Vibrating mechanical structure characterization is demonstrated using contactless techniques best suited for mobile and rotating equipments. Fast measurement rates are achieved using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices as real-time digital signal processors. Two kinds of algorithms are implemented on FPGA and experimentally validated in the case of the vibrating tuning fork. A first application concerns in-plane displacement detection by vision with sampling rates above 10 kHz, thus reaching frequency ranges above the audio range. A second demonstration concerns pulsed-RADAR cooperative target phase detection and is applied to radiofrequency acoustic transducers used as passive wireless strain gauges. In this case, the 250 ksamples/s refresh rate achieved is only limited by the acoustic sensor design but not by the detection bandwidth. These realizations illustrate the efficiency, interest, and potentialities of FPGA-based real-time digital signal processing for the contactless interrogation of passive embedded probes with high refresh rates.