Allen Klinger – författare

Many hardware devices present either results or alternatives selected by computers to users. A few are video display terminals (VDTs), touch-tone telephones, and computer-generated speech systems. In part this book con­ cerns the impact and implications of such tools. Alternatively this is an attempt to provide material for researchers, students, and managers con­ cerned with computer interfaces. The subject of computer interfaces is at one level a technical subarea sharing common interests with the broad dis­ ciplines of computer science, psychology, and bioengineering. However, it is also a topic thrust to the forefront of interest of a wide variety of individuals who confront one of the most striking technological changes that has occurred in human history-the introduction of contact with computing devices as an essential component of many kinds of ordinary transactions. Point of entry sales, travel and entertainment reservations, and library infor­ mation, are commonly conducted today by interaction with digital calculat­ ing devices that did not exist in the recent past. The papers in this book present several concerns arising from the widespread use of computing. One involves the future implications of further advances of this technology. This is a twofold issue: (a) the potential conse­ quences of changing the basic way that information is managed in areas ranging from design, engineering, and management/planning to information access, education, and clerical function; and (b) improvements that could be instituted from further development of the special characteristics of display techniques, technologies, and algorithms.

Modern Digital Technology: From ideas to devices aims to expose elements of digital technology — logic, code, flow, multiple kinds of programs, and underlying computational issues — to a broad and general audience. The material presents fundamental ideas in readable text that eliminates technical words and names, and uses simple-to-understand illustrations to show how technology and culture are connected.Modern Digital Technology develops the everyday connections of fundamental ideas instead of putting technical terms forward as steps that must be accomplished. It introduces tools like drawing, numbering, partitioning, and limits, and explores how solids and gaming are connected through randomness. Its medical imaging applications illustrate how more than one answer can be valid and how training literature describes physical events. The text provides an overview of events that led from mechanical desk calculators to digital devices like smart phones, tablets and gaming consoles. This material is supplemented by appendices that open the reader to means for binary numbers to be implemented in electronic circuits.Sample questions and quizzes are included in this book. They offer a model for assessing the accomplishments of students at secondary/high school levels, and go along with visuals that enable responding with answers that reward the full disclosure of partial knowledge. Groups of questions can be compiled into a short quiz, while larger accumulations of questions can be a way to compare different levels of achievement by individuals.The last chapter of the book offers as a starting point for in depth study. Some prior material and these suggested terms and citations could lead people into issues in computer science, machine learning, mathematics, and software development.