Imagine a world where everything in your home and workplace is automated to the point that you are never caught off guard with unforeseen, costly repairs. Imagine never having to call the emergency number for the electrician or pay exorbitant fees for a weekend visit from the refrigerator repairman. Imagine the equipment is smart enough to sense a problem coming, correct the problem, or notify the technician who can fix the problem. Imagine never having downtime at the plant because of unplanned maintenance on life-critical equipment or having to pay increased labor rates for service technicians. Better yet, imagine that the maintenance is predicted, planned, and accomplished without your involvement or disruption of your workflow. Thankfully, the age of smart instruments is upon us. More and more devices have onboard “smart systems” that self-diagnose or communicate in real time to a diagnostic computer via the Internet. Everything from refrigerators to photocopiers to gas detection instruments has microprocessor-driven features that allow less human intervention for timed events or predictive failure prevention. By identifying and reporting problems promptly, smart instruments can minimize downtime and increase overall reliability.