Ac 2012-5393: Develop a Cross Browser Compatible Dsp Re- Mote Laboratory with Zero Plug-in Installation

In this paper, a framework for implementing Virtual and Remote laboratory (VR-Lab) is presented. The framework includes three components which are hardware, software and development tool. The hardware includes the network infrastructure such as server and network switch, web camera, workstation, data acquisition and lab devices. The software component provides web interface for user to conduct the virtual and remote experiments, experiment management, and experiment data management etc. Development tools are software packages which are used to develop the software component for the VR-Lab framework. To achieve the cross browser compatibility and zero plug-in installation, the Web 2.0 technologies are used. A Digital Signal Processing (DSP) remote laboratory has been implemented in the framework. A user friendly web interface has design to conduct the remote DSP experiments in any web browser without any plug-in installation. Introduction Online education has played an important role in high education. Latest Report from the Sloan Consortium shows that over 6.1 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students over the previous year. However, with the growing popularity of online education, it is inevitable reality and necessity of Internet enabled experiments in engineering and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In general, there are two approaches to conducting experiments online, namely virtual laboratory and remote laboratory. The virtual laboratory is based on software such as LabVIEW (short for Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench), Matlab/Simulink, Java Applet, Flash or other software to simulate the lab environment. Remote lab, by definition, is an experiment which is conducted and controlled remotely through the Internet. The experiments use real components or instrumentation at a different location from where they are being controlled or conducted. Several Digital Signal Processing (DSP) remote laboratories have been reported recently. Hercog et al. presents a framework for rapid remote experiment implementation in the field of automatic control. In their framework, it has a remote experiment book system for users to reserve the time slots in advance. The proposed solutions are formed on the embedded control hardware and Matlab/Simulink and LabVIEW. The Matlab/Simulink is used for experiment control algorithm development, while LabVIEW is used for the user interface and remote control. Based on the framework, a remote DSP-based remote control laboratory is designed. Barrero et al. developed a framework named as eDSPlab for remote accessing and controlling the DSP devise real instrumentation. It provides debugging and testing DSP experiments by using the LabVIEW. To remote access and control the DSP devised through LabVIEW, it is required the user to install the LabVIEW runtime engine. The common issue of LabVIEW runtime engine is the compatibility. A unified remote laboratory framework has been proposed and developed by Omli et al. This framework is based on the LabVIEW web service and the latest Web 2.0 technologies such as JavaScript, jQuery, etc. In the paper, a cross browser compatible DSP remote laboratory with zero plug-in installation is presented. The user can directly run the remote DSP without installing any plug-in. Moreover, the user interface is compatible with any web browsers and especially optimized for portable devised such as iPad and smart phones. Virtual and Remote Laboratory Framework The Virtual and Remote Laboratory (VR-Lab) at Texas Southern University (TSU) is shown in Figure 1. With the support from NSF CCLI, IEECI and HUCB-up programs, we have successfully developed DC virtual experiments, Data Communication Virtual and Remote experiments, DSP virtual and remote experiments and Smart Vibration Platform (SVP) remote experiments. In the VR-lab architecture, the VR-Lab server works as the web publisher, the data and database manager and the Scheduler Web Server (SWS). SWS is to manage, authenticate and schedule users and experiments. The user connects to the Scheduler Web Server with the assigned credential for scheduling a future time slot with one of the available experiments listed on the scheduler web server. When the time comes, the user will be provided with a customized direct link to the chosen experiment. The virtual experiments are developed by using Java and LabVIEW. These virtual experiments are accessible for public without log in. However, Java runtime engine is required to run the Resistor Color Code virtual experiment, and NI LabVIEW run time engine is required to run the virtual DSP experiments and virtual Data Communication experiments. TSU Firewall Internet Client 2 Client 1 Client 3 Client 4 TSU VR-Lab Server DSP Remote Lab Web Cam Data Communication Remote Lab DC Virtual Lab Workstation SVP Remote Lab Workstation Workstation