales: www.ni.com/contact
E-mail: info@ni.com
::Design World::