Section 5: Information processing

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Information processing

What is information  Automation can be introduced. That is,

tasks can be completed with little human
processing? intervention.
Information processing is when a machine or
processor interacts with the outside world and acts  Overall security can be increased due to less
on the input it receives. Information processing is human intervention.
only valuable if the information can be stored and
 Management can analyse new information
retrieved quickly, accurately and efficiently and
and trends more quickly.
cannot be changed accidentally.
 Customer services can be improved because
Advantages and disadvantages operations are managed more efficiently.

of information processing  Data and information can be shared with

other computers.
Advantages
 Tasks can be completed faster because data Disadvantages
and information can be processed it amazing  High initial investment in equipment and
speeds. training.

 Large amounts of data can be processed and  Company made need to employ specialised
generate error-free results, provided that the personnel to operate and design the
data is entered correctly. information processing system, thereby
increases cost of investment.
 Computing storage devices can store
enormous amounts of data and information  Some jobs may be lost as a result of
for future use. computerisation, which may lower the
morale of staff members, creating
 T he high reliability of modern computer unemployment in the society.
components means you get consistent
results.  Some staff must be trained or retrained
thereby increases cost of investment.
 Efficiency and productivity can be raised.
 Face-to-face interaction between staff may
 Running cost becomes lower in the long be reduced, thereby increases cost of
term. investment.

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  complete: it must represent a complete
picture of a problem or solution
Points to consider when setting
up an information processing  in an appropriate medium: it should be
delivered using an appropriate
Before setting up an information processing
communication medium, whether by printed
system, a business should consider the following
material or storage device
questions:
 cost-effective: the value of information
 Will computerisation really solve the should be more than the cost involved in its
particular problem? collection.

 Is it cost effective in the long term?

The forms of information
 How large is the amount of data to be processing
handled?
The forms of information processing are:
 Is high processing speed really important?
 automation
 Can the present staff manage the system?
 process control
 Will the changes caused by computerisation  commercial
lower the morale of stall?  industrial

 How can the loss of jobs be handled  scientific

properly? What can be done to help staff
adapt to computerization?
Information retrieval and
The characteristics and management
functions of information
processing

 relevant: it must be what the user needs to

know, and be up-to-date

 accurate: it must be as correct as possible

 timely: information should be provided for

problem-solving before a critical stage is
reached and opportunities are lost

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Examples of information  control surgical instruments during operations
that require great precision, for example laser
processing eye surgery . and heart surgery

Information processing can be done in almost all  enable 'telemedicine' through computers with
sectors of business. It is also becoming videoconferencing capabilities
increasingly popular.
 train surgeons before they perform surgery.

Home
Banking
 Bills can be paid either by phone or on the
Internet.  Computers are used to keep track of all bank
transactions.
 People use information processing for
research and education through online  Customer accounts need to be updated every
classes where assignments and reports can time a payment transaction is made whether
be submitted electronically. by cheque, card or EFT (Electronic funds
transfer) at the point of sale (EFTPOS) is
 People use the Internet to find a wealth of useful for customers in I shop.
information such as current affairs news,
stock prices, educational materials, on-line  The shop assistant inserts their bank card
banking and investments, shopping for into a reader attached to the POS terminal.
goods and services, communication, and the The payment is then made directly from the
exchange of information with other people customer's bank account to that of the shop.
around the world.
Payroll
Health care A payroll system uses an information processing
Information processing in health care may be used system to calculate the wages of each employee,
to: print out pay-slips and record the information for
accounting purposes
 maintain patient records in hospitals and
clinics Library

 monitor patients' vital signs in hospital, and at When a new member joins a library that is
home automated, a membership card is issued which has
a barcode printed on it. Every book in the library
 perform computer-assisted medical tests also has a barcode printed inside it.
When a member takes a book out on loan, the
 research and diagnose medical conditions barcode of the book and the barcode of the
member's card are read by a barcode reader. The
 operate implanted devices such as pacemakers coded information, along with the date that the
which allow patients to live longer book was borrowed, constitutes a 'transaction'
Control systems
 In electronic circuit production, the
You are surrounded by computer control systems
components are automatically put in the
but probably do not know it. Here are some
right place on the circuit boards and then
examples of control systems.
automatically soldered into position. The
speed and accuracy at which these machines
 Traffic lights are triggered by the bumper of
work are greater than those of skilled
the vehicle interacting with the sensor
workers. The danger to the workers from the
embedded in the road. A traffic light control
heat generated by soldering is removed by
system would not be very useful or safe if it
having automatic soldering systems. The
did not respond adequately to the oncoming
number of people needed in such areas of
vehicles and stop the traffic! To do this,
work has changed and usually been reduced.
there has to be a computer program which is
The skills the workers need have also
constantly looking at the data from the
changed. Rather than doing the repetitive
sensors and making decisions about what the
tasks themselves, they now keep the
output device (the traffic lights) should do.
machinery running and monitor activities.
 In the kitchen microwave cookers, washing
machines, and tumble dryers all have control Weather forecasting
systems inside them to make them do their Some of the world's most powerful computers are
job at the press of a button. used to forecast the weather, which improves the
accuracy of forecasts. People who rely on these
 In the sitting room, remote control forecasts include television companies, shipping
televisions, video recorders, and audio companies, farmers, the military and outdoor
systems have built-in control systems. sports organisations. Computer systems are also
used to track hurricanes and tornados, monitor
 All modern cars have a management global warming, and monitor the ocean for
systems of currents such as El Nino. Automatic
system which tells the engine what to do.
data recording for weather forecasting has several
This controls the flow of fuel to the engine advantages.
and stops the engine from going too fast.
Remote-control locks respond to a signal
Supermarket stock control
from the key to lock the doors.
Most businesses need to hold stocks of goods.
 Buildings with air conditioning have Shops need to hold stocks of goods they sell, and
sensors which detect the temperature and manufacturers need to hold stocks of raw
humidity inside the buildings and turn the materials and finished goods they make. The task
heating on or off when needed. of recording and maintaining stock levels is called
stock control. A stock control system must keep
an up-to-date record of all the "stock held and
Industry
place orders for fresh deliveries if stock runs low.
Sometimes, in industry, a whole manufacturing Large shops, supermarkets and factories use
process is controlled automatically by a computer
computerised stock control systems
system. Computer manufacturing systems do
many tedious and repetitive tasks.

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Data and information Information as a commodity
An information commodity is an item of
information that can be bought or sold. For
Data is raw unprocessed facts; it is a collection of example, with online information you may have to
unprocessed items, which can include text, pay a charge every time that you access that
numbers, images, audio, and video. information.

Information is processed data. Information

The major types of information for sale are:
conveys meaning and is useful to people.
 databases, especially banking and other
The sources of data in specified financial information which give
application areas demographic, tracking and buying trends.

 information retrieval systems, such as

 Measurements: sales, productivity output,
abstracting and indexing services.
cash receipts.
 full text databases and reference
 Informal communication: word of mouth,
materials such as encyclopaedias
meetings.
 other, less formal, publications such as
 Publications: information tips about some
subject-specialised bulletin boards, which in
events like hurricane tips and trends in
some cases may replace the more traditional
diseases.
journals.
 Questionnaires: opinion, market research.
Sources of data / Method of data
The value of information can be broken down into capture
the cost of production, the cost of distribution, and
The sources of data in specified application areas
the value to the purchaser. The more valuable the
include source document, turnaround document,
information is to the customer, the more the
machine and human readable document.
organisation can charge for it. Also, customers
may be willing to pay more for information they
 Source document: Document that contains
can get more quickly.
the original form of data to be processed.
With the rise of the Internet, two elements in this  Turnaround document: Document that a user
value chain have changed. The cost of distributing returns to the company that has created and
information has been reduced dramatically for sent it.
web providers. Also, 'free' information may have
additional value. An online newspaper story may  Machine and human readable document:
include graphs or pictures and links to other Responses from forms are referred to as
stories on the same topic. human readable. Information being read by
an OCR or OMR, etc are machine readable.

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Validation and verification of data Methods of validation
A common problem with computer systems is that The method to use will depend upon what data is
it is very easy to input incorrect data. being entered for processing.

Errors are part of any computer information 1. Range check: This ensures that the data
system. There are several approaches to dealing falls within a certain range’
with errors so that they can be corrected or can be
E.g. The months of the year must be
prevented. Sources of errors:
between 1 - 12. This limits the range of
 Data entry: data is entered or a command is values that can be entered.
issued accidentally or deliberately. 111 good
2. Data type check: This ensures that the data
faith but in error
being entered is of a certain data type.
 Software/Hardware: Software might
E.g. when creating a database table each
malfunction, erasing or corrupting
filed is given a certain data type. When a
previously entered data. Hardware may
data is entered into the field the database
develop a fault (often intermittent) that
will check to see if it is of the correct type.
corrupts data.
3. Consistency checks: This compares the
 Transmission: transmission errors occur
contents of two or more fields to make sure
when data is sent from one computer to
that they make sense. Consistency check is
another. The data received by one system is
used to crosscheck data.
not the same as that transmitted by the
sender.
E.g.  If Title = "Mr.", then Gender = "M".
Verification and Validation play an important role
4. Reasonableness checks: This ensures that
in testing to future errors.
data is entered in a specified field (cannot be
blank)
The difference between validation and
verification 5. Check digit: After a check digit is applied
to a code it is checked again to ensure that
Validation is the process used to ensure that the
the digit produced is correct and
correct data is entered into a system.
consistent. The second checking is the
verification process.
Verification is the checking for mistakes such as
transcription errors when data is copied from one
6. Parity check: All data is transmitted as a
medium or device to another. Verification checks
sequence of 1s and 0s. An etra bit is added
do not guarantee that the entered data is correct.
to make the total number of 1s or 0s either
odd or even.

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Methods of verification 3. The ways in which records are accessed
(or located).
1. Visual check: Entering data twice to ensure
that what was entered first is correct, both
Master and transaction files
entries must be correct for the system to
accept the data as correct. There are two types of files Master file and
Transaction file.
E.g. One verification method is to use on-
screen prompts. After a set of data is A master file is permanent and a transaction file is
entered, it is redisplayed on the screen. The temporary. A transaction file is used to update a
user is prompted to read it and confirm that master file. A master file contains two types of
it has been entered correctly. If the user has data:
entered any data incorrectly, it is re-entered.
Permanent data which is data that will not be up-
dated or changed for a long period time and
Various methods of files organization
and access. Less permanent data which is up-dated on a
daily of weekly bases.
File organisation and access relates to the use of
records, fields and files. A transaction log keeps a record of changes in
the transaction file.
 A record is a collection of related data items
(possibly of different types) stored in fields Transaction files are used to:
and treated as a single entity for processing.
 Delete records from the master file.
 A field contains a single data item, and
 Add a new record to the master file.
many fields comprise a record. Each field
has a name and one is the key field used to  Update an existing record/field in the master
identify the record. file.

 A data file is a collection of records holding

File organization on storage media
the same types of information but about
different objects or individuals. 1. Serial file ordering stores (data)
transaction (addition, deletion, up-dates) as
A file has three important characteristics: they occur in no specified order. Serial
files ordering in also called unordered
1. Whether it is a permanent or a temporary
list. This type of file organization is
file.
mostly used for back-up purposes or where
it is important to record data in the order in
2. The way in which the records of the file which it occurred. Serial files are stored on
are organised on the secondary storage tapes, disk or in memory.
device. This is called file organisation.

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2. Sequential file ordering stores transaction
data in a specified order on one or more
key field. Sequential files are stored on
magnetic tapes. To access a record you
must start at the beginning of the tape and
check each record until you reach the
specified one.

3. Direct file ordering stores data by

assigning each record/transaction a unique
ID (index #) which is then used to locate
or access that record/transaction. Data can
be accessed directly or randomly by
calculating a record's unique number (ID).
Direct access files also support sequential
access. Files can be access sequential
using a specified order or directly by
selecting any file at random.

Appropriate file organization for particular

application

For example, a payroll file would be organized

sequentially with sequential access. Surveillance
data would be organized serially with serial
access, etc.

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