Slashdot Mirror
Using Commodity Hardware in Laboratories?
PhysicsTom asks: "I am a Senior Physics student who's final year project is based upon using common, easily available technology to replace parts of the aparatus used in various departmental labs. Currently, my main area of interest is trying to integrate certain computer peripherals (such as scanners and digital cameras) into experiments at an earlier stage, so that images gained from the experiments (such as difraction patterns, etc) can be analysed in a program such as MathCAD straight off, rather than the much less efficient methods we're using at the moment. The problem is that I am having trouble finding out about the way in which scanners and digital cameras work, and how this would affect their accuracy with respect to what I am aiming to do." Basically, how do the various hardware aspects of such devices affect their ability to accurately measure or scan the subject of the experiment?
"The information I am looking for includes things like: the resolution of their grey-scales, what degree of accuracy the motor steps at, how uniformly distributed the CCDs are in the arrays, and other issues that might affect accuracy. Just so that I can know how close to the 'real' picture what I get out of the scanner/camera is. If anyone can tell me all these boring facts for any suchequipment (preferably solutions currently available in the UK) then I would be very appreciative."
I got my degree in physics, and you're right that off the shell hardware can be a great cost cutting measure. It's honestly disturbing how many times I've seen data collection run on something like a 386 using QBASIC.
The thing to learn though is that consumer hardware is not scientific hardware. There is rarely much quality control with regards to specs, even when they are available. If this hardware is going to be the dominant error source you probably shouldn't be using it in the first place. As tedious as it can be, it's a good idea to test the specification of ANY piece of hardware that you are adding to a research lab, whenever reasonable to do so. I still remember wasting two days of my life because the magnetometer was disturbingly off spec, and that was a serious research tool.
How do you test scanners and cameras? Clearly by scanning and photographing known objects. If you're just scanning diffraction patterns and stuff like that, then find a couple well known, well understood such effects and use them as your benchmark. It's also possible to buy high quality gray scales and precisely known grids to use as references.
The lesson here is, don't use cheap equipment when it will be the dominant error source (preferably use it in parts of the experiment that contribute neglibly to your overall error), and TEST all your equipment and quit relying on spec sheets for anything important. Publication retractions that read the equivalent of "Oops! There really isn't any effect here, but we were too lazy to get it right." are very funny, but won't do anything good for your career.