Identify The Uses Of a Digital Camera

A digital camera is used to take pictures and store the photographed images digitally instead of on traditional film. Pictures are stored on a storage medium, such as a floppy disk, SuperDisk, Clik! disk, PC Card, compact flash card, memory stick, mini-CD, or microdrive. Many digital cameras allow you to review and edit the images while they are in the camera. You also can download, or transfer a copy of, the stored image to a computer. Once on a computer, the pictures can be edited with photo-editing software, printed, faxed, sent via electronic mail, included in another document, or posted to a Web site. There are three basic types of digital cameras. A studio camera is a stationary digital camera used for professional studio work. A field camera is a portable camera, often used by photojournalists, that has many lenses and other attachments. A point-and-shoot camera is more affordable and lightweight and provides acceptable quality photographic images for the home or small business user.

Some manufacturers use dots per inch to represent a digital camera’s resolution, or the sharpness and clarity of the image it produces. Dots per inch (DPI) is the number of pixels in an inch of screen display. A pixel is a single point in an electronic image.

The actual photographed resolution is called the optical resolution. Some manufacturers also state enhanced resolution, which uses a special formula to add pixels between those generated by the optical resolution.

Describe The Various Techniques Used For Video Input

Video input, or video capture, is the process of entering a full-motion recording into a computer and storing the video on a storage medium. Many video devices use analog video signals. To input video from these devices, the device is plugged into a video capture card, an expansion card that converts the analog signal into a digital signal the computer can understand. A digital video (DV) camera is a new generation of video camera that records video as digital signals, instead of using analog signals, and therefore does not require a video capture card. Video files can demand huge amounts of storage space. Video compression reduces the size of video files by recognizing that only a small portion of an image changes from frame to frame. Instead of storing every frame in its entirety, a video compression program might store an initial frame and then store only the changes from one frame to the next. A video decoder is a card that decompresses video. A video digitizer can be used to capture an individual frame from a video and save the still picture in a file.

Explain How Scanners And Other Reading Devices Work

Scanners and optical readers can capture data from a source document, which is the original form of the data. A scanner is a light-sensing input device that reads printed text and graphics and then translates the results into a form a computer can use. One of the more popular scanners is a flatbed ¹ scanner, which works similarly to a copy machine except it creates a file of the document in memory instead of a paper copy. Many scanners include OCR software, which converts a scanned image into a text file that can be edited. An optical reader uses a light source to read characters, marks, and codes and converts them into digital data that a computer can process. Three types of optical readers are optical character recognition, optical mark recognition, and bar code scanner ². Optical character recognition ³ (OCR) is a technology that reads typewritten, computer printed, or handwritten characters from ordinary documents and translates the images into a form that the computer can understand. Optical mark recognition ⁴ (OMR) devices read hand-drawn marks such as circles or rectangles. A bar code scanner uses laser beams to read bar codes, which are identification codes consisting of vertical lines and spaces of different widths. Another type of reader, called a magnetic-ink character recognition ⁵ (MICR) reader, reads text printed with magnetized ink and is used almost exclusively by the banking industry.

In general, scanners and reading devices increase input accuracy and efficiency by reducing the role of the weak link in the input process – the human operator. Optical readers are highly specialized. Devices that read one set of codes, marks, or characters may not be able to read another.

Bar codes minimize input errors, keep inventories up to date, help to track sales trends, and eliminate the need to price individual items. The identifying numbers on a UPC ⁶ code can be entered if the scanner fails. This number is not the item’s cost – prices are obtained from a database when the item is scanned.