Concept of computerized data acquisition

Most phenomena which are of interest to chemists are inherently not electrical. On the other hand, electrical signals imply ease of processing and interfacing to measurement devices. Therefore it is desirable to convert all signals of interest to electrical signals which are proportional to the parameters under investigation. 

Implying that all major calculation and processing of signals is done in some way by electrical means (such as electronic amplifiers, computers etc.) we can define an input transducer as a device which converts a non electrical signal into an electrical 

After the measurable variable of interest has been converted into an electrical signal, this signal is now processed by standard components of data acquisition systems. The components are mainly the same for all types of analog data acquisition, although there may be some differences in the specific layout of a data acquisition system. These differences are mainly caused by different needs of conversion speed and accuracy (ref. 6). 

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