Storing Different Data Types

There are different types of General Purpose Package. Each has been developed to handle particular data types. The most common of the different data types are:-

Storing Audio Data

Many packages can handle audio data. Audio data can be stored and processed in two distinct ways: as MIDI or as digital audio.

 

 

MIDI Audio Files

Rather than store the actual sound, the computer stores instructions that tell the computer system how to create musical sounds. For example they hold data on the pitch and the length of musical notes.

Digital Audio Files

Sounds are turned into an stored as binary numbers (O's and 1's). Audio files are often compressed to make them smaller.

 

Storing Photographic Data

When you take a picture with a digital camera it stores a digital representation of the image in its memory as a pattern of binary numbers, ‘1’s and ‘0’s. You can then transfer this digital image to your computer and process it using a range of graphics software or it can be inserted into a multimedia document or web page.

A problem with graphics images is that the files can be very large indeed, and, like audio files, they are often compressed before being stored and used.

 

Storing Animation Data

Many packages can handle animated graphics. The most common way of producing animations is for the computer to display a series of graphics very quickly one after another.

To get a fluent movement the system has to display 24 images a second. This gives the impression of movement. It also means the animation files can be very large since the computer has to store and process information about every graphic that is displayed.

 

Storing Video Data

Computer video works in a similar way to animations. The computer has to display images very quickly on the screen. It also has to store the data about each individual image on the screen.

To get a smooth fluent video image it has to process 40 frames a second. This could result in some very large file sizes. If you are recording at a speed of 30 frames per second and 1 colour frame = 1 megabyte, then the camera will have to store 30 megabytes per second or 1.8 gigabytes per minute.

Compression is used to reduce the file size of video data. Most are now compressed down to around one fiftieth of the original size and you can then store them on a DVD.

If you did not reduce the file size of video data files then it would be very difficult to store and process them.

 

 

What you have to do!

1. In your "Data & File Types" document that you created earlier.
2. List in order, going from the smallest to the largest, each data type according to how much storage space they need.

 

 

What you should be able to do!

1. Explain why different data types require different amounts of storage space.

2. List in order, each data type according to how much storage space it needs.