CREATING 3-D MODELS WITH A DIGITIZER

In the popular movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the cyborg performs many amazing body feats that, obviously, are impossible or too dangerous for a human actor. Many of the cyborg's actions were programmed using three-dimensional digitizing— the scan and capture of a three-dimensional object in digital form.

As dramatically demonstrated in Terminator 2, human movement can be digitized, and the resulting digital image can be manipulated in many different ways. The same technology is being used to help doctors save burn victims, police find lost children, and engineers develop artificial limbs.

Digitization of three-dimensional objects is accomplished with laser scanning technology. A laser circularly scans an object, such as a subject's head, in about 15 seconds. The image is transferred to a computer, where it is manipulated. This technology has been applied in dozens of areas, ranging from medicine to fantasy - as in the example of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Applications of 3-D digitizing include the following:

Planning plastic and reconstructive surgery using 3-D images:

- "Aging" missing children using 3-D images;

- Redesigning toys using computer-aided design (CAD) to work with a scanned image of a 3-D prototype to avoid costly reworking of the physical model;

- Designing better fitting helmets, masks, earphones, and optical systems for U.S. Air Force fighter pilots using a digitized image of each pilot's head and face.

- Looking ahead, it seems as if uses for 3-D digitization will be limited only by the imagination of potential users.

Source: Clinton Wilder, "Digitizing Enters Third Dimension," Computerworld

KEY TERMS

arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) арифметико-логічний пристрій

ASCII (American Standard Code стандартний код для обміну for Information Interchange) інформацією

backup резервне копіювання

binary number system двійкова система числення

booting process процес завантаження

cartridge картридж

central processing unit (CPU) центральний обчислювальний пристрій

direct-access storage запам’ятовуючий пристрій з прямим доступом

disk drive дисковід

dot matrix printer матричний принтер

dumb terminal простий (не інтелектуальний) термінал

EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded стандартний код для обміну

Decimal Interchange Code) інформацією

floppy disk гнучкий диск

hard copy роздрукована копія файлу

IBM compatible PCs IBM- сумісний персональний комп’ютер

ink-jet printer крапельковий принтер

keyboard клавіатура

magnetic tape магнітна стрічка

processing/internal memory unit надоперативний запам’ятовувальний пристрій

random-access memory (RAM) оперативна пам’ять

read-only memory (ROM) постійна пам’ять

read/write head читаюча голівка

secondary storage зовнішній запам’ятовувальний пристрій

sequential access послідовний доступ

touchscreen сенсорний екран

video display terminal (VDT) відео дисплейний термінал

voice recognition розпізнавання голосу

volatile тимчасовий

LESSON 7

Exercise 7.1

Match the synonyms

Exercise 7.2

Translate the following word combinations paying attention to gerunds.

1. Squeezing desktop Web content into smart phones is…

2. m-Links supports this dual-mode browsing, offering mobile users a range…

3. Interaction involves downloading and viewing documents…

4. Users view content and links together, rapidly alternating between reading content and following links…

5. Chapter describes fitting techniques for transducing…

6. Transforming has the most potential because it closely resembles professional content tailoring to a particular device…

7. Transforming system modifies the structure of interacting with the content, as well as transducing to…

8. Although scaling can reduce scrolling, it also…

9. Exploring alternatives to duplicating the Web experience, we realized that browsing involves navigating to information and then using it…

10. …two separate modes: navigating to and acting on content…

11. Having separated links from page content removed contextual…

12. A service analogous to right clicking on a document and using the context menu…

13. In addition to making Web content compatible, transforming modifies content…

14. Sending includes moving the link to a user via WAP – messaging capability that…

15. Mapping includes getting directions and printing out maps to…

16. Casual browsing – following links to see if there is anything…

Exercise 7.3

Text A

TYPES OF SOFTWARE

Since the computer knows only what the program tells it, the program must tell it everything it needs to know about the process being executed or the problem being solved. This requires a step-by-step approach, developed by the programmer in such a way that no steps are assumed to be known by the com­puter. These steps are then converted into a program that is written in a com­puter language. There are many (well over 100) computer languages that can be used to communicate with a computer. Each computer language, like a human language, has its own vocabulary and grammatical rules, but most share a similar logical approach to communication with the computer. Commonly used lan­guages are BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, LOGO, and C.

An ever-growing number of software packages are available to the computer user. In fact, nobody can make even a reasonable estimate of the number of programs that are available. With this wide variety of software, beginning users can become confused about what they need to purchase. To unravel all of the talk about software packages, we must first categorize the types of software that are used in a computer. The three major categories are systems software, utility software, and applications software. Usually, all three of these software types are at work in the computer at the same time, each serving a different purpose.

The first of these, systems software, is extremely important because it controls the operations of the other two types of software as well as controlling the computer itself. The most important part of systems software is the oper­ating system, which directs the operations of the computer.

Utility software controls day-to-day "housekeeping" operations. These include such operations as making copies of information, displaying a list of user information, and using different computer languages on a computer.

Applications software constitutes the greatest proportion of the software used on computers. This software performs the specialized tasks that we hear so much about, including calculating payrolls, guiding space shuttles, doing word processing or home budgeting, and playing games.

We can view these three types of software and the way they work con­currently in the computer as an "onion". The outer layer of the onion is applications software, which is evident to the user since it is the software that actually performs the desired task. Underneath the applications software is the utility software, which is invisible to the user until a housekeep­ing chore—such as copying information—is required. Finally, at the core of our "onion" is the systems software, which is almost completely invisible to the user.

Systems Software

Systems software controls the operation of the computer and makes it possible for the other types of software to execute their tasks. The primary component of systems software is known as the operating system. The operating system manages the many tasks that are going on concurrently within a computer, such as handling the input and output operations and managing the transfer of infor­mation between internal memory and the secondary storage. On mainframes, the operating system manages the allocation of processing capability to each of the numerous persons who may be using the computer simultaneously. In this envi­ronment, the operating system must also handle all of the requests for different types of operations that come from each of the users.

On a personal computer, the operating system deals with only one user, so an important operation is managing the transfer of information between the internal memory and secondary storage. Since all PCs in use today have the capability of using magnetic disks as secondary storage, the term disk operating system (DOS) is commonly used to describe a PC's operating system. Several different brands and types of computers can use the same operating system, so it has been possible to achieve some degree of standardization among personal computers through the operating systems. Three commonly used generic oper­ating systems that are not machine specific are MS-DOS (Microsoft DOS), OS/2 (Operating System/Two), and UNIX, all of which run on a variety of makes and models of PCs. In addition, there are several machine-specific or proprietary operating systems for machines such as the Apple II series and the Macintosh series of PCs.

These three generic PC operating systems are differentiated by the number of tasks and users they can control. MS-DOS is directed toward the use of a single machine to run a single piece of applications software. It is currently the most popular of the three operating systems, with millions of PCs using it. The capability of a personal computer to run MS-DOS software is usually considered the criterion for determining whether or not it is an IBM compatible PC, that is, a PC that runs software written for the original IBM PC or one of its suc­cessors, the IBM PC XT, PC AT, or PS/2 series of computers. Computers that are not IBM compatible include the Apple II and Apple Macintosh series.

OS/2 is a single-user, multitasking operating system that was jointly devel­oped in 1987 by IBM and the world's largest PC software developer, Micro­soft. With OS/2, a user can run multiple tasks concurrently. For example, the user can work with a word processing package and, at the same time, run a mathematical model that requires several hours to complete its calculations. Finally, UNIX, which was originally developed by AT&T for use on minicomputers, has been converted to run on PCs and can direct multiple machines run­ning multiple tasks in a network.

Operating system is an interface between hardware and user; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for computing applications that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details and makes it easier to write applications. Almost all computers (including handheld computers, desktop computers, supercomputers, video game consoles) as well as some robots, domestic appliances (dishwashers, washing machines), and portable media players use an operating system of some type. Some of the oldest models may however use an embedded operating system that may be contained on a compact disk or other data storage device.

Operating systems offer a number of services to application programs and users. Applications access these services through application programming interfaces (APIs) or system calls. By invoking these interfaces, the application can request a service from the operating system, pass parameters, and receive the results of the operation. Users may also interact with the operating system with some kind of software user interface (UI) like typing commands by using command line interface (CLI) or using a graphical user interface (GUI, commonly pronounced “gooey”). For hand-held and desktop computers, the user interface is generally considered part of the operating system. On large multi-user systems like Unix and Unix-like systems, the user interface is generally implemented as an application program that runs outside the operating system. (Whether the user interface should be included as part of the operating system is a point of contention.)

Common contemporary operating system families include BSD, Darwin (Mac OS X), Linux, SunOS (Solaris/OpenSolaris), and Windows NT (XP/Vista/7). While servers generally run Unix or some Unix-like operating system, embedded system markets are split amongst several operating systems.

Utility Software

Working on a computer—either a mainframe or a personal computer—requires that the user keep track of a library of information that is organized into files. Files are units of information (programs, documents, data, and so on) to which the user or software can assign a name. The systems, utility, and applications software all work with files. A common utility software command is to provide a list of the names of the files. Files are often modified, copied between disks or between disk and tape, or combined with language software to write and run programs. These and numerous other operations fall into the utility software category.

In many cases, the utility software is integrated with the system software in such a way that the user gives a single command and the combination of operating system and utility software carries it out. There also exists utility software, separate from the operating system, for working with files. Examples include PC Tools and the Norton Utilities.

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