A basic requirement of the data acquisition systems used in long pulse fusion experiments is to detect events of interest in the acquired signals in real time. Developing such applications is usually a complex task, so it is necessary to develop a set of hardware and software tools that simplify their implementation. An example of these tools is the Intelligent Test and Measurement System (ITMS), which offers distributed data acquisition, distribution and real time processing capabilities with advanced, but easy to use, software tools that simplify application development and system setup. This paper presents the application of the ITMS platform to solve the problem of detecting L/H & H/L transitions in real time based in the use of efficient pattern recognition algorithms.