Newsletter

Newsletter

• 1.
  How digital technology is used. 21/09/2012 Film Trailers. Kiosks. History: the first movie trailer was in 1913 that came from the Loews Cinema Company, it Kiosks are interactive, you can touch was a short promotion for the film ‘The Pleasure Seekers’ that was played before the film was started, the practice was then adopted and was used in all the Loews theaters and them and they command to what you was later caught on throughout the industry. have touched. You can find kiosks in Purpose: the purpose of a film trailer is to informer the viewers of their new film to make places like The Trafford Centre, if you do them potential customers and there are different techniques in order to do this. The not know where a shop is you can go on trailer has to interest the viewer. They have to be executed within 2 two and a half to one of these and they will help find the minutes, which is the limit that has been made by cinemas, shop and show you a way of getting Technique: different parts of the film are cut together to show what the storyline and there. You can also get a kiosk that can genre of the movie is in a brief time. Music is also a big part of the trailer because it also print out photos. You get kiosks at the helps to show the genre of the movie. The music also communicates emotion because it is hard for the trailer itself to do that in a short amount of time. There may also be an over cinema where you can buy your tickets voice used in a film trailer to engage the viewer’s even more and it also gives out on your card and don’t have to queue information. up. Film trailers used to be at the end of films but directors realized that they weren’t getting Kiosks are up to date technology so users watched because the viewers had left the cinema so their film wasn’t getting prompted will like to use them. They are also easy to so they changed it so they were shown at the start. You can see film trailers wherever use and quick so users will appreciate know, not just in the cinema, you can access them through the internet and you can also see them when they are advertised on the TV. Most people have internet access them more.However, reliability is an which means that they have access to film trailers whenever they want to see them. important consideration, and as a result many specialized kiosk software applications have been developed for the industry. The first self-service interactive kiosk to be E-learning. History: In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychology professors experimented with developed was in 1977 at the University using computers to teach math and reading to young children in elementary schools in of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by a pre- East Palo Alto, California. In 1963, Bernard Luskin installed the first computer in a med student. community college for instruction, working with Stanford and others, developed computer assisted instruction. Types ofkiosks: there are many different types of kiosks such as: telekiosk, financial What is it? E-learning is classroom learning as mobile phones are to a pay phone at the bus station. E-learning allows you to learn anywhere and usually at any time, as long as service kiosk, photo kiosk, internet kiosk, you have the properly configured computer. Mobiles allow you to communicate ticketing kiosk, giving or donation kiosk, anywhere and at any time usually as long as you have the properly configured mobile. movie ticket kiosk, DVD vending kiosk, E-learning can be CD-ROM-based, network-based, internet-based or intranet–based. It visitor management and security kiosk, can include text, video, audio, animation and virtual environments. It’s self-paced, hands on learning. E-learning can suffer from many of the same reasons as classroom building directory and wayfinding kiosk training, boring slideshow, monotone speeches and not much opportunity for and hospital and medical clinic interaction. registration and check-in kiosk.
• 2.
  User-generated Content. It is anything which is uploaded or used by you the ‘user’. The majority of social networking websites will contain some form of user-generated content, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc… On each of these social networking sites you can upload photos, images, videos. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not, and "used photos compiled from the online Facebook’s of nine houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person. Twitter:is an online social networking service and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 500 million active users as of 2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billionsearch queries per day.Since its launch, Twitter has become one of the top 10 most visited websites on the Internet, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet”. YouTube: is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. WWW (World Wide Web). The World Wide Web is also known as WWW but may be referred to as W3 or just the web, is aweb browser, that people can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia, and navigate between them via hyperlinks. In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal that referenced ENQUIRE, a database and software project he had built in 1980, and described a more elaborate information management system. With help from Robert Cailliau, he published a more formal proposal (on November 12, 1990) to build a "Hypertext project" called World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is very useful to everyone, it has infinite amount of information that some people may find very interesting. Information is the biggest advantage that they internet has to offer because there is endless amounts of information to offer to people. It is also quick (unless the internet server is down) and it is quite simple which makes it easier to use. You also have social networking sites in which you can keep in contact with people and share things with people on your own profile page via the internet. They also have messaging on the social networking sites so that you can keep in contact with the friends you have on the site. With the internet you have faster communication with people, through emails and through social networking sites like mentioned above. Faster communication means that things that you may need to know can get to you quicker and a lot of work places use emails to send information and important things to people. The internet (WWW) is also used for entertainment, users can go on to social networking sites to interact with friends via the internet, they can play games, they can go on to websites and listen to music and watch videos, that they or other people have uploaded. You can also online shop on the internet which makes buying clothes and other goods like technology cheaper and quicker to buy. However when buying things over the internet, online banking, social networking sites and sometimes downloading music (e.g. when you are using iTunes) you have to put in your personal details stating where you live and your credit card details. Doing thi s you are putting yourself at risk of having your personally details stolen and this can land you in serious troubles. Also, if you do not back up your computer/laptop properly you may get a virus that can put your computer/laptop at serious risk of crashing because of a dangerous site that you may have gone through the internet. You may also get a lot of spamming (unwanted emails in bulk which provide no purpose) which obstruct the entire system and illegal activities can be very annoying because you may find that they make your internet slower and not very reliable. Another disadvantage of the internet is the social networking sites; they are very popular with loads of people, ranging from young kids to old adults. These social networking sites become very addictive and some people find themselves socializing other them instead of mingling with people and improving there social skills in real life. Also, the information form the internet may not always be correct, on some sites anyone can go on to it and change the information and it might be all wrong what they are typing in to a website that people use.
• 3.
  Compression. Lossy compression:Lossy compression is the most commonly used to compress multimedia data Mobile Devices. (audio, video and still images), especially in applications such as streaming media and Mobile phones were first made to make and receive telephone calls but now, internet telephony. Lossy compression refers to in the 21st century, they are used for various different uses. They are still used data compression techniques in which some for the traditional reasons, making and receiving calls, however no you can amount of data is lost. Lossy compression technologies attempt to remove jobless or send different types of messages, SMS (short message service), EMS (extended pointless information. Most video compression message service), MMS (multimedia messaging service) and Emails. They are technologies, such as MPEG, use a lossy also used for taking pictures and videos, using the internet and for playing on technique. Lossy methods provide high degrees games (through the internet or the games that are already stored on the of compression and result in very small compressed files, but there is a certain amount of phone). Mobile phones are a very population piece of technology in nearly loss when they are restored. every country. Audio, video and some imaging applications can stand loss, and in many cases, it may not be Advantages noticeable to the human ear or eye. In other They are small, light weighted and easy to carry around with you in cases, it may be noticeable, but not that critical to the application. The more tolerance for loss, your pocket which means no important calls are missed. the smaller the file can be compressed, and the Some phones have maps on them so if you’re lost that will be useful faster the file can be transmitted over a network. Examples of lossy file formats are MP3, AAC, but if they don’t have maps you can call and ask for directions. MPEG and JPEG. Can go on the internet so you can surf the internet through mobile. Lossless compression: Lossless compression is They are worldwide; whatever country you’re in they work. required for text and data files such as bank records and text articles. In lossless compression You are contactable 24/7 through phone call or message or email. you do not lose any information and the output is an exact copy of the input. However, it uses more Can take photos/videos. memory than lossy compression and the compression ratio is not as good.Lossless data Can download and listen to music. compression is used in many applications. For example, it is used in the ZIP file format and in the Can keep in touch with friends and family more. UNIX tool gzip. It is also often used as a Can plug them in to your computer/laptop to back up files and to component within lossy data compression technologies (e.g. lossless mid/side joint stereo transfer files from your computer/laptop to your mobile phone and preprocessing by the LAME MP3 encoder and visa versa. other lossy audio encoders).Lossless compression is used in cases where it is important that the original and the decompressed data be identical. During lossless compression all of the Disadvantages information is completely restored. This is generally Some mobiles are more reliable to break than others. the technique of choice for text or spreadsheet files, where losing words or financial data could Sometimes the server you’re with (T-Mobile, Orange, O2 etc...) pose a problem. The Graphics Interchange File (GIF) is an image format used on the Web that can go down and you get no signal. provides lossless compression. Some phones, like the newest ones, can be quite expensive. Because of their small size they can be easy to lose. Older people may find them hard to use and complicated. Can be hard to find the right mobile phone package to suit you. They can limit your face to face time with friends and family. Takes up space on your computer/laptop if you chose to back your mobile phone up. People use them when they are driving/working/in school which prevents them from doing what they are supposed to be doing.
• 4.
  Digital Video FileFormats. MPG: Common digital video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); typically incorporates MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio and video compression; often used for creating movies that are distributed on the Internet. MP4: A very commonly used file. Movie or video clip that uses MPEG-4 compression, a standard developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); usually used for sharing video files on the Internet. The MPEG-4 video format uses separate compression for audio and video tracks. Video is compressed with MPEG-4 video encoding. Audio is compressed using AAC compression, the same type of audio compression used in .AAC files. MP4 files are supported by many video programs and various hardware devices, including the Microsoft Zune portable media player. MOV: This a commonly used multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files; uses a proprietary compression process developed by Apple Computer; well-suited with both Macintosh and Windows platforms. AVI:AVI is a very commonly used file type. It is a video container or wrapper format created by Microsoft; stores video data that may be encoded in a variety of codecs; typically uses less compression than similar formats such as .MPEG and .MOV. AVI files can be played by various video players, but the player must support the codec used to encode the video data. WMV: this is also a commonly used file type, it is a video file based on the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format and compressed with Windows Media compression; similar to an .ASF file and contains video encoded with one of Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) proprietary codecs. Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 was the last version of the Windows Media Player developed for Mac OS X. However, Mac users can use Flip4Mac WMV (also known as Microsoft Windows Media Components for QuickTime) to play WMV files. FLV: This is a very common used file type. Flash-compatible video file exported by the Flash Video Exporter plug-in (included with Adobe Flash) or other program with FLV file support; contains a short header, interleaved audio, video, and metadata packets; audio and video data is stored in a similar format used by standard Flash (.SWF) files The FLV format is an open format that is also supported by non-Adobe/Macromedia programs. FLV files may be exported from QuickTime Pro or other applications that can export to the QuickTime file format. SWF: Animation created with Adobe Flash; may contain text as well as both vector and raster graphics; also may include interactive actions written in Action Script; plays in Web browsers that have the Flash plug-in installed. 3GP: This file type is not used as much as the other file types. It is an audio and video container format developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP); designed as a multimedia format for transmitting audio and video files between 3G mobiles and over the Internet; commonly used by mobile phones that support video capture. Streaming Methods. Streaming – this is where you listen to music or watch a video there and then, ‘real time’. Instead of downloading a file to your computer and watching it later you watch it you go on what you want to watch or listen to and watch it then. With internet videos and webcasts of live events, there is no file to download, just a continuous stream of data. Some broadcasters prefer streaming because it’s hard for most users to save the content and distribute it illegally. Streaming is a fairly recent development because your broadband connection has to run fast enough to show the data. Streaming has become very common thanks to the popularity of internet radio stations and many audio and video on-demand services, including Spotify, Last.fm, YouTube and the BBC’s iPlayer. Some services offer different levels of quality for different internet connections. YouTube, for example, can stream low, medium and high-quality videos to both mobile phone users and broadband users. However, YouTube’s high-quality videos for phones (320 x 240 pixels) have less resolution than low-quality videos for PCs (400 x 226 pixels) because phones have smaller screens. Downloading – this is where you download a file, music or a video, and then once it has been successfully downloaded you can watch or listen to the file. You could do this only on your computer at one point but now that mobile phones have internet access you can download songs on to your mobile as well as videos. Downloads can sometimes be quick and easy, when dealing with music, which means that you get the song pretty much straight away. Also downloading is free if you pick the right one so you don’t have to go to a shop and by the CD or movie. You can also do this in the comfort of your own home. However, some sites that you can download from can be illegal sites which can get you in to a lot of trouble and some of the sites can put viruses on to your computer which would put your computer at a high risk. Sometimes downloads can take a long time depending on how big the file is so you could be waiting a long time just for one file. Downloading files also takes up megabytes so depending on how many megabytes you have you can only download a certain amount of files. Progressive downloading – this is the transfer of digital media files from a server to a client. The consumer may begin to play back the file before the file is complete. A media player that is able of progressive download playback relies on Meta data located in the header of the file to be intact and a local buffer of the digital media file as it is being downloaded from a web server. When there is a point where there is a specified amount of data available to the local playback device the media will begin to play while it is still being downloaded.
• 5.
  Aspect Ratio. Aspect ratiois the ratio of width to height of an object. Stating the relationship of one side to the other, it is generally used to describe the shape of a TV or computer screen. For example, the aspect ratio of a standard screen is 4:3, which is a quite square. The 4:3 means "4 to 3” or four units wide to three units high. High-definition TV (HDTV) has a 16:9 ratio. This is a wide rectangle, closer in width, but still not as wide as most cinema screens. 16:9 ratios are usually referred to as the letterbox. This name was given because instead of having a square screen with two black strips at the side like 4:3, there is two black strips at the bottom of the screen and the top, making the picture you are viewing your screen on as a letterbox. Digital Rights Management. Digital Rights Management (DRM) describes a range of technologies which allow control of distribution and access to information, typically - but not restricted to - mass-media content (e.g. books, music, movies), software or data files (e.g. documents, spreadsheets, databases). The use of digital rights management is debatable; some people argue it is necessary for copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work to maintain artistic integrity and to ensure continued revenue streams. Some opponents, such as the Free Software Foundation, maintain that the use of the word "rights" is misleading and suggest that people instead use the term Digital Restrictions Management. Their position is essentially that copyright holders are attempting to restrict use of copyrighted material in ways not covered by existing laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other opponents, also considers DRM systems to be anti- competitive practices. .
• 6.
  Data Transfer Rate. Datatransfer rate is the speed in which data can be transmitted from one device to another. Data rates are often measured in megabits (million bits) or megabytes (million bytes) per second however they can easily be converted to another measurement. Data transfer rate is commonly used to measure how fast data is transferred from one location to another. Data transfer rate can be from a computer to an MP3, and mobile phone tower to your phone, or a DVD to a DVD player. In general, the higher the greater bandwidth of a given path, the higher data transfer rate. As data transfer rates continually increase, more powerful hardware and software can be developed to accompany it. This will give the users more options and capabilities in the digital world. However, increasing data transfer rates can mean that the hardware devices can become independent, meaning they will only work with specific hardware or in certain configurations. Media Players. Flashplayer – this software is for viewing multimedia rich File Size. internet application, and streaming video and audio on a computer web browser or on a supported mobile The size of a file depends on lots of different aspects of device. Adobe Flash Player is extra software which the file. means there is an extra possible security risk but this software patches up flaws very fast. Flash uses your Resolution – this is an umbrella term that describes the graphics card more intensively, which means that your detail the image holds. This higher the resolution the more computer will use more power and on a laptop this will detail being held, this would require a larger file size drain the battery faster. because there is more detail being stored. QuickTime - is an extensible multimedia framework Data rate – this is the rate at which circuits or other developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various devices operate (pen drives, email attachments etc.) formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic when handling digital information. images, and interactivity. With QuickTime, large files that are being downloaded start to play (stream) before Key frame rate - A key frame is used within digital video the entire file has been downloaded. Also, the players editing when manipulating effects. They are put in at key are free to use which makes them quite popular. points in order to change an effect and or adapt an However, you need a streaming server to host and the effect. The more key frames that are added, the greater quality is limited by the bandwidth. control the user has over how the final effect will appear on the screen. Key frames can be added for both images Windows Media Player - Windows Media Player (WMP) is and sound in order to produce the desired effect by the a media player and media library application user. developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers Audio settings –All editing software packages have the running the Microsoft Windows operating ability to add audio tracks onto the moving images that systemMicrosoft Windows Media Player (also called the you have filmed for your production. You have the ability Player) lets users play and organize digital media files on to import audio tracks from the internet, mp3’s, CD’s. their computers and on the Internet. Users can listen to There is also the option to record voice over’s or radio stations, search for and organize digital media narrative. There is also the ability to stop the music from files, and (with the necessary hardware) play CDs and over peaking (being too loud on playback.) DVDs, create custom CDs, and copy files to a portable device. Compression - The objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data RealMedia Player - is a cross-platform software product in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient mainly used for the playing of recorded media. The form. media player is compatible with many formats of multimedia, including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions (proprietary) of RealAudio and RealVideo formats. Real Player plays RM and RMVB flawlessly however, it loads useless things at the start which are really hard to get rid of and you can use lighter programs that don’t take up as much space.