Digitizing, or digitization, is the process of turning an analog signal into a digital representation of that signal. The term is often used for the scanning of analog sources, such as printed photos and taped video into computers for editing, but it also can refer to audio (where sampling rate is often measured in kilohertz) and textures map transformation. In this last case, like in normal photos, sampling rate refers to the resolution of the image (often measured in dots per inch). Digitizing is the primary way of storing images in a form suitable for transmission and computer processing. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Analog electronics. ... A digital system is one that uses discrete numbers, especially binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system). ... Most generally, a representation is a performing of selected functions or roles of another physical or abstract object/person/organization in predefined circumstances and it is based on the consensus of the group/community involved. ... A photograph (often just called a photo) is an image (or a representation of that on e. ... Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images which represent scenes in motion. ... Audio can mean: Sounding that can be heard. ... A kilohertz (kHz) is a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz (1,000 cycles per second). ... Image resolution describes the detail an image holds. ... Dots per inch (DPI) is a measure of printing resolution, in particular the number of individual dots of ink a printer or toner can produce within a linear one-inch space. ... In telecommunications, transmission is the act of transmitting electrical messages (and the associated phenomena of radiant energy that passes through media). ... A Lego RCX Computer is an example of an embedded computer used to control mechanical devices. ...

Analog signals are continuously variable, both in the number of possible values of the signal at a given time, as well as in the number of points in the signal in a given period of time. However, digital signals are discrete in both of those respects, and so a digitization can only ever be an approximation of the signal it represents. The digital representation does not necessarily lose information in this transformation since the analog signal usually contains both information and noise. Look up continuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A pocket watch, a device used to measure time Two distinct views exist on the meaning of time. ... Look up discrete in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with estimation. ... In science, and especially in physics and telecommunication, noise is fluctuations in and the addition of external factors to the stream of target information (signal) being received at a detector. ...

A digital signal consists of a sequence of integers. Digitization is performed by reading an analog signal A, and, at regular time intervals (sampling frequency), representing the value of A at that point by an integer. Each such reading is called a sample. The sampling frequency or sampling rate defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. ... A sample refers to a value or set of values at a point in time and/or space. ...

A series of integers is not an approximation of an analog signal. However, a series of integers can be transformed back into an analog signal that approximates the original analog signal. Such a transformation is called DA conversion. There are two factors determining how close such an approximation to an analog signal A a digitization D can be, namely the sampling rate and the number of bits used to represent the integers. The sampling frequency or sampling rate defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. ... BITS may have any of the following meanings: In computer science, bits are binary digits, which may each have the value one or zero. ...

The term digitizing is also used to describe the process of making a digital representation of features within a raster image using a geographic information system. A geographic information system (GIS) is a system for creating, storing, analyzing and managing spatial data and associated attributes. ...

Since the advent of digital video the term continues to be frequently used, as of 2005, to refer to the process of importing footage into a computer via a FireWire cable. But this is not technically accurate, as the footage is already digital, so it is not really being digitized, but rather encoded into whatever format the non-linear video editing software uses. Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, representation of the video signal. ... The 6-pin and 4-pin FireWire Connectors FireWire is a proprietary name of Apple Computer for the IEEE 1394 interface. ... The word encoding has a number of meanings. ... A non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing system that can perform random access on the source material. ...

Analog to digital

Nearly all recorded music has been digitized. About 10 percent of the 500,000 or so movies listed on the Internet Movie Database are digitized on DVD. About 5 percent of texts have been digitalized as of 2006. ^[1] The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, television stars, video games and production crew personnel. ... DVD (sometimes called Digital Versatile Disc, or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Fiction

Works of science-ficton often include the term digitize as the act of transforming people into digital signals and sending them into a computer. When that happens, the people disappear from the real world and appear in a computer world (as featured in the cult film Tron or the animated series Code: Lyoko). Tron is a 1982 Walt Disney Productions science fiction film starring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (and his counterpart inside the electronic world, Clu), Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley (and Tron), Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines (and Yori) and Dan Shor as Ram. ...

Positioning

Digitize can also be used as the act of converting a surface position into digital coordinates data. In general, data consist of propositions that reflect reality. ...

See also

• Analog to digital converter
• Digital audio
• Digital libraries
• Graphics tablet
• Pattern digitizing
• Raster image
• Raster graphics
• Raster to vector
• Rotoscope
• Vector graphics

This article or section should include material from AD converters In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D, or A to D) is a device that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... Digital audio comprises audio signals stored in a digital format. ... A digital library is, like a traditional library, a collection of books and reference materials. ... A Wacom Graphire2 graphics tablet. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... Raster to vector software and hardware technology for converting raster graphics to vector graphics are used in a number of fields, most notable in conjunction with CAD and GIS systems. ... Rotoscoping is a technique where animators trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. ... Example showing effect of vector graphics on ppm scale: (a) original vector-based illustration; (b) illustration magnified 8x as a vector image; (c) illustration magnified 8x as a raster image. ...

References

1. ^ New York Times; May 14, 2006; Scan This Book!