Digital indicator

Digital indicator
With the advent of electronics, the clock face (dial) has been replaced in some indicators with digital displays (usually LCDs) and the clockwork has been replaced by linear encoders. Digital indicators have some advantages over their analog predecessors. Many models of digital indicator can record and transmit the data electronically to a computer, through an interface such as RS-232 or USB. This facilitates statistical process control (SPC), because a computer can record the measurement results in a tabular dataset (such as a database table or spreadsheet) and interpret them (by performing statistical analysis on them). This obviates manual recording of long columns of numbers, which not only reduces the risk of the operator introducing errors (such as digit transpositions) but also greatly improves the productivity of the process by freeing the human from time-consuming data recording and copying tasks. Another advantage is that they can be switched between metric and inch units with the press of a button, thus obviating a separate unit conversion step of typing into a calculator or web browser and then typing the results.