ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER

I was watching MIT projects. I was wondering how they do projects of that Caliber.

The thing that was common in almost every project was that they were using some sensor to get some
data like Videos, Pictures [Say fingerprints], sound etc.

What seemed interesting and search worthy to me was that how do they convert that analog data into
digital signal and then play with it? Say first they take a sample fingerprint then convert it to Digital Signal
and then transmit it to some Central Station [Away from biometric device] wirelessly and then

After some Google search I found that there are some Devices called Analog to Digital Converters
[ADCs] that convert the analog Signals into Digital Data [Zeros and Ones in Case you want Binary
Digital Data].

Every ADC has its resolution, say 2 bits, 4 bits, 16 bits etc. Greater the resolution more accurate is the
data. Its like when we used to calculate the area under the curve in Regimen Sum we used rectangular
blocks to cover the area and to get more accurate value of area we increased the blocks and even we
assumed them to approach to infinity to get the exact area. Similarly each step [Rectangle] corresponds
to a bit, greater the number of bits more accurately the data is converted.

1234567890

Consider the following Rough Conversion:

0 Volt ---------------------- 0000 0000

5 Volt ---------------------- 1111 1111

Now we need to find how much voltage does a step correspond to that is to how much voltage must be
given to rise a step i.e. change the digital value from 0000 0000 to 0000 0001.

Now a Eight bit ADC can have maximum2^8 = 256 level i.e. steps

If 0 Volt correspond to Level 0 and 5 V correspond to Level 255 then one level is equal to 5/255 = 22
mV . Thus if the signal voltage changes from 0 V to 40 mV the corresponding digital converter will give
out 0000 0010 i.e. Two steps up, Note that 50 mV change will also cause the same binary because we
need min 60 mV for third step.

Now, the Homework for you is to find a step size for a 14 Pin Arduino board operating between 0 to 5.
If a LDR Sensor changes its voltage from 14 mV to 16 mV . Will its binary code rise a Step?