Introduction to digital lifestyle

2. Course objectives
 After completing this module, you will be able to:
 Explain the scope of digital technology.
 Explain the basic concepts and features of digital audio.
 Explain the basic concepts and features of digital video.
 Explain the basic concepts and features of digital
photography.
 Explain how to enjoy digital media on a computer.
 Identify the different career opportunities made available
by computers.

3. Benefits of Digital Technology
 Storing and sharing pictures
 Recording and sharing videos
 Communicating with business associates

4. Digital Technology and Media
Devices
 Audio and video player
 Mobile phone
 Video game system
 Tablet computer
 Digital camera
 Digital video camera

5. Digital audio technology
 allows you to record, edit, and play digital audio files
on a computer.
 lets you communicate with the computer by just
speaking.

6. Characteristics of Digital Audio
 It can be compressed – to save space and allow for portability.
 It can be edited – move sections of the audio and add effects.
 some of the common audio file formats:
i. Wave (WAV) is used to store audio files in the wave audio
format. Files are large but are of good audio quality
ii. MP3 format was developed by Motion Picture Expert Group to
allow compression of audio and video for digital distribution.
Files are smaller than WAV.
iii. Windows Media Audio (WMA) format was developed by
Microsoft and is used to store digital audio files.
Note: Digital audio also allows streaming of digital audio files

7. Copying audio
 That process of copying audio and storing it on a CD or
DVD is called burning.
 Requirements:
i. Special Hardware e.g. CD/DVD writer
ii. Software e.g. ashampoo, nero
 Note: copying audios direct from the internet and
storing them on recordable CDs or DVDs is illegal.
Ensure that you have permission.

8. Converting audio
 Why convert CD/DVD audios?
i. so that they takes less space in the hard disk.
ii. So that we can use them in other devices e.g.
smartphones
 Requirements:
 Audio conversion software e.g. Microsoft Windows
Media Player.
Note: Converting CDs OR DVDs to different format
is illegal. Ensure that you have permission before
converting.

9. Speech Recognition and Synthesis
 Digital audio technology allows you to interact with
the computer by just speaking. This helps improve
productivity and empowers challenged users to expand
their ability to use computers.
 There are two speech technologies:
i. speech synthesis
ii. speech recognition.

10. Speech recognition
 Technology that allows you to communicate with a
computer by using only your voice to enter text and to
issue commands.
 you need an audio input device(microphone), a sound
card, and speech recognition software that converts
human speech into text or commands for the
computer.
 You can configure the speech recognition feature in
Windows 7 by using the Ease of Access link in Control
Panel.

11. Speech synthesis
 Technology that allows the computer to speak to you
by converting text to digital audio.
 Windows 7 has a built-in text-to-speech utility called
Narrator that supports speech synthesis.
 A screen reader is a program that reads the text on the
computer screen aloud.
 To support speech synthesis your computer must be
equipped with a sound card and speakers.
 You can configure the text-to-speech feature in
Windows 7 by using the Ease of Access link in Control
Panel.

12. Digital video
 Characteristics:
i. you can edit them easily on a computer by using digital
video editing software
ii. they can be compressed
 A camcorder captures and records video. Camcorders can
be broadly classified into two categories:
i. Analog Camcorder. An analog camcorder records and
stores video in an analog format on a tape.
ii. Digital Camcorder. A digital camcorder records and
stores video in a digital format, which makes editing the
recorded video easy.

13. Digital Video Editing
 Add titles and background music to your video to
make it more appealing.
 Cut or remove certain scenes from the video.
 Add special effects, such as fade-in and fade-out, to
the video.
 Enhance video quality by adjusting its brightness,
contrast, and color.
 Record audio over the video to describe certain scenes.

14. Digital Video Editing
 It can either be linear or nonlinear.
i. In linear editing, you sequentially traverse a file to edit a
frame in the middle. It is done on tapes.
ii. In nonlinear editing, you directly go to the frame and
remove it from your video. It is done on Random access
devices, such as DVDs and CDs.
 Windows Movie Maker - capture a frame from a movie and
save it as a still image(.jpg file) OR edit the video and save
it in Windows Media Video (WMV) format.
Warning: Copying video directly from the Web and storing it
on CDs is illegal. Copying video directly from a video CD or
DVD is also illegal. Ensure that you have permission to copy
any video before you copy it.

15. Web Video Technologies
 allow you to transfer digital video files over the
Internet.
 Examples:
i. Video streaming
ii. Downloading video
iii. Web conferencing