PHYSICS ASSESSMENT: RESEARCH COMPONENT

1. There are vast amounts of new communications technologies that use the principles of electromagnetic
waves. (Kells, B. Handout Given)

One of these Technologies includes THE INTERNET, or in other words DIGITAL PROCESSING.
Digital processing is the construction and reconstruction or alternatively, the manipulation of information in a
signal to somehow modify or transmit it. Signals are waves which vary over time, that carry information. The
internet is created up of waves which are modified due to the process or procedure of the titles namesake,
Digital Processing. The waves are converted into digital language that is able to be processed by computers
and then reconverted back to the original signal at the other end. The other underlying area of research here,
is the Optical Fibres which aid the signal in actually getting to the other end. The employ many physics
principles and comply with the manipulation and transmittance of electromagnetic waves (or signals).

2. To firstly figure out how digital processing works, we need to understand what analogue signals are. Analogue
signals are signals that send information. The digital process, or digital signals, are all primarily based upon the
founding analogue signal. This analogue signal is modulated through frequency or amplitude. For this signal to
become digital, hence the name Digital Processes, it needs to undergo a procedure known as QUANTISATION.

This procedure turns the wave into a binary set of numbers. This means that the information is transformed
into a series of three 1s and 0s which is then sequenced into a combination, each representing numbers from
0 to 7.

At a particular point in time, the amplitude of the analogue wave, can be given a scale and then converted to
the sequence of number described above. This next step is known as Sampling, which makes the signal ready
to be sent to another device with the aid of a few more technologies.
For this sampled information to send, it is converted as said before, into a series of 1s and 0s by a digital
encoding device. This is done many times per second for accuracy in conversion.
The original analogue wave is now represented by a digital signal and all the samples can now be transmitted
as a series or sequence in consecutive order.

To receive this information, and convert it back into the original analogue wave at the destination.
A decoding device is now needed to reconstruct the amplitude of the original analogue wave.

The diagram below helps explain this using technologies known as ADCs (Analogue to Digital Converter) and
DACs (Digital to Analogue Converter) . It also explains that in order for a signal to be recognised and
processed by a computer, it needs to be converted into a digital word or binary sequence.










Van der Spiegel, J. and Deliwala, S.
(2014). ESE206: Lab ADC and DAC.
[online] Seas.upenn.edu. Available at:
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese206/
labs/adc206/adc206.html [Accessed
11 Aug. 2014].
Researchers were able
increase data flow through fiber
optic cables by moving light
through them in a spiral motion,
rather than a straight line.
Credit: P. Gregg
(ScienceDaily, 2014)
The way that these digital signals are now transferred from one Internet device to the other, is through
something known as fibre optic cables. The Binary sequence is transferred through the optical fibre, utilising
the physics principle of Total internal reflection

3. Digital Processing is always calling for new technology and new applications to further extend its uses and
quality of work. The simplest area of development is increasing the number of bits in the processing. This
increases accuracy and quality in the reconstruction of the waves after it has been quantised and sampled.
Another advancement would be the introduction of a tool to aid the signal processing method.
The technological auxiliary, known as Igor, improves and computes data to obtain the best quality signal and
also make sure the information is quantised and reconstructed at the highest quality.
Some of these improvements include digital filters assist in eliminating the unwanted information or signal
components.
Another form of this digital filtering is smoothing. This reveals the form of the data, whilst getting rid of the
short term variations.
Another area of development would be the prevalent optical fibres. These fibres have a generous amount uses
and their applications are beginning to develop further.

One of these developments is the discovery of how to increase the strained bandwidth that consumers are
asking for. This technology is about creating Optical Vortices. This means that instead of producing the light in
a straight line, they spiral it to increase the flow of data through the cables.
This notion has been underpinned for many years because if its notoriety for being dangerous, but researchers
at the University of Southern California have developed a fibre optic cable with the ability to propagate it.












Bibliography:
Andriessen, M. (2008). Physics 1. 1st ed. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley & Sons Australia.
Web.stanford.edu, (2014). Analog and Digital. [online] Available at:
http://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/analog-digital-1.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2014].
Van der Spiegel, J. and Deliwala, S. (2014). ESE206: Lab ADC and DAC. [online] Seas.upenn.edu. Available
at: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese206/labs/adc206/adc206.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2014].
Wavemetrics.com, (2014). Signal Processing. [online] Available at:
http://www.wavemetrics.com/products/igorpro/dataanalysis/signalprocessing.htm [Accessed 11 Aug. 2014].
Freudenrich, C. (2014). HowStuffWorks "How Fiber Optics Work". [online] HowStuffWorks. Available at:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic6.htm [Accessed 11 Aug. 2014].
ScienceDaily, (2014). Breakthrough in Internet bandwidth: New fiber optic technology could ease Internet
congestion, video streaming. [online] Available at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130627142406.htm [Accessed 11 Aug. 2014].