Introduction to Information Technology (ES111) Study Notes Part III

Important: These study sheets do not replace the textbook; they are just produced to help you review the materials for the exam. These notes cover chapter 1 only and are intended for the English programme of the college of management and technology.

Section 2.0: Being Prepared for your Career (Contd) Military Careers: drive that Drone Military is always interested in developing cutting-edge technology and computer technology is no exception of that. Many careers in the US army rely on using advanced computer technology. Many soldiers are trained on using satellite communications in order to be able to communicate in the field. Many other jobs in the army, such as logistics (the transfer of food, weapons, etc), aviation, and media production also rely on advanced computer software. The US army has a special exam that determines the level of computer literacy for army jobs applicants. The results of the exam determine whether the applicant is accepted and which branch of the army they are appropriate for. The American air force employs unmanned aerial vehicles called drones (see figure 1.16 Page 14) to perform surveillance operations and deliver missiles. These modern drones use guidance systems where the driver is on remote location, sometimes thousands of miles away. The drone is equipped with several video cameras that return to the pilot an area of the ground about 1.5 square miles. Pilot then decides on which missile to deliver.

Agriculture: High-tech Down on the Farm

You may think that farming and ranching is a low-tech business. In fact, ranchers and farmers face challenges that can be dealt with using computer technology. For instance, for meat production, farmers need to prevent outbreaks of diseases. Fortunately, outbreaks can be managed through radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers. These RFID tags are very small like tiny buttons that are attached to the cows in order to trace The locations they pass by. RFID tags contain microchip that holds unique sequence numbers used to identify the animal. Whenever the animal passes by a reader panel, its identification number and its location and time are recorded in a database. Through this database, it is easy to identify the lots of the farm where there is an infected food. Another interesting application is the use of the Web to save cranberry bogs in cold nights. Snow can easily destroy cranberry crops. In the past, farmers had to rush in the cold nights when there is snow to turn water pumps on the berries to keep them from freezing. Today, this can be done from home using Web technology that remotely controls these water pumps. Automotive Technology: Sensors and CPUs Automotive technicians need to have knowledge of computers technology. Due to the new government regulations, car manufacturers are required to reduce the emission from the exhaust of the car and this usually involves the use of computer-based sensors and CPUs. CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the computer processor. This is explained in details in chapter 2. Modern cars instead of using carburetor for fuel engine, they use computer-based fuel injection systems. Several sensors measure air temperature, air pressure, engine temperature, etc to decide on the proper amount of fuel to spray. Breaking and steering systems are primarily controlled by computers and electronic components. Many computer-based features such as MP3 music players, airbags, and GPS navigation are becoming standard features of modern cars. More computer features are expected to be part of future cars.

Computer technicians now, get technical documentation of these cars from manufacturer Websites. Medicine: Technologies of Today and Tomorrow. A company called BrainGate produced a system that interfaces with the brain through very tiny microchips that take orders from the brain to control robotic arms and legs. This technology help patient of Lou Gehrings disease (the inability to control muscles) to use robotic arms and legs. The best way to learn for medical students is to face the emergency situations. However, students rarely get trained in real-life situations as they usually watch professional staff providing care to patients but they dont actually participate to avoid risks. Medical students now have access to better training opportunities through a computer technology called patient simulator. Patient Simulators are life-sized computer-controlled mannequins that can speak, breath, and blink in response to external stimuli. They respond just like humans to procedures such as the administration of intravenous drugs. Medical students can practice on patient simulator and experience firsthand how a human would react to their treatment. The best thing about these patients is that if they die, the student can just restart the computer and try again. More exciting is the complete human biological modeling. The Pysiome Project in New Zealand is working towards achieving that and it is now in Public Domain. Information in public domain is not protected by copyright. In the operating rooms, surgeons use computer-guided robots to perform operations. To use robots, doctors look into surgery control device where they manipulate controls that move robotic controls that hover over the patient. Robots can do finer actions like small incisions that would be difficult for humans. Medicine: the Chip Within New research in medicine succeeded in growing human cells on electronic chips so that the chip communicates its signals through the cell to the neighboring neurons. One potential application of biomedical implants is to provide sight to

the blind. Some of the diseases cause damage to the photoreceptors in the retina. Researchers at MIT are experiencing with a microchip that would attach to the outside of the eye. The chip would takeover processing of photoreception from the damaged photoreception retina and transmits electronic images to the brain. One type of chip is already being implanted in humans is the veriChip, which is a personal ID chip the size of a grain of rice and it is implanted under the skin. When exposed to radio waves, the chip transmits its unique serial number to the scanner. The scanner can then connect to a database to retrieve the persons name, address, and medical history. This chip is very useful for Alzheimers patients. Hitachi has a similar device called the -chip, which is smaller than the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence.

Science: Simulating Reality The National Storms Lab in the USA collaborates with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to forecast tornados more accurately. Scientist have been able to create a model so detailed that it takes a supercomputer nine days to generate it. This supercomputer performs 4 trillion operations each second.

Sports Science: Compute your way to a Better Game Computers are often used to help athletes analyze their performance and improve their game. This works by first video recording the athlete in action. The video is then transferred to motion-analysis software on a computer. The U.S. Olympic Training Center uses computers extensively in training athletes such as swimmers. The major objective is to reduce drag from water and minimize turbulences. In addition, computers are typically used to track score and time during games.

Nanotechnology: Careers Yet to Come The next big wave of computing is seen to rely on using nanotechnology. Nanoscience involved the study of molecules and structures called nanostructures that range in size from 1 to 100 nanometer.

A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter. This technology will provide numerous career paths and high-tech positions over the next several years. Nanotechnology is the science of using nanostructures to build devices on an extremely small scale.

Section 3.0: Understanding The Challenges Facing a Digital Society Part of being computer literate is being able to understand and form knowledgeable opinions on the challenges that face a digital society. Computer pose legal, ethical, and moral challenges to the society. Consider the following: Camera surveillance in the streets to avoid terrorist attacks. These cameras are accessible over the Internet and expected to be monitored by volunteers. What if employers monitor their staff using very small surveillance cameras? Many employees dont know that their employers have the right to monitor their email and their traffic on the computer network without even telling them. What privacy risks do chips like VeriChip pose? Do such privacy risks outweigh the potential benefits? Should companies be allowed to collect personal information from visitors of their Websites? Should spam be illegal? Is it ethical to download music off the Web without paying for it? Should we rely solely on computers to monitor sensitive areas like nuclear power plants?

Knowledge is Power: Bridging the Digital Divide The discrepancy between the haves and have-nots with regard to computer technology is commonly referred to as the digital divide.

People with access to computers and the Internet are poised to take advantages of many developments that computer technology offers. Whereas, those who have no access to such technology are being left behind.