Page 551 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

eobf_M 7/5/06 3:15 PM Page 528

Multimedia Systems

ing systems to executive decision support systems. These technology improves, converting from one medium to
systems also can be found across industries such as another and combining different media formats becomes
accounting, banking, communications, education, enter- difficult and cumbersome.
tainment, insurance, manufacturing, medical, retailing, Analog systems are being replaced with systems that
and real estate. Anywhere there is a need for combining digitize the original documents and store them on digital
text, pictures, sounds, and animation, multimedia systems media; nevertheless, analog systems still remain vital for
are found. legal, historical, and research purposes. Many new compa-
Multimedia systems are used for security to keep nies have come into existence for the sole purpose of con-
intruders out of a system and for the protection of stored verting analog media into digital formats.
documents. Scanning devices are available to scan poten-
tial user’s eyes (retina imaging) or thumb prints to gain COMPUTER-BASED MULTIMEDIA
access to a computer or site. Other systems can scan a per-
Technological advances have changed the hardware and
son’s signature or capture voice pattern recognition for the
software used for developing multimedia from the tradi-
same purposes. Stored text, pictures, original document tional analog equipment to computer-based or digital
images, sound files, and video files can be protected
multimedia systems. Computers use 0s and 1s to store
through encryption methods, read/write protection, pass- and process sounds, still graphics (pictures), and motion
word management, and copyright protection that keep
video. Text scanning, digital imaging (using digital cam-
intruders from copying or accessing sensitive files.
eras and scanners), sound cards, and analog video-captur-
ing devices sample, compress, and convert analog media
ANALOG SYSTEMS into a series of 0s and 1s (digital) signals for processing by
Analog multimedia systems use books, documents, films, a computer. Once analog media are converted to a digital
photographs, records, tapes, videotapes, and many other format, a computer can be used to manipulate the various
forms of media to store text, sounds, and pictures. As media. With the development of digital-video cameras

Multimedia input for a computer

0101010101010101010
Scanner
Document

0101010101010101010
Photo Sound card

0101010101010101010

Analog sound input
Analog video capture
Computer

Analog video
Digital video

Digital camera

Figure 1

528 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION