Data Visualization Company Launches Interactive Product

Plotly Technologies is offering a new product, Dash DAQ, based on Python, an open-source, free and easy-to-learn programming language. It provides Python users the means to create interactive virtual control panels on their computers that interface with common lab instruments.

“Building data acquisition systems and their accompanying GUIs (graphical user interfaces) is a large part of the analytical sciences,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology Tata Center Fellow David Hagan, says regarding the need for Python in data acquisition. “Typically, this entails learning a new programming language like LabVIEW, figuring out OS-specific driver issues, etc.”

He continues, “With Dash DAQ’s Python/React-based stack, it will be far easier to build and maintain simple, reliable GUIs that are easily portable across devices via the browser, and take advantage of the powerful graphics-rendering capabilities built into all of Plotly’s tools. Dash DAQ leverages one of the most popular programming languages around, so developing GUIs will be more accessible than ever.”

Dash DAQ is built upon Plotly’s open-source platform, Dash, a framework for creating analytics applications. Users can buy Dash DAQ online to optimize their Dash apps for specialized use in lab settings.

Dash DAQ is designed to provide similar functionality to data acquisition software, LabVIEW, owned by National Instruments. Unlike LabVIEW, Dash DAQ apps are built in Python, which has a large community of scientific users who are already using open-source Python libraries to connect their lab instruments to their computers. Plus, Dash DAQ apps are displayed entirely in the web, allowing users to collaborate and share results in real time.

“Dash and Dash DAQ are providing the next generation of engineers and scientists with a modern, web-based means to control, test, and read their equipment and communicate results across their organizations,” says Jack Parmer, co-founder and CEO of Plotly.

For more info, visit Plotly Technologies.

Sources: Press materials received from the company.