What is “digital” and “digitization”, anyway?
(2003/01/05) Computers store things in “bits”, which can be either 0 or 1. To store something in a computer, it must be converted to a series of bits. The process is called “digitizing”. You’ve probably seen an egg slicer. If you haven’t, picture a device that looks like a book resting flat on table. Instead of pages it has an egg-shaped depression, and instead of a front cover it has a frame with thin wires stretched across it vertically at regular intervals. You raise the lid, insert the egg, and when you press the lid down the wires cut the egg into thin, round slices. It usually helps to hard-boil the egg first. Suppose we want to digitize an egg so we can make a nifty 3D model and display it on a computer. Our slicer has 9 wires, so we could end up with as many as 10 pieces. We place the egg into the device and slice it. Now we measure the height of each piece in centimeters (assume the pieces are perfectly round), measuring the diameter with calipers and rounding it to the neares
Computers store things in “bits”, which can be either 0 or 1. To store something in a computer, it must be converted to a series of bits. The process is called “digitizing”. You’ve probably seen an egg slicer. If you haven’t, picture a device that looks like a book resting flat on table. Instead of pages it has an egg-shaped depression, and instead of a front cover it has a frame with thin wires stretched across it vertically at regular intervals. You raise the lid, insert the egg, and when you press the lid down the wires cut the egg into thin, round slices. It usually helps to hard-boil the egg first. Suppose we want to digitize an egg so we can make a nifty 3D model and display it on a computer. Our slicer has 9 wires, so we could end up with as many as 10 pieces. We place the egg into the device and slice it. Now we measure the height of each piece in centimeters (assume the pieces are perfectly round), measuring the diameter with calipers and rounding it to the nearest centimeter.
