A system and method for collecting relatively high resolution amplitude data with a conventional sensing device from a signal source that is sampled at a relatively low characteristic scan resolution, and then generating relatively high scan resolution, relatively low resolution amplitude data through real-time application of up-sampling and quantization algorithms. The resulting relatively high scan resolution, relatively low resolution amplitude data closely approximate the image quality resulting from a sensing device operating at a much higher scan resolution, using a conventional data collection system. The invention relates generally to systems that collect the high resolution amplitude data that must be converted to low resolution amplitude data in order to maximize throughput rates.