EED 502: UNIT 3.1.1
A MULTI MEDIA HARDWARE
TOUR
A MULTI MEDIA HARDWARE TOUR
Hard ware can be grouped under the following:
• Data capture devices
• Data storage technologies
• Data playback or display equipment
Data Capture Devices
Data Capture Devices include:
• Video Cameras
• Digital Cameras
• Scanners
• Microphones
• Midi hardware
Video Cameras
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•
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•
Capture full motion images
Store images in digital data
Mostly inexpensive appliance
Inexpensive cameras –resolutions can be poor
Digital Cameras
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Similar in function to regular cameras – film, its
development and processing eliminated.
Images stored in digital format
Data recognized by computer and added to any
multimedia product
Scanners
•
•
Scanners digitize flat already developed images
including photographs, drawings, pages of text
Page scanners are either gray-scale scanners that
work well with black-and-white photographs or
color scanners that can record millions of colors.
Microphones
•
Microphone are designed to pick up and amplify
incoming acoustic waves or harmonics precisely
and correctly and convert them to electrical
signals. Depending on its sensitivity, the
microphone will pick up the sound of someone's
voice, sound from a musical instrument, and any
other sound that comes to it. Regardless of the
quality of the other audio-system components,
the true attributes of the original sound are
forever lost if the microphone does not capture
them
Midi Hardware
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•
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Midi stands for Musical Instrument Digital
Interface.
It is a standard agreed by all manufacturers of
musical instruments.
This standard allows musical instruments to be
hooked to each other and therefore
communicate.
Data Storage Devices
Data Capture Devices include:
• Optical Discs
– CDs
– DVDs
• External Drives
– External Hard Discs
– Pen Drives
• Computer Network Storage
• Cloud
Optical Discs
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Optical storage offers much higher storage
capacity than magnetic storage [cassettes].
Two very popular devices with consumers are
the CD-Rom [Compact Disc] and the DVD
[digital versatile disc].
A good medium for storing and distributing
multimedia products that are full of graphics,
audio, and video files. CD’s can hold up to 650
MB while some DVD’s can hold up to
17Gigabytes.
Another value to these two devices is the
speed at which they transfer data to the
computer – from a low 300KB [2x]/sec to
higher than 24x/sec.
External Drives
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•
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The USB [Universal Serial Bus - top image] and
the External Hard Disc drives [lower image] are
designed to interconnect with PCs to keyboards,
mice, joysticks, telephones, and low-end
scanners daisy chain configuration.
Speed and storage capacity rather limited.
External hard drives store your valuable data and
add a considerable level of safety and security.
This is because external hard drives are located
outside the computer and allow you to keep a
backup copy of all your important files - your tax
records, email archives, photos, and more.
They connect to computers via a USB cable.
Network Storage
• A network-attached storage (NAS) device
is a server that is dedicated to nothing
more than file sharing.
• NAS does not provide any of the activities
that a server in a server-centric system
typically provides, such as e-mail,
authentication or file management.
• NAS allows more hard disk storage space
to be added to a network that already
utilizes servers without shutting them
down for maintenance and upgrades.
• With a NAS device, storage is not an
integral part of the server. Instead, in this
storage-centric design, the server still
handles all of the processing of data but a
NAS device delivers the data to the user.
• A NAS device does not need to be located
within the server but can exist anywhere
in a LAN and can be made up of multiple
networked NAS devices.
Cloud Computing
• Cloud storage is a service model in which
data is maintained, managed and backed up
remotely and made available to users over a
network (typically the Internet).
– There are three main cloud storage models:
– Public cloud storage services, such as
Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3),
provide a multi-tenant storage environment
that’s most suitable for unstructured data.
– Private cloud storage services provide a
dedicated environment protected behind an
organization’s firewall. Private clouds are
appropriate
for
users
who
need
customization and more control over their
data.
– Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of the
other two models that includes at least one
private cloud and one public cloud
infrastructure. An organization might, for
example, store actively used and structured
data in a private cloud and unstructured and
archival data in a public cloud.
Data Display Devices
Data Display Devices include:
• Projection Systems
• Document Cameras
• Monitors
• Speakers
Data Projectors
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A device that projects computer output onto a
white or silver fabric screen that is wall, ceiling or
tripod mounted. It is widely used in classrooms
and auditoriums for instruction and slide
presentations.
A data projector has a VGA socket for computer
screen input at resolutions such as 800x600,
1024x768 and 1280x1024. Many units also
support TV with a composite video input for a
VCR, DVD or cable box. Some projectors support
all the analog and digital TV interfaces and are
used for home theater projection
These are increasingly getting smaller, lighter and
more powerful.
Document Cameras
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A visual presenter or document camera is a
device that captures visual images by using a
video camera mounted vertically on a base. The
video image is then converted to an electronic
signal that can be transmitted, using a video
cable, to a data projector, a video monitor, a
computer*, a TV, or to a communications
network to be received at a remote location.
Each visual presenter is designed to meet certain
needs; portability, high visual resolution, and
multiple audio-visual input and output
connections.
The visual presenter can act as a connection and
switching
device
for
a
computer
generated "Power Point®" presentation, a video
tape player, DVD or CD players, digital cameras,
printed text and 3 dimensional objects.
The visual presenter provides a new level of
visual communication in education, legal or
business presentations. It is an extremely
versatile tool for audio and video integration into
a presentation.
Monitors
•
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The monitor displays the video and graphics
information generated by the computer through
the video card. Monitors are very similar to
televisions but usually display information at a
much higher resolution.
A monitor, no matter the type, connects to either
a VGA or DVI port on a video card. Before
investing in a new monitor, make sure that both
devices support the same type of connection.
Speakers
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Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are
speakers external to a computer, that disable the
lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a
low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio
connection is a 3.5 mm (approximately 1/8 inch)
stereo jack plug often color-coded lime green
(following the PC 99 standard) for computer
sound cards.
Computer speakers are typically packaged with
computer systems. They are small, plastic, and
have mediocre sound quality. Some computer
speakers have equalization features such as bass
and treble controls.
High
end
loudspeaker
systems
are
electromechanical transducers which convert
electrical signals into sound. The term
Loudspeaker is used to refer to both the device
itself, and a complete system consisting of one or
more loudspeaker drivers (as the individual units
are often called) in an enclosure. The
loudspeaker is the most variable element in an
audio system, and is responsible for marked
audible differences between systems.