Information Technology in the Home.
Information Technology in the Home.
Introduction:
In this report, I will be looking into I.T and how it is used and encountered throughout the everyday homes of the late 21st century and towards the present day. Usually, towards the end of the 21st century, we have had an enormous impact from I.T, which has revolutionized how we live and see the World. There are several things that I will be discussing such as Digital TV to everyday video cameras and how they have an impact on human beings on general.
I.T and its place in the home:
There are several things in the present day home of which, we can relate to Information Technology. The first that would spring to mind of most people is the popular Digital Television. Several companies such as Sky and NTL here in the U.K control the digital TV networks and broadcast live channels to the televised screen of the home viewer. Digital television brings far more to the television screen than significantly improved video and audio quality, also it acts in the age of true interactive television. However, it is not an easy task for the companies to produce and keep up to date with this new range of technology, therefore content developers are always looking for a feature-rich, cost-effective, and reliable software platform upon which, to build the next generation of interactive television services, which, we can see by looking back at history as not an easy task set out to achieve. With digital television, we can argue that it brings many advantages to the home user. As many people throughout North America and Europe start to switch from their analog TV sets to digital, we can see that the difference is better picture and better sound quality. Another set of reasons how digital is good is depending on the vast amount of data it can transmit, how consistent the data stays over a distance and what type of data the signal can carry. So, we can be right in saying that in the same amount of bandwidth, a lot more information can be put into a digital signal than a normal analog signal, due to the effects of Information Technology and how it has developed. The only problem or drawback we will be faced with in the future is how we are going to fit better picture, better sound and digital data into the same amount of frequency sent?
The next bit of technology I am going to focus on in the home is the growing DVD. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc and is a new form of technology that has taken over from VHS videocassettes. The DVD offers a high capacity multimedia storage medium that is designed to accommodate a full movie on a single disc, content rich multimedia or very high quality multi-channel audio on a disc that is much smaller in size 1/100 of a VHS cassette. The home user has to just insert the DVD into a DVD player or into his ...
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The next bit of technology I am going to focus on in the home is the growing DVD. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc and is a new form of technology that has taken over from VHS videocassettes. The DVD offers a high capacity multimedia storage medium that is designed to accommodate a full movie on a single disc, content rich multimedia or very high quality multi-channel audio on a disc that is much smaller in size 1/100 of a VHS cassette. The home user has to just insert the DVD into a DVD player or into his desktop/laptop PC with a DVD drive and within minutes be able to watch a movie or play an action packed game on Playstation 2, which, deals with DVD games but is also able to play movies on its drive. DVD has become very popular with the home user due to its better sound and video image and quality and so, is fast putting the VHS video recorder out of sales and so caused to decline. The only bad points which, object against the DVD is that unlike VHS cassettes, the disc can easily be scratched or damaged. Another bad point is that this form of technology is very expensive at the moment and so sales are steadily growing. This form of I.T has been brought forward as I.T helps enable the DVD image to be brought into a still image or place a special effect onto the screen whilst watching the DVD, which, is very useful.
Now I am going to look into Video Cameras and see how I.T is brought forward to use their ease in the home. The most recent video cameras are run solely on a microchip that acts by storing all the features and video camera movement in this chip by this formation in I.T. These video cameras are the size of a US quarter and have far advanced the frontier of small video camera technology compared to the huge video cameras of the past, of which, were much a strain to the home user to carry about. These cameras are ideal for video-conferencing through the computer for instance, when passing vital information over to a firm or organization. Also, they can be used as intruder cameras to detect and protect your property from thieves by the use of a single quarter-inch silicon chip. This is done by bringing together all the features in a video camera such as timing and control, analog-to-digital conversation, and signal processing required to provide exposure control and color balance onto a single tiny silicon chip that falls to the consumer's advantage, providing no drawback at all.
When using washing machines or tumble dryers in the home, we are using Information Technology to run the cycle of washes, which, control how the clothes are washed. What we actually use in the home is the DFC in washing machines or the Digital Freewater Control System that is built into most washing machines. The combined functions such as digital spin control, digital temperature control controls the water temperature/way of rotation/speed according to the clothes. Most washing machines nowadays clean the heavy dirt completely and delicately without damaging the clothes by operating to this system. I.T enables the home user to just put their clothes into a washing machine, come back and expect the job done. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the washing machine operations run on I.T and so the function does not have to be monitored.
We use Information and Technology means through mobile phones. We have a SIM card in our phones that store our numbers, our credit information, phone features and network options. Without this SIM chip, we would simply not be able to keep in contact with each other and many people nowadays have a mobile phone or two that they use to communicate with each other. This is because without I.T, the only other way that would mean effective communication is by a landline telephone that is too impossible to take with us wherever we go, so when mobile phones were first launched, sales grew and now people are dependant upon them. In the first few years of mobile technology, there was an upsurge in the number of sales of mobile phones and everybody seemed to want one. Also, the first mobile phones were somewhat "brick and heavy" like with very large battery packs and SIM cards rather like debit cards. More research into technology has caused mobile phones to be much smaller and compact to carry around. Also, the WAP (wireless Application Protocol) system was launched which, enabled you to be linked with the Internet. This only limits you to certain websites like the Sky homepage for instance, so nowadays, mobile phones are being made to carry out tasks such as a large desktop PC would do.
A final thing that I would like to comment about is the use of I.T by the company Samsung fit to be in the home of the everyday person. Samsung have just recently brought out and launched a Refrigerator Digital Network Refrigerator. This in the eyes of the everyday person is an American sized fridge/freezer with Internet and phone access. Where communication is concerned, the everyday user can access all functions of the Internet from their refrigerator and can receive and send e-mails, text, voice and video messages by the use of a pop-up keyboard. Or if you prefer to make face-to-face or regular phone calls that is available too as well as recording everyday speeches on a memo. This new set of technology has solely seen I.T put into perspective in the everyday home and it has started to appear on many items such as TV and the refrigerator, so has started to take over, if you like.
Recommendations:
In this report, I have looked at several forms of technology:
* Digital Television
* DVD
* Video Cameras
* Washing Machine
* Mobile Phone
* Refrigerator Digital Network Refrigerator
I can say that in the future, I.T is going to revolutionize the way in which, we live at home and the things we will do. According to my list above of the items I have investigated, I would say that Digital Television towards the near future will have more functions that are possible such as accessing nearly every single channel in the world as well as being introduced so that a television screen comes compact with digital TV and a DVD player with such facilities like on-screen graphics control. Also, I think that sound quality and image quality will get even better as more advanced technological satellites are launched.
I do not think much will change into the near future as far as DVD's are concerned because they have just been launched as the best image and sound quality options that would mean it is impossible to find something far more greater till technology brings in a predecessor or such.
Apart from these two, the video camera, the washing machine, the mobile phone and certainly the present day refrigerator will be changed and adjusted so that I.T plays a strong role in it like it does in many other household goods. Even though mobile phones have some source of I.T in them, they will change further as they will start to decline unless other features are added to them, therefore, the future of the everyday household will start to depend very much on I.T like some features of the home have seen recently.
Bibliography:
* www.bell-labs.com
* www.disctronics.co.uk/dvd
* www.samsungelectronics.com
* www.skydigital.com/skydigital
* www.suntechnologies.com/java
* www.thelink.co.uk