FR > EN : acquisition des entrées

[Lanarcam]

Dans le contexte d'un équipement électronique chargé
d'acquérir des entrées numériques, une des fonctions
se nomme : "Acquisition des entrées". Comment le traduire
en anglais ?

J'ai envisagé plusieurs possibilités :

"Inputs acquisition" (mainly found in foreign texts)
"Acquisition of inputs"
"Inputs reading"
"Reading of inputs"
Other?

[Lanarcam]

Le 13/04/2012 13:07, Lanarcam a écrit :
> Dans le contexte d'un équipement électronique chargé
> d'acquérir des entrées numériques, une des fonctions
> se nomme : "Acquisition des entrées". Comment le traduire
> en anglais ?

In English now: in the context of an electronic device
meant to scan digital inputs, one of the functions is
called "Acquisition des entrées", how would you translate
that in English?

>
> J'ai envisagé plusieurs possibilités :

I have imagined several possibilities:

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Hi,

That could also be "input(s) sampling", when such activity is periodic.
Otherwise "inputs reading" should be fine, but as always, context would
be welcome.

Amicalement,
--
Albert.

[Lanarcam]

The context is that of a periodic (every ms) scan of digital inputs
from an electronic card connected to process inputs. The process
inputs can be thought of as switches closing an electrical circuit
and sensed by optocouplers on the card. The states of the optocouplers
(closed or open) are collected into a 16 bit word which is read by
the CPU over a parallel bus. This arrangement is typical of industrial
data acquisition systems.

The "inputs reading" function reads periodically the word containing the
state of the imputs, filters off the inputs (deboucing filter) and
validates the imput according to the state of the card (healthy or not).

[Albert ARIBAUD]

"Inputs sampling" would certainly cover the periodic reading of the
inputs but would not necessarily imply filtering and validation --
usually, sampling applies to raw input values. Thus "inputs reading"
would be a slightly better match IMO.

Amicalement,
--
Albert.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Although "inputs" is OK as a noun, it can't be used adjectivally
because regular English adjectives are invariant. If it's important for
it to be plural you something like "sampling of inputs".

However, I'd prefer "data sampling" or "data reading". (Of course,
"data" is also plural, but we don't usually think of it as plural, and
the singular "datum" is used only in very special contexts.)
--
athel

[Lanarcam]

The problem with "data sampling" is that the term "digital input" or
"analog input" is the consecrated term in the field, so we must 'do
something' about "digital inputs", sampling, scanning, reading,
acquiring, etc.

The ideal verb would be the one that conveys the idea of a periodical
reading.

[Traddict]

"Lanarcam" <lana...@yahoo.fr> a écrit dans le message de groupe de
discussion :
59fe7834-dc85-4f74...@l18g2000vbx.googlegroups.com...

"Acquisition" has the exact same meaning in English and French in that
context, so why not stick with 'acquisition of inputs?'

[Lanarcam]

Good to see you are still hanging around!

I have made a google search:

"acquisition of inputs" 35,900 results, among which a rather proportion
of texts written by non native speakers.

"inputs acquisition" 1,340 results

"inputs reading" 8,710 results, many false positives (inputs, reading)

"reading of inputs" 26,400 results


"Programmable-logic controllers execute a scanning algorithm that
loops between a reading of inputs (usually contacts on I/O modules)
and putting outputs into a state dictated by the sensed inputs.

http://machinedesign.com/article/machine-control-beyond-plcs-0713"
The process repeats indefinitely.

"scanning of inputs" 3,820 results

Using Ethernet for Industrial I/O and Data Acquisition
David Potter
National Instruments Corporation

"The use of remote I/O, however, requires a communications
link between the control processor and I/O. For reliable
control, this communications link must provide deterministic
sampling or scanning of inputs."

I would say that expressions favoured by native speakers
are:

"Reading of inputs"
"Scannig of inputs"

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Watch out : scanning may well refer to a *search* of some specific
input(s) among all available inputs. Cf 'port scans' in networking.

Amicalement,
--
Albert.

[Lanarcam]

That's right, a *good* documentation shouldn't be under-valued.

[Traddict]

"Lanarcam" <lana...@yahoo.fr> a écrit dans le message de groupe de

discussion : 4fa8183a$0$6840$426a...@news.free.fr...

Thanks! I still keep a keen eye on this newgroup and am happy to see that
the activity seems to be picking up.

>
> I have made a google search:
>
> "acquisition of inputs" 35,900 results, among which a rather proportion of
> texts written by non native speakers.

That still apparently makes it the most common term, even though a much
higher figure could have been expected. However, googling 'acquisition des
entrées' returns even fewer hits - 3,860 - as it is very uncommon in French.
(Personally, I had never come across it.)

In any event, I don't think the terms of 'acquisition' and
'reading'/'scanning' are totally interchangeable as the former also implies
a notion of measuring physical parameters (a signal) through instruments,
which is not inherent in the latter. But then, that's only my two cents.

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Le 08/05/2012 04:10, Traddict a écrit :

> In any event, I don't think the terms of 'acquisition' and
> 'reading'/'scanning' are totally interchangeable as the former also
> implies a notion of measuring physical parameters (a signal) through
> instruments, which is not inherent in the latter. But then, that's only
> my two cents.

Actually, "acquisition" tends toward the very process of collecting the
raw input data, while "reading" tends toward the more remote process of
getting a meaningful value. For instance, with a PT100 probe in a
Wheatstone bridge, acquisition would yield a potential difference or
even a voltage level (which is what is measured on the bridge), while
reading might yield a temperature (which is what the whole setup is used
for).

As for scanning, it strongly tends toward "getting a lot of info in
order to pick what is relevant" -- think medical scanners, for instance,
the "inputs" of which are not a clear-cut area but depend on the purpose
of the scanning; and then what is read is only a part of the result, the
one the doctor was interested in.

Amicalement,
--
Albert.