A very well warm welcome to you all back to my basic computer science education eventhough I had promised of writing about it the next which I couldn't meet up with as my brain needs some rests from the too many demanding activities in this world.
Without wasting much of our time, let us continue from our last class where we stopped.
The touch screen
This simply helps one to make any kind of selection on the screen of the computer by just tapping it, while his or her desired object or a write up he or she wants to view will then be displayed.
Advantages of the touch screen.
It's just so natural to do - just touch anything on the screen you feel like touching and then end up having your desired displayed.
It's usually very easy and convienent to touch at any time one seems fit to.
Disadvantages of the touch screen.
It's usually very tiring if many choices must be made and at the same time.
It takes a lot of screen space for each choice, since fingers are bigger than cursors.
Digitizers and graphics tablets.
This one simply converts drawings, photos, e.t.c, to digital signals.
Advantages of the digitizers and graphics tablets.
The tablets have special commands.
It makes a person's work very very beautiful and smooth for others to view.
Disadvantages of the digitizers and graphics tablets.
Graphics that are already created will not be redrawn.
Sometimes, it is time wasting as one needs to take more time to ensure the job is done accurately.
"Terminal"
A terminal is a computer system that consists of a keyboard and a screen so that it can be considered an input device, especially, some of it's specialized types and these types come as single units.
Note: Terminals can also be referred to as:
. Display Terminals
. Video Display Terminals (VDT).
A Dumb Terminal
This is a system that has no ability to either process or store data on it's own. It is usually linked to a minicomputers, mainframe computers or the super computers and its keyboard and viewing screen may be a single piece of equipment.
A point of sale terminal (pos)
This is an example of a special purpose terminals, and they have almost successfully replaced the old cash registers in nearly all retail shops overseas.
They can as well update inventory while calculating the sales and they often have special purpose keys.
Multimedia effects
This is a combination of sound and images with texts and graphics.
They include these likes: movies, animations, music, people talking, sound effects that seem more like the roar of a crowd of people and those of a smashing glasses.
Audio/Sound input:
This is now becoming more and more available at the local retail shops, and in this case, much carefulness is required on your part in order to get the right system or you'll end up being disappointed.
Voice inputs however, consists of microphone and a software that is called synthesizer.
Data entry
Here is more or less like being careful with your hands and eyes as they are busy trying to input some date in the system and for a high-level of efficiency to be maintained especially with one's pronouciation.
Command and control
This is telling the computer what to do instead of typing the commands like saying; "save file". One is required to be careful here too.
Speaker recognition
For security measures, you may be required to speak a special phrase, and the computer must recognize your voice in order to allow you in.
Speech to text
Translating spoken words direct to type would suit authors just fine, hence, one must watch out for those difficult to be translated phrases like "hmmmn" and "ah, eh, umm, e t.c.
A number of companies ar now using the speech recognition in their telephone systems.
For example, in order to find out what your bank account balance is, you could speak your account number by saying; "current balance", instead of the usual style or system of punching in your account number on the keypad or the touchpad of your phone and choosing the available options given to you.
The computer will even talk back to you and tell you what it thinks you said so you can make the necessary corrections.
Isn't that worthy of saying a wow?
Yes indeed!
Like here in Nigeria, checking of one's account balance with the Guarantee Trust Bank (Gt-bank), requires that you have to punch your phone's keypad or touchpad by dialling the banking code of *737*4# in order to be able to check your account balance with them.
Meanwhile, the more advanced speech recognition is not common in or even available here in Nigeria and most if not all the third-world umder developed countries of Africa and Asia at large.
Now, let me teach you how voice data is changed to digital.
First, you start by converting the voice waves to digital form using the digital signal processing (DSP).
Next, you compare the digitized voice input in order to store templates.
Then do well to check grammar rules in order to figure out words.
Then lastly, present the unrecognized words for the user to identify.
Types of voice recognition systems.
A. Speaker independent system:
Here, the software recognizes words from most speakers with no training and it uses templates. however, a very strong accent would defeat the system here.
B. Speaker dependent system:
Here, the software must be trained to recognize each word by each individual user.
This might take hours of inputting the dictionary into the computer to be optimistic.
C. Discrete speech recognition:
Here, the speak must pause in between words in order for the computer to tell when a word stops.
D. Continuous speech recognition:
Here, the speaker may use the normal conversational flow.
E. Natural language:
Here, the speaker could say to the computer, "How soon can you ship a dozen of products #25 in blue to Nashville?" and then get an answer hahahaha...that's a little of some powerful scientific innovation at work here isn't it?🤗.
We shall be drawing the curtain to a close here while in our next lesson, we shall be starting from the next sub-heading-The video input.
Hope my article has been helpful I guess and if you have enjoyed reading it, then do well to stay tuned for more interesting and mind blowing articles from me in later days to come.
Love ❤️you all and remain safe from the second wave of the deadly covid19 pandemic by staying in your homes and respecting all Covid19 protocols by the government and stake-holders alike, so we can all see if we may end up saving a life at least.
Take care and
#take responsibility.👌
All images are from unsplash.com.
Well written, thank you!