Driving Miss Digital

There are two ways you can look at this. Driving Miss Digital is either a primer that explains, from first concepts, the basics and basis of modern audio and video technology.

On the other hand, it is also written as a fictional love story! Don’t get discouraged if you see technical words – I’ll assume you’re an eight-year old again and that’s how I explain things.

This page is the main menu, everything in one place. So feel free to bookmark it.

Temporary Note: I am updating the chapters one by one. If the links are broken it means you’ll have to wait till the article is updated. When it’s all done this note will vanish!

Section One: Analog, Digital and Sampling

1. Introduction
2. Analogue is Analog
3. Digital is Discrete
4. Professor Sampler’s notes:
   • Understanding Analog Signals
     • Analog
     • Signal
     • Waves
     • Wave-particle duality and Uncertainty
     • Disadvantages of Analog Systems
   • Understanding Digital Signals
     • Digitization
     • Decimal, Binary and Hex
     • Analog vs Digital
     • Disadvantages of digital systems
   • Understanding Sampling
     • Sampling analog signals
     • The Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem: Part I
     • The Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem:Part II
     • The Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem:Part III
     • Reconstruction
     • Interpolation
     • Aliasing
5. The Challenge

Section Two: The Eye and the Image

1. The Eye Checkup
2. Defining Sharpness
3. Image Resolution
4. The World of Contrasts
5. At the Edge of Acutance
6. What Noise Does
7. The First Phone Call
8. Notes by Dr. Optoglass:
   • Understanding the Human Eye
     • The Sine Grating
     • Spatial Frequency
     • The Human Eye Part I
     • The Human Eye Part II
     • The Human Eye Part III
     • Eye Geometry
   • Comparing the Eye with a Camera
     • Angle of View and Aspect Ratio
     • The Focal Lengths of the Human Eye
     • The Resolution of the Human Eye
     • Airy Disk and Pixel Density of the Eye
     • The Megapixel Counts of the Human Eye
   • Understanding Light
     • How to Measure Light
     • The Units of Photometry Part I
     • The Units of Photometry Part II
     • Camera Exposure
     • How to Read Light for Exposure
     • The F-numbers of the Human Eye
   • Understanding Dynamic Range and Color
     • Sensitivity and ISO of the Human Eye
     • Dynamic Range of the Human Eye
     • Color Bit Depth, Middle Grey and White Balance of the Human Eye
   • Understanding Motion and Frame Rates
     • Motion and the Frame Rate of the Human Eye
   • Understanding Stereoscopy
     • Stereoscopy – Understanding Depth
     • Stereoscopy – Stereopsis, Parallax and the Inter-ocular Distance
     • Stereoscopy – Convergence and Fusion
     • Stereoscopy – Challenges in Reproducing Stereopsis in Cameras and Displays
   • Understanding Noise and Dithering
     • Noise and Dithering
9. The Night Out
10. Lights Out

Section Three: The Ear and Audio

1. A New Awakening
2. The Difference between Sound and Audio
3. Hearing vs Listening
4. Grandma Moon Speaks:
   • Understanding Sound
     • What is Sound?
     • What Influences Sound
     • RMS and the Decibel
   • Understanding the Human Ear
     • The Human Ear Part 1
     • The Human Ear Part 2
   • Qualities of Sound
     • Frequency Range of the Human Ear
     • Pitch and Tone
     • Timbre and Duration
     • Harmonics
     • Loudness or Volume
     • Reverberation and Echo
     • The Doppler Effect
   • Making Sound Work
     • Bit Depth and Sample Rate of the Human Ear
     • Pulse Code Modulation, and LPCM
     • How many Audio Channels does the Human Ear Need?
     • Stereo Sound
     • Human Voice
     • Recording Sound
5. The Same Story

Section Four: Unification

1. Sampler in the Dock
2. Knowing the Enemy
3. Love, in Secret
4. Analog Stands on Trial
5. Time Sweeps, whether there’s Dirt or Not
6. A New Town
7. Unification
8. Bob’s and Cathy’s Notes – Building the Ideal Audiovisual System:
   • Camera, Resolution and Frame Rate
   • Sensitivity, Dynamic Range and Color
   • Audio
   • Summary