Creating 3-D models with a digitizer

In the popular movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the cyborg performs many amazing body feats that, obviously, are impossible or too dangerous for a human actor. Many of the cyborg's actions were programmed using three-dimensional digitizing— the scan and capture of a three-dimensional object in digital form.

As dramatically demonstrated in Terminator 2, human movement can be digitized, and the resulting digital image can be manipulated in many different ways. The same technology is being used to help doctors save burn victims, police find lost children, and engineers develop artificial limbs.

Digitization of three-dimensional objects is accomplished with laser scanning technology. A laser circularly scans an object, such as a subject's head, in about 15 seconds. The image is transferred to a computer, where it is manipulated. This technology has been applied in dozens of areas, ranging from medicine to fantasy - as in the example of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Applications of 3-D digitizing include the following:

Planning plastic and reconstructive surgery using 3-D images:

- "Aging" missing children using 3-D images;

- Redesigning toys using computer-aided design (CAD) to work with a scanned image of a 3-D prototype to avoid costly reworking of the physical model;

- Designing better fitting helmets, masks, earphones, and optical systems for U.S. Air Force fighter pilots using a digitized image of each pilot's head and face.

- Looking ahead, it seems as if uses for 3-D digitization will be limited only by the imagination of potential users.

Source: Clinton Wilder, "Digitizing Enters Third Dimension," Computerworld

KEY TERMS

arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) арифметико-логічний пристрій

ASCII (American Standard Code стандартний код для обміну for Information Interchange) інформацією

backup резервне копіювання

binary number system двійкова система числення

booting process процес завантаження

cartridge картридж

central processing unit (CPU) центральний обчислювальний пристрій

direct-access storage запам’ятовуючий пристрій з прямим доступом

disk drive дисковід

dot matrix printer матричний принтер

dumb terminal простий (не інтелектуальний) термінал

EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded стандартний код для обміну

Decimal Interchange Code) інформацією

floppy disk гнучкий диск

hard copy роздрукована копія файлу

IBM compatible PCs IBM- сумісний персональний комп’ютер

ink-jet printer крапельковий принтер

keyboard клавіатура

magnetic tape магнітна стрічка

processing/internal memory unit надоперативний запам’ятовувальний пристрій

random-access memory (RAM) оперативна пам’ять

read-only memory (ROM) постійна пам’ять

read/write head читаюча голівка

secondary storage зовнішній запам’ятовувальний пристрій

sequential access послідовний доступ

touchscreen сенсорний екран

video display terminal (VDT) відео дисплейний термінал

voice recognition розпізнавання голосу

volatile тимчасовий

LESSON 7

Exercise 7.1

Match the synonyms

1. to begin	a. familiar
2. to display	b. to buy
3. to purchase	c. extensive
4. to unravel	d. common
5. to desire	e. at last
6. to integrate	f. to explain
7. day-to-day	g. together
8. finally	h. to commence
9. known	i. to unite
10. much	j. to manifest
11. wide	k. a lot
12. jointly	l. to want

Exercise 7.2

Translate the following word combinations paying attention to gerunds.

1. Squeezing desktop Web content into smart phones is…

2. m-Links supports this dual-mode browsing, offering mobile users a range…

3. Interaction involves downloading and viewing documents…

4. Users view content and links together, rapidly alternating between reading content and following links…

5. Chapter describes fitting techniques for transducing…

6. Transforming has the most potential because it closely resembles professional content tailoring to a particular device…

7. Transforming system modifies the structure of interacting with the content, as well as transducing to…

8. Although scaling can reduce scrolling, it also…

9. Exploring alternatives to duplicating the Web experience, we realized that browsing involves navigating to information and then using it…

10. …two separate modes: navigating to and acting on content…

11. Having separated links from page content removed contextual…

12. A service analogous to right clicking on a document and using the context menu…

13. In addition to making Web content compatible, transforming modifies content…

14. Sending includes moving the link to a user via WAP – messaging capability that…

15. Mapping includes getting directions and printing out maps to…

16. Casual browsing – following links to see if there is anything…

Exercise 7.3

Translate the following sentences paying attention to gerunds.

1. While the resulting system was only an academic prototype and was never used commercially, Hennessy says that some ideas that emerged in both specifying and checking real-time constraints were later incorporated in real systems.

2. Meanwhile, back at Stanford, often called the Farm, he had begun looking for a new area of computing to explore.

3. Hennessy wrote papers and began giving talks about this new computer architecture, thinking that existing computer companies would be quick to embrace such an obvious technical improvement.

4. We will continue being denied innovations that only real and rigorous competition can bring.

5. From 1995 until the end of the browser war, they were particularly worried about losing user and development attention to Netscape Communications’ Navigator browser, to Sun Microsystems’ Java architecture, and to other new Internet-related technologies.

6. In response to Microsoft’s demands the government resolved the problem by simply taking Microsoft operating systems and applications off students’ computers and replacing them with domestic ones.

7. Whatever Microsoft’s other faults its support for developers in providing powerful and low-cost tools is considerable.

8. Developing for Windows CE or, more narrowly, for the Pocket PC devices, is faster and easier than for competing platforms among PDAs.

9. Most developers perceive testing component-based systems because of the modular nature of the software, but the rise in web-based services complicates the issue.

10. There is a question of having multiple windows pop up on your screen, which happens when several people IM you at the same time.

11. If your computer hasn’t registered a keystroke in 10 minutes, and you’ve just used your cell-phone, then IM should go to the cell-phone, not the computer, without your having changed any settings on either device.

12. She found e-mail being used for exchanging documents, information management (to-do lists, contact lists), scheduling and any number of other things for which it wasn’t designed.

13. Using well defined interfaces, you can upgrade and enhance server objects without having to change any of your ASP codes.

14. IBM, H-P, Microsoft, Sun, and other IT firms and universities are laying down the ground rules for sharing applications and computing resources over the Internet.

15. Using an efficient library that wraps up low-level or common facilities is a different prospect from writing one, each requiring the different type or level of knowledge.

16. Text manipulation and good old-fashioned I/O have come back into fashion, so it’s worth seeing the difference between introducing C++ with and without the standard library in this context.

17. The informed and more up-to-date thinking on this topic reflects a quite different perspective.

18. Learning C++ is not a holiday, but it takes longer this way than by treating it as a new language.

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