Hardware and software to design virtual laboratory for education in instrumentation and measurement

The multimedia tools play an important role in both the management of the lectures and the organization of the course programs on instrumentation and measurement. In this scenario, the virtual laboratory (VL) represents the environment in which the learning activities are performed. Starting from this observation, in the paper an overview on the VL-based education on instrumentation and measurement is given. The fundamental aspects concerning both the software and the hardware to design the VLs are examined. Emphasis is devoted to innovative criteria and interesting requirements arising from the increasing diffusion of the VLs. In order to highlight as these aspects can be powerfully addressed in practice, both the general architecture and the delivered services of innovative VL are described.