CORBA for distributed measurements

The idea of a distributed computing environment has been around for a long time. In the last decade computing centers have survived serving users remotely via Internet while maintaining essentially a mainframe and terminal model. Virtual instruments and advances in networking technology make it possible to implement modular distributed measurements and computing systems. The success of "SETI at home" project is a good example of distributed computing systems. Sharing resources and the elimination of obstacles introduced by communication networks could be the key to open the doors to a new measurement philosophy, in which virtual instruments will play an important role. Thanks to this working principle, it is possible to correlate data from different experiments or complement one experiment with information gathered from the local environment or any other remote site. This paper also describes the actual status of the LabVir project that we are carrying out in order to model and implement distributed research in the Spanish oceanographic vessels. User interfaces based on Web technology, will allow friendly accessibility from any place with HTTP connectivity. Experiments tools will be accessible using any kind of the available internet browsers.