Information Technology in a Global Society

Robotics Robots by application area (2009)

A robot is a computer controlled system that performs Public relations 1%
manual, physical tasks. Robots can be autonomous, using
artificial intelligence or computational intelligence tech- Logistics 4%
niques to navigate their environment and perform their
jobs, or they can be remotely controlled by a human oper- 5%
ator. Robots are primarily used for three types of physical
jobs: Defence applloatlons
30%

• Dangerous jobs - such as cleaning up nuclear waste
or performing bomb disposal

• Boring or repetitive jobs - such as manufacturing
jobs in factories or on production lines

• Exploring inaccessible envirorunents - such as the
extreme ocean depths or the surfaces of other plan-
ets, which are difficult or impossible for humans to
access

Social impacts of robots Source: International Federation of Robotics
Figure 16-12 Common applications for robots
Robots cause a variety of positive social impacts. Robots
used for hazardous jobs like bomb disposal (figure 16-11) Carrier robots such as the Big Dog move across rough
clearly reduce the risk of death or serious injury to hu- terrain carrying heavy loads for the military. The BEAR
mans. Exploration robots help increase scientific (Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot) robot is designed to
knowledge - they have been used to locate and recover rescue soldiers on the battlefield, reducing the need for
the wreckages of ships and aircraft lost in the ocean humans to enter the line of fire. Search and rescue robots
(including helping to find the wreck of the Titanic in are being developed to search environments such as the
1982), and at least three robotic rovers have landed on the ruins of buildings after an earthquake. Many of these are
surface of Mars, moving around the Martian surface and designed to travel through gaps where humans could not
sending samples and photographs back to Earth. Manned fit, or in unstable buildings that may collapse without
missions to these environments would be significantly warning (figure 16-13).
more expensive and dangerous than sending robots. Un-
manned space vehicles have also been sent to the Mir and Domestic robots are available to assist in cleaning jobs
ISS space stations to resupply the crews living there-in around the house, while robots like the BEAR and Pearl
these cases, there is no need to send a human crew (who can assist elderly people by providing support when
would need their own supplies) on such relatively rou-
tine missions.

Figure 16-11 A US Navy bomb disposal robot (left); Robots designed to play football in the RoboCup league (right)

walking, announcing reminders of medication times, and
calling an emergency number if movement is not detect-
ed after a certain period of time.

Robots excel at performing the same operation over and
over again without variation and without becoming tired.
Unlike human workers, robots do not need breaks or shift
changes, and do not get sick. This makes them ideal for
manufacturing jobs such as those in factories or on pro-
duction lines, improving output efficiency.

However, these same robots may cause negative impacts
by making human workers redundant: a single robot can
replace several workers in a factory, and although new
jobs are created for maintenance operators, on average
more jobs are lost than gained.

There is also the risk of injury in any environment where
humans and robots work together. A single robotic arm
made out of steel may weigh tens of kilos, giving it great
potential to cause injury, and it is difficult for many ro-
bots to detect obstacles in their way. For this reason, ro-
bots in factories usually operate in separate areas - often
fenced off - and use systems that cut power to robots
when a human enters their area. Nevertheless, there have
been causes of workers injured or killed by robots that
failed to detect their presence6•

Ethical Issues

Developing robots which will inevitably cause employ-
ment is clearly an ethical issue that needs debate. The
development and use of robots raises several similar is-
sues, including the increased reliance that humans have
on technology, and questions about the wisdom of dele-
gating decision making processes to machines.

The development of humanoid robots, which have the
general overall shape as human beings, and androids,
which attempt to mimic the look of human faces and skin,
raises unique ethical questions about our identities. Exer-
cises 16-15 and 16-16 cover some of the ethical issues that
might arise through robotic development.

Figure 16-13 An image of the Martian surface taken by the Spirit
rover (top); a robot arm which automatic dispenses medicine
(middle); rescue robots, designed to move like snakes, can access
otherwise inaccessible areas .

Sensing the World

Like all IT systems, robots' work is divided into four stag-
es: input, processing, storage, and output. Robots use a
variety of artificial intelligence and computational intelli-
gence techniques to process and store their data. Because
robots do manual, physical tasks and move around their
environments, the input and output devices they use
differ greatly from those found on most computer sys-
tems.

Robots cannot see as human beings can: even if a robot is
attached to a video camera, it will have no understanding
of what the image contains, nor its meaning. It cannot
even understand which parts of the image are closer to it
and which are further away. All the robot 'sees' is a 2D,
flat collection of coloured pixels with no meaning. Pro-
gramming a computer to understand and 'see' its envi-
ronment-so called computer vision-is one of the great
challenges of robotics.

Because of this, many robot designers use a different ap- Figure 16-14 Wakamaru (top), designed by Mitsubishi is a do-
proach. Instead of designing robots to see the environ- mestic companion and assistance robot. Repliee android robots
ment as humans do, they design robots to sense or meas- (bottom) boast incredibly lifelike appearances, if somewhat
ure it. For example, instead of using a camera to see a limited abilities.
classroom, and programming the robot to understand the
different objects in the room, a robot designer might use a bot-it can only 'see' a 2D collection of coloured pixels.
proximity sensor to measure the distance to nearby ob- To make a robot 'see' objects, its software has to search
jects. This can be achieved using an infrared (IR) sensor the image for shapes, patterns, or colours that it
and measuring the time taken for light emitted by the 'recognises', using pattern recognition techniques (see
robot to be reflected off objects and return. The robot can page 339). When the robot is created, it has to be trained
use this information to build an internal map of the ob- to know what each of these patterns might be.
jects around it. However, even using this approach, a
robot will not know what nearby objects are- merely that Cameras have similar limitations to the human eye - they
they exist. don't work well in the dark or in other low visibility con-
ditions. A single camera is unable to 'see' the world in
Lasers are another type of light sensor often used on ro- three dimensions, so the robot cannot see how far away
bots. Lasers work in a similar way to IR sensors, but are objects are. One approach to depth perception is to use
more powerful. However, their range is still quite limited two cameras set slightly apart (like our eyes) to give two
and they don't work well in low visibility conditions such slightly different images (again, exactly like our eyes).
as cloud, fog, or mist. Lasers also have difficulty detecting The slight offset between these images can be used to
some highly reflective surfaces (such as water). calculate distance from the observer (objects closer to the
viewer seem to have shifted more than objects further
Radar can be used to detect obstacles by emitting radio away). This is similar to looking out the side of a moving
waves and measuring the reflected waves. Radar has a car and seeing close objects speed past quickly, but dis-
much longer range than light sensors and can 'see' in low tant objects appear to move much more slowly.
visibility conditions such as fog and cloud. However,
radar is less accurate than light sensors and sometimes
detects non-existent objects.

Instead of measuring distances using IR, laser, or radar,
some robots use video cameras and computer vision
systems. A video camera on its own is useless to a ro-

_ ....Chapter 16 Figure 16-15 Small domestic robot for cleaning floors

Pressure sensors are used to tell a robot if it has touched If a robot is under remote human control, haptic technol-
something, and the direction in which it has touched it, ogy is commonly used to give the operator feedback in
which is useful for negotiating obstacles (though not the form of vibrations or forces, to indicate the state of the
avoiding them in the first place). Pressure sensors also robot. For example, a strong vibration may be felt if the
give a sense of 'touch', like human skin, which is essential robot comes too close to, or collides with, an obstacle. The
for robots which grasp objects. For example, a robot try- Da Vinci surgical robot uses this technique to resist the
ing to pick up an egg needs to know how much pressure surgeon's input when they start to move instruments
is being exerted: too little and the egg will fall, but too away from the designated area of the body being operat-
much and the egg will be crushed. This is of even more ed on.
concern if the robot works closely with humans-perhaps
helping to steady an elderly patient whilst walking, or Especially in environments where humans work along-
picking up a baby in a hospital. side robots, lights, sirens, and speakers are used to alert
people to the presence of heavy, dangerous machinery, in
Other sensors used by robots include heat sensors, useful order to avoid potential accidents.
for detecting living things in an environment, magnetism
sensors, pH sensors, sound sensors, and humidity sen- To move around their environments, many robots use
sors-many of which are used in exploration robots to wheels or tracks. Legs can also be used, though standing
gather environmental data. and moving on two legs is an incredibly difficult task for
a robot. One of the problems robots face is uneven surfac-
Robotic Output Devices es and obstacles such as stairs, which can be difficult to
clear with any of these techniques.
A variety of robotic arms are available, from very simple
lifting devices to arms with many joints, multiple degrees
of freedom, and as much dexterity as the human arm (or
even more). Arms are powered by relay circuits and mo-
tors. They are one of the most common robotic output
devices because of the range of tasks they can complete-
from lifting and moving objects to welding and painting.
Robotic arms can have specific tools permanently
attached to them, or they may use a variety of clamps and
fingers to grasp different objects-though usually this is a
much more difficult proposition.

If clamps are used, they typically need to be fitted with
pressure sensors to ensure they do not damage the item
being gripped by crushing it. Robotic fingers operate in a
similar way to clamps, except they offer great flexibility
in the type of items they can grasp.

Exercise 16-8
In science fiction, many robots are designed as humanoids-standing upright and having a shape which generally
resembles that of the human body. Why do you think this is? In real life, far fewer are designed in this way. Why do
you think robot designers might avoid designing humanoid robots?

Exercise 16-9
Research domestic cleaning robots such as Roomba, which move across the floor, cleaning dirty areas of the house.

a) Explain how these robots sense & navigate their environment. [6 marks]
b) Explain how these robots know where to clean. [6 marks]

Exercise 16-10
Robotics is a constantly changing field. Use the Internet to find examples of the latest robotic developments in each of
the ITGS specific scenarios. Describe the jobs these robots do and explain the possible social impacts. Do these robots
raise any ethical issues? [10 marks]

Case Study: The DARPA Grand Challenge

In 2005, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agen-
cy (DARPA) initiated the Grand Challenge-a robot race
offering a $1 million prize for the team who could build a
driverless robot to negotiate 240 kilometres of desert roads.

Despite two years of development, race day saw a high
attrition rate-all but four vehicles had failed after 3 hours,
and only one vehicle-Sandstorm-made it past 11 kilome-
tres, before getting stuck on a dirt mount and being unable
to continue.

A year later, and the 2005 Grand Challenge offered an in-
creased prize of $2 million and a race over 212 kilometres of
the Nevada desert. Key entries included Stanley, entered by
Standard University; Highlander and Sandstorm, both en-
tered by Carnegie Mellon University; TerraMax, a 30,000
pound truck; and Ghost Rider, the only autonomous motor-
cycle in the race.

As in the first race, the desert conditions proved tough for
some of the vehicles, but despite this all but one of vehicles
were still running at the point Sandstorm failed the previ-
ous year.

The Stanford team eventually won the challenge, with Stan-
ley completing the course in just under 7 hours, followed
by Sandstorm and Highlander in 2nd and 3rd places. In
total five vehicles finished the course, though TerraMax
took almost 13 hours.

After the success of the desert challenge, in 2007 DARPA
hosted the next Grand Challenge-the Urban Challenge.
This required vehicles to negotiate a road course while fol-
lowing all traffic rules, avoiding other vehicles, obstacles,
and pedestrians. In all, six teams managed to complete the
course successfully.

Figure 16-16 Highlander (top) finished third in 2005; slow but
sure TerraMax (middle) finished 5th; the next challenge for the
winner Stanley (bottom) is the Urban Challenge.

Exercise 16-11
Imagine you were going to enter a vehicle into the DARPA Grand Challenge.
a) Describe three challenges robot designers might face when designing a driverless vehicle to compete in the Grand

Challenge. [6 marks]
b) Explain how each of these challenges mightbe solved. [6 marks]

Exercise 16-12
Research the red team (Highlander and Sandstorm) and the blue team (Stanley) from the 2005 Grand Challenge. Their
robots work in two fundamentally different ways. Explain how these approaches relate to the artificial intelligence
methods covered on page 338. [8 marks]

Chapter Review

Key Language expert system shell inference rule rules
expert system knowledge base searching
Artificial Intelligence feedback loop knowledge domain set theory
Artificial Intelligence fuzzy logic knowledge engineer speech recognition
Artificial Neural Network fuzzy set theory knowledge representation speech synthesisers
Boolean logic hand writing recognition logic training data
brute force searching heuristics machine learning Turing test
CAPTCHA IF-THEN rule machine translation user interface
chaining image analysis natural language processing
Chinese Room, the inference engine pattern recognition
common-sense knowledge
computational intelligence humidity sensor pressure sensor sirens
confidence interval infrared sensor proximity sensor sound sensor
lasers radar speakers
Robotics light sensor relays tracks
android lights robot wheels
autonomous magnetism sensor robotic arm
camera motors robotic fingers
clamps pH sensor sensors
claws
computer vision
heat sensor
humanoid

Exercise 16-13
Find something that you personally consider a piece of art. It can be any form (drawing, painting, writing, music) but
it must be human-created. Then find a machine-created piece of work (drawing, writing, music, etc.). This must be
created by a machine, not created by a human being using a machine (i.e. not a photo edited using graphics software).

Produce a short presentation which addresses the following questions
a) Why do you consider your 'human example' to be art?
b) Can a machine produce something that we can call'art'? If so, are there any limitations to this?
c) What if we don't know whether or not something was produced by a computer?
d) Are 'artificial artists' a good idea?

Exercise 16-14
The BEAR robot is a dual-purpose robot. It was originally designed to extract injured soldiers from the battlefield, but
civilian applications were also considered- such as helping elderly people.

a) Describe the challenges this robot might face. [4 marks]
b) Explain how the designers might solve them. [6 marks]

Exercise 16-15
Android robots are already being developed. Discuss the issues that occur when robots which resemble human
beings are built. [8 marks]

Exercise 16-16
Discuss whether it is appropriate to develop robots which will cause a clear negative impact, such as causing people to
lose their jobs. What, if anything, should society do for who lose their jobs because of robotic development? (8 marks]

Exercise 16-17 [2 marks]
(a) (i) Define the term natura/language processing. [4 marks]
[6 marks]
(ii) Describe two components of an expert system. [8 marks]

(b) Explain the benefits of using an expert system for medical diagnosis.

(c) Discuss whether machine translation tools are a viable alternative to human translators.

Exercise 16-18

Robot assisted surgery, using tools such as the Da Vinci Surgical System, is becoming more common.
Healthcare benefits include less invasive surgery and claimed shorter recovery times.

(a) (i) Define the term 'robot'. [2 marks]

(ii) Identify two input devices and two output devices used on the Da Vinci robot. [4 marks]

(b) Explain two applications of robots in healthcare other than for robotic surgery. [6 marks]

(c) One possibility the Da Vinci Surgical System offers is remote surgery- the idea that the surgeon and [8 marks]
the patient are in separate geographical locations- with the surgeon's input and the robot's feedback

being communicated over a network. Evaluate the benefits and concerns that this would cause.

Exercise 16-19

Robots are being increasingly used by the military to replace or augment human soldiers. Robotic
vehicles such as the Big Dog can carry large loads, while bomb disposal robots help keep soldiers out
of danger, and remote drones such as the Predator and Reaper can be piloted from thousands of kilo-
metres away.

(a) (i) Define the term 'haptic feedback' [2 marks]

(ii) Describe two approaches an autonomous vehicle might use to navigate a battlefield environment. [4 marks]

(b) Explain the concerns that might arise with the use of robots in a battlefield environment. [6 marks]

(c) Millions of dollars are spent on robotic development each year. To what extent is this an appropriate [8 marks]
way to spend such large amounts of money?

References

1 Mori, G. & Malik, J. (2002). Breaking a Visual CAPTCHA. Available: www.cs.sfu.ca/-mori/research/gimpy/. Last ac-

cessed April2011.

2 IBM. (2011). IBM Watson- The Science Behind an Answer. Available: http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/
what-is-watson/science-behind-an-answer.html. Last accessed Aug 2011.

3 Fleming, N. (2009). Smart CCTV learns to spot suspicious types. New Scientist. Available: www.newscientist.com/
article/mg20427385.800. Last accessed Aug 2011.

4 Kaufman, W. (2005). Electronic Brain Helps Cut Credit Card Fraud. National Public Radio. Available: www.npr.org/
templates/story/story.php?storyld=4758471. Last accessed Aug 2011.

5 BBC. (2007). Artificial examiners put to the test. Available: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6961088.stm. Last accessed
Aug2011.

6 Health and Safety Executive. (2010). Castle Bromwich firm fined after worker injured by robot. Available: http:/I

www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/coi-wm-10809.htm. Last accessed Nov 2011.



1-1 programme: Scheme in alpha testing: Initial testing Artificial Intelligence: Cre- camera data to read vehi-
which every student is of an IT system. 320 ating a system that pro- de number plates. 300
given their own laptop. duces results comparable automatic recalculation:
230 ALT attribute: HTML attrib- to human intelligence. 334 Spreadsheet feature that
ute that provides a text updates results when cells
30 modelling: 128, 285 description of images. 208 Artificial Neural Network: are changed. 51
3G: System to allow Internet AI system that attempts to autonomous: Robot which
alternative key: See second- mimic the neurons and operates without human
access using mobile phone ary key. synapses in the human intervention. 343
networks. 77 brain. 341 avatar: Representation of a
4G: System to allow Internet American Standard Code person in a virtual envi-
access using mobile phone for Information Inter- ASCII: See American Stand- ronrnent. 278
networks. 77 change: Encoding system ard Code for Information AVI: Lossy file format for
AAC: Lossy file format for to store text, where one Interchange. video. 132
audio. 132 byte is used for each char- B2B: See Business-to-
absolute cell reference: In a acter. Compare Unicode. ASP: See Active Server Pag- Business.
spreadsheet, a cell refer- 36 es. B2C: See Business-to-
ence which does not Consumer.
change when moved. 170, analog data: Data which can ASPX: See Active Server back-end: Database which
178, 182, 194 be measured. 25, 238 Pages. stores web site content
absolute link: HTML link to 'behind the scenes'. 204
a fully specified URL. 203 Analog to digital converter: . assistant: See wizard. backbone: High speed con-
acceptable use policy: Poli- Device for sampling ana- assumptions: 173 nections that connect main
cy that sets out what users log data and producing a asymmetric key encryption: Internet sites. 76
are and are not allowed to digital equivalent. 25, 238 backdoor: Method of by-
do with IT systems. 188, See public key encryption. passing security in a sys-
228 analyst: In project develop- asynchronous: Data transfer tern, built in by the system
acceptance testing: See user rnent, person who docu- designers. 97
acceptance testing. rnents the current system, method in which the send- backup: Spare copy of data
access levels: 94 finding its problems and er and receiver are not to be used in the event of
accessibility: Hardware and areas for improvement. synchronised. 83 an emergency. 49
software features to help 314 asynchronous learning: BAN: See Basel Action Net-
disabled users operate Learning which does not work.
computer systems. 29, 229 anchor: See internal link. require the teacher and bandwidth: Measure of a
accounting software: Appli- android: Robot designed to student to be online at the network's speed. 69
cation software for rnanag- same time. 220 banner ads: 211
ing finances. 54 look like a human, with ATM: 193 bar code scanners: Input
Active Server Pages: Tech- lifelike skin and other attributes: Component of an device that uses a laser to
nology used to create features. 344 Entity Relationship Dia- read a bar code. 22
dynamic web pages. 204 ANPR: See Automatic Nurn- grarn.318 Basel Action Network: En-
Active Server Pages Extend- ber Plate Recognition. audio software: Application vironrnental campaign
ed: See Active Server Pag- anti-plagiarism software: software for creating, group. 247
es. 204 Software to detect plagia- recording, and editing Basel Convention, The:
ad blockers: Software to rised work by searching sound. 52 Environmental agreement
block adverts in web pag- the Internet and previous audit trails: Record of aII regarding e-waste. 248
es.212 work samples. 228 changes and actions per- battlefield network: Large
adaptive maintenance: 322 anti-virus: Software to de- formed with a system, for scale network gathering
ADC: See analog to digital teet and remove viruses security purposes. 71, 161 inforrna tion from soldiers,
converter. and other malware. 96 auditing: See audit trails. vehicles, and maps to
addiction: 267, 278 Apache: Well known web augmented reality: Overlap- provide an overall view of
agile development: Devel- server software. 209 ping layers of computer the battlefield. 304
oprnent method that fo- apple!: Java program which data with images of the beta tester: See beta testing.
cuses on creating small, runs inside a web page. real world. 280, 303 beta testing: Testing of an IT
working parts of a project 204 authentication: Establishing system once all features
at regular intervals. 324 application server: Cornput- a user's identity. 4, 90 have been added and only
AI: See Artificial Intelli- er that stores application authentication server: Corn- bugs need to be worked
gence. software for clients on a puter that checks out. 320
alignment: Tools to control network. 68 usernarnes and passwords biometric enrolment: Pro-
placement of objects in application software: Soft- when a user tries to log in. cess of registering a user
presentation or DTP soft- ware which allows users 68
ware.136 to produce work, such as authorised access: User who
documents and presenta- has permission to use a
tions. 50 system. 68
application suite: Collection Automatic Number Plate
of application programs Recognition: Software
that perform related tasks, which processes video
sold together. 50

for a biometric system by yes or no, true or false. 335 between a business and continuous cells. 182
taking an initial sample. 92 Boolean operators: AND, their customers, for exam- cell reference: In spread-
biometric template: Meas- pie, online shopping. 201
urements taken from a OR, and NOT operators byte: Storage unit: 8 bits. sheets, a combination of
biometric sample. 92 used in a query. 150 Enough to store a single row number and column
biometrics: Use of finger- botnet: Group of zombie ASCII text character. 37 letter to refer to a single
prints, retina scans, or computers under the con- C2C: See Consumer-to- cell (e.g. A2). 170, 178, 182,
other body features as an trol of a criminal. 98 Consumer. 194
authentication mecha- bounce rate: Percentage of Central Processing Unit:
nism. 91,274,293 users who visit a web site cable: See DSL I cable. Hardware responsible for
bit: A single binary digit (a 1 but immediately leave it. processing all instructions
or a 0). The smallest unit 212 cache: Storage area for fre- the computer runs. 30
of storage inside a com- bps: bits per second. 77 quently used information, centralised database: data-
puter. 37 Braille keyboard: Special to speed up access. 73 base in which all data in
bit depth: Refers to the keyboard designed for stored in one centralised
number of colours in an users with eyesight prob- CAD: See Computer Aided location. 256
image.122 !ems. 29 Design. centralised processing:
bit rate: Amount of data Braille printer: Special Single computer with
used to represent a single printer that can produce camera: Common input multiple processors work-
sample in a video or audio Braille text. 29 device in robotics. 345 ing on a task. 176, 267
file. 114 breadcrumb trails: Feature Certificate Authority: Or-
bitmap graphics: Graphics of a web site to help user Capability Maturity Model ganisation that issues
composed of rectangular navigation. 206 Integration: Quality assur- digital certificates to indi-
grids of pixels. 116 broadband: High speed ance method that de- viduals and companies.
black boxes: Closed system network connection. 77 scribes an organisation's 108
whose internal operation browser: Software used to level of maturity. 321 CFD: Computational Fluid
cannot be inspected. 291 view web pages. 52 Dynamics. A technique
black list: List of banned browser compatibility: 205 CAPTCHA: System de- used to model airflow in
web sites in a filtering brute force attack: Attempt signed to create text that is computer models. 167
system. 291 to break a password by unreadable to a computer CGI: See Computer Gener-
blade servers: Servers trying all possible combi- but understandable to a ated Imagery.
housed on individual nations of letters, num- person, to reduce spam. chaining: Use of logical
circuit boards in a modu- bers, and symbols. 94 103,333 statements to come to a
lar system. 243 brute force searching: See conclusion. 336
blended learning: Mix of searching. car crash model: Used to changeover: Moving from
traditional teaching tech- buffer: Temporary storage predict the results of car an old system to a new IT
niques and e-learning area used to store video or crashes. 167 system. 322
techniques. 220 audio data ready for play- character check: Ensuring a
blog: Web page where en- ing.134 cardinality: Property of a field contains only the
tries are stored chronolog- bug: Error or mistake in a relationship in an Entity specified character types.
ically, like a diary or jour- program. 62, 320 Relationship Diagram. 318 156
nal. 85 bug tracking system: Used check digit: Way of check-
blue screen: Technique used to track and manage bugs Carpel Tunnel Syndrome: ing mathematically if a
to replace part of a video in a piece of software. 320 Injury caused by overuse item of data has been cor-
image with computer bulk email: See spam. or incorrect use of a com- rectly entered. 156
graphics. 134 business case: Analysis of puter: 252 Children's Internet Protec-
Bluetooth: Short range, low the benefits and problems tion Act: US law requiring
bandwidth wireless tech- of a proposed IT project. Cascading Style Sheets: Internet filtering in US
nology often used for 314 Technology to specify most schools and libraries.
mobile phone headsets or Business Software Alliance: styling and formatting 226,292
earphones. 16, 77 Organisation that works to information for web pag- Chinese Room, the:
Blu-ray: Optical secondary reduce illegal copying of es.202 Thought experiment deal-
storage device capable of software. 58 ing with the idea of
storing 16GB+. 33 Business-to-Business: E- CAVE: See Cave Automated knowledge. 334
BMP: Lossless file format for commerce conducted Virtual Environment. chip and pin: Systems de-
audio. 132 between two businesses, signed to reduce credit
Boolean logic: Logic in such as a business and Cave Automated Virtual card fraud by requiring
which clauses can have their suppliers. 201 Environment: Form of the user to authenticate
one of two states - such as Business-to-Consumer: E- virtual reality which pro- themselves at the point of
commerce conducted jects images on the walls sale. 193
surrounding a user. 278

CD-ROM: Optical second-
ary storage device capable
of holding 650-700MB of
data. 33

cell format: In spreadsheets,
the properties of a cell
such as its colour, font,
and cell type. 182

cell range: In spreadsheets,
reference to a range of

- Glossary

CIPA: See Children's Inter- ACM and the BCS. 327 humans do. 334 continuous data: See analog
net Protection Act. collaborative software: Computer Aided Design: data.

ciphertext: Result of en- Application software to let Technical graphics soft- convergence: Idea that one
crypting plaintext. 106 users work together on ware used to design prod- device performs the same
projects even if they are ucts for manufacture. 128 functions as many sepa-
citation: Acknowledge to a geographically remote. Computer Generated Im- rate devices. 18
piece of work used as a 190 agery: Graphics created
source. 114 colour balance: Graphics entirely on a computer, conversion rate: Percentage
filtering for altering the using 2D or 3D graphics of visitors who visit a site
citizen journalism: News tones and intensities of software. 117 and then make a purchase.
reporting by everyday colours in an image. 117 computer matching: See 202
citizens using mobile tech- colour depth: See bit depth. data matching.
nology, rather than tradi- colour levels: Graphics fil- Computer Misuse Act: UK cookies: Small text file text
tiona! media. 282 tering for altering the law governing criminal by some web sites to rec-
tones and intensities of offences committed using ognise the user when they
clamps: Common output colours in an image. 117 a computer. 99 return. 207
device in robotics. 346 colour management: See computer model: Mathe-
colour synchronisation. matical representation of copyright: Law protecting
claws: Common output colour profile: Used as part the real world using com- intellectual property from
device in robotics. 346 of colour synchronisation puter software. 166, 252 unauthorised copying. 55,
to specify how a device computer simulation: Based 58, 135
Click Through Rate: Per- represents colour. 137 on computer models,
centage of users who click colour synchronisation: gives users experience of copyright infringement:
on an advert after seeing Ensuring printed output events such as flying a Illegally copying or dis-
it. 212 colours accurately match plane. 180 tributing copyrighted
those on the screen. 137 computer vision: Tech- material. 275
client (person): Person or Comma Separated Values: niques to let computers
organisation who comrnis- File format for transferring and robots see and under- corrective maintenance: 322
sions an IT project. 313 data, which stores fields stand the world around Cost Per Click: Amount
and records in a plain text them. 345
client (computer): Comput- file. 152 concept keyboard: Key- paid to the advertising
er on a network that uses command line interface: board with keys that per- company when a user
services provided by a System the user controls form programmable, cus- clicks on an advert. 212
server.68 by typing in commands. tornised functions. 19 CP: See Critical Path.
44 concurrent licence: Software CPC: See Cost Per Click.
client-server: Network sys- commercial software: Soft- licence that allows a spe- CPU: See Central Processing
tern that uses servers to ware which is sold for cific number of copies to Unit.
store data centrally and profit. 55 be used at one time. 58 cracking: See hacking.
client computers to access CompactFlash: Solid state confidence interval: Level of Creative Commons: Licens-
them. 68 storage device usually certainty in an answer a ing system for authors
used in digital cameras. 34 pattern recognition system who wish to distribute
climate model: Used to compatibility: Idea that two provides. 339 their work freely. 135
predict possible future systems work together consistency check: Valida- Critical Path: Longest
climate change. 168 and can share hardware, tion check in which two (slowest) path through a
software, or data. 44 fields' values are mutually project's development, as
clinical decision support dependent. 156 determined by using a
system: Expert system for composite image: Image constraints: Limitations PERT chart. 315
medical diagnosis. which was created from within which an IT system cropping: Taking a small
several separate images. must work. 314 part (subset) of an image.
clock speed: Speed of a 117 Consumer-to-Consumer: E- 116
processor, in ticks per commerce where custom- cross-platform: Hardware
second. 30 composite key: Primary key ers deal directly with each or software that works on
which consists of more other, such as in online multiple operating sys-
cloning: Image effect used to than one field. 145 auction.201 terns. 44
copy one part of an image content rating: System CRT monitor: Output de-
to another. 116 compression: Reduction in whereby web site content vice. Older type of moni-
the amount of data used to is categorised so that fil- tor, now almost obsolete.
Closed Circuit Television store a file. 124 ters can block it if neces- 27,245
cameras:300 sary. 292 CSS: See Cascading Style
computational intelligence: Sheets.
closed source: Software Approach that tries to CSV: See Comma Separated
whose source code is not create systems that think Values.
publicly available. 56 and learn in the same way CTR: See Click Through
Rate.
cloud computing: System CTS: See Carpel Tunnel
whereby application soft-
ware and data are stored
on a remote Internet serv-
er.58

CMMI: See Capability Ma-
turity Model Integration.

codes of conduct: Profes-
sional guidelines created
by bodies such as the

Glossary ]

Syndrome. data structure: Description Flooding a computer sys- digital data: Data which can
Custom I bespoke software: of the data which will be tern with data so that it be counted. 25, 237
stored in an IT system. 317 cannot respond to genuine
Software created specific users. 98, 305 digital divide: The gap be-
for an individual or organ- data subject: The person deployment: Stage in the tween those who have
isation. 311 about whom data is SDLC where the system is access to IT and those who
cyber-bullying: Use of IT stored. 17 deployed at the client's do not. 245
such as social networks to site. 322
harass or bully individu- data synchronisation: Ex- Design stage: Stage in the digital effects: Effects ap-
als. 230 changing data between a SDLC where the new sys- plied to digital images,
cyber-terrorism: Using com- computer and a portable tern is planned and de- video, or audio. 117
puter hacking techniques device such as a smart signed.
to commit acts of terror- phone.16 deskilling: Reduction in the digital footprint: An indi-
ism. 305 skill needed to do a job, vidual's effect on the envi-
cyber-warfare: Using com- data throughput: Rate at due to technology: 193 ronrnent due toe-waste.
puter hacking techniques which data is processed desktop computer: Typical 234
to commit acts of war. 305 and output by a system. 14 computer system with a
cybernetics: Integration of separate screen and sys- Digital Millennium Copy-
IT into the human body. data types: Format of data in tern unit.15 right Act: Law regarding
252 a field, such as text, num- desktop publishing soft- intellectual property and
data centres: Large ware- ber, or date. 145 ware: Application soft- copyright protection. 276,
houses of computers that ware used to lay out pages 290
host hundreds or thou- data user: Person who will for printed publications.
sands of gigabytes of data. have access to data in a 50, 136 digital radio: 282
242 database. 17 Development methodolo- digital restoration: Use of
data collection: Used to find gies: See project manage-
information about an ex- data warehouses: Vast data- ment methodology. technology to restore an-
isting system during the bases containing many development manager: In cient works of art. 284
development of a new gigabytes of data. 158 project development, per- Digital Rights Manage-
system. 314 son who oversees pro- ment: Software which
data entry form: Screen data-driven web sites: Web grammers as they create restricts the actions a user
used to input data into a site whose content is gen- the system specified in the can perform with a file,
database. erated from a database. design. 314 such as copying or print-
Data Flow Diagram: Shows 204 device drivers: Utility soft- ing. 58, 135, 276
processes in a system and ware used by the operat- digital signatures: Tech-
the flows of data between database administrator: ing system to communi- nique used to authenticate
them. 317 Person with overall re- cate with peripheral devic- remote users, such as
data integrity: 154 sponsibility for managing es.45 online shopping business-
data layers: Layers of infor- a database. 314 DFD: See Data Flow Dia- es. 108
mation added to a Geo- gram. digital television: 282
graphical Information Database Management DHCP: See Dynamic Host digital video cameras: Cam-
System. 239 System: Application soft- Control Protocol. era that saves digital vid-
data logging: Automatic ware used to create, enter, dialup: Internet access that eo:25
recording of data using edit, and retrieve data in a connects using a telephone digitisation: See digitise.
sensors.236 database. 144 line and a MODEM. 76 digitise: To convert data
data matching: Combining dictation software: See voice from analog to digital
several databases to build database server: Computer recognition software. form. 24, 133, 237, 284
up more information on a network that stores dictionary attack: Attempt direct changeover: Imrnedi-
about a person or set of data for other users to to break a password by ate removal of an old sys-
people.158 access. 68 trying all possible words. tern and complete replace-
data mining: Searching 94 ment with a new IT sys-
collections of data for database software: Applica- digital cameras: Camera tern. 322
hidden patterns. 158, 201 tion software for creating, that saves images digital- direct payment: E-
Data Protection Act: UK law recording, and finding ly, often in JPEG format. commerce payment using
that governs the collection large collections of data. 25 a debit or credit card. 199
and use of personal data. 51 digital certificates: Used to Direct Recording Electron-
159 authenticate a user, for ic: Voting machines where
data redundancy: Data in a DBMS: See Database Man- example a shop in an users cast votes by touch-
database which is need- agement System. online transaction. 199 ing a screen. 295
lessly duplicated. 146 discrete data: See digital
DDoS: See Distributed De- data.
nial of Service attack : disk wiping: Securing delet-
ing files from a disk, be-
Decision Support System: yond recovery. 35
Use of models or expert
systems to aid (business)
decision making process-
es. 168

Defragmentation: Process of
reducing disk fragmenta-
tion. 47

delivery: See deployment.
Denial of Service attack:

rr'' · glossary Management. Transfer. Records.
drone: See Unmanned Aeri- EHR: See Electronic Health emulator: Program that
Distributed Denial of Ser-
vice attack: Denial of ser- al Vehicle. Records. creates a simulation of
vice attack committed DSL I cable: Common type Electronic Data Inter- another computer's hard-
using dozens of comput- ware. 312
ers, usually zombies on a of broadband Internet change: Process of trans- encryption: System of en-
botnet. 98 connection. 76 ferring data between sys- coding plaintext so that it
DTP: See desktop publish- terns in a standard format cannot be understood with
distributed processing: Use ing software. that both can understand. access to an encryption
of multiple separate corn- dual core: A multi-core sys- 233,257 key. 106
puters working together tern with two processor Electronic Funds Transfer: encryption key: Used to
on a common task. 176 cores.31 Transfer of money from encrypt and decrypt data.
DVD: Optical secondary one account to another 106
DMCA: See Digital Millen- storage device capable of using computer systems end user licence agreement:
niurn Copyright Act. storing up to 8GB. 33 and networks. 193 Licence agreement for
Dvorak keyboards: Alterna- Electronic Health Records: software that sets out the
DNA database: 300 tive keyboard layout to Computerised medical users rights and responsi-
DNS: See Domain Name improve typing speed. 19 records, often stored on a bilities. 58
Dynamic Host Control centralised server. 256 end-user: Person who will
System. 292 Protocol: System that electronic ink: Technology use an IT project one it is
DNS poisoning: Technique automatically assigns IP used in e-book readers to finished. 313
addresses to computers on improve display quality. enterprise information
used by criminals to alter a network. 78 283 system: Software which
DNS records and drive dynamic web site: See data- Electronic Medical Records: provides business data
users to fake sites, to corn- driven web sites. See Electronic Health Rec- and analysis functions for
rnitting phishing. 105: 292 e-book: 225, 245, 283 ords.256 large organisations. 201
do not track: Initiative de- e-book reader: Portable electronic shopping cart: Entertainment Software
signed to stop tracking device used to download Feature of e-cornmerce Rating Board: Organisa-
cookies from recording and read e-books. 223 sites which contains items tion that provides content
user's web activity. 207 e-commerce: The techniques for later purchase. 198 ratings for computer
DOC: File format for docu- used to sell products electronic textbooks: E- games.279
rnents, used by Microsoft online. 198 books designed to replace entities: Component of an
Office. 137 e-leaming: Electronic learn- traditional paper text- Entity Relationship Dia-
Domain Name System: ing. The use of IT to teach books for teaching and gram.318
System for translating and learn. 220 learning. 225 entity relationship diagram:
domain names into IP e-marketing: The techniques electronic voting: Any use Shows the items of data
addresses. 82, 209 used to market produces of IT to count or cast votes stored in a system and the
domain names: Human online. 210 in an election. 295 relationships between
readable names given to e-passport: Passport with a electronic waste: Discarded them. 318
web sites, such as microchip containing electronic equipment. 244 equality of access: 29, 229,
www.itgstextbook.com. biometric features, and email: 210 251
82,209 RFID technology to trans- email monitoring: Techno!- ERD: See Entity Relation-
donation schemes: Schemes mit these to immigration ogy to monitor ernails sent ship Diagram.
set up to receive donations control. 293 and received, usually by ergonomics: Meaning a
of old computers for refur- e-petition: Online petitions, employees. 188 system design for user
bishing and reuse. 247 usually housed on govern- email server: Computer on a comfort. 266
DoS: See denial of service rnent web sites. 298 network that stores email eSATA: A modem type of
attack. e-prescriptions: Electronic for other users to access. connector for attaching
Dots Per Inch: Measure of prescriptions. 257 68 external hard disks. 39
the quality of a printer's e-store: Web page used for e embedded systems: Corn- ESRB: See Entertainment
output. 24, 127 -commerce. 198 puter system hidden in- Software Rating Board.
download: To transfer data e-waste: See electronic side another device, such Ethernet: Type of wired
from a server to a client waste. as a car engine manage- network connection corn-
computer. 66 EB: See Exabyte. rnent system. 18 rnonly used on LANs. 77
DPI: See dots per inch. EDI: See Electronic Data employee monitoring: Tech- EULA: See end user licence
ORE voting machine: See Interchange. nology used to monitor agreement.
Direct Recording Electron- edutainment: Entertainment the work of employees EV SSL: Extended Valida-
ic. software designed to have using a computer system. tion SSL. Digital certificate
Drive-by download: Pro- an educational aspect. 224 188 validation technique used
gram which automatically EFT: See Electronic Funds EMR: See Electronic Medical
downloads when a user
visits a web page, usually
without their knowledge
or consent. 98
DRM: See Digital Rights

on the world wide web. database. 145 116 function: Built in features of
109 field size: Validation tech- follow-the-sun working: spreadsheet software for
Exabyte: Storage unit: 1024 performing common cal-
petabytes. 37 nique. Number of charac- Work is passed to workers culations. 170, 178, 183,
expert system shell: Soft- ters that can be stored in a around the globe depend- 194
ware used to create expert field. 157 ing on the time of day in
systems. 335 file server: Computer on a any location. 190 functional requirements:
expert systems: Software network that stores files footer: Area of a document Specific features and func-
designed to make the for other users to access. which appears the same tions that a proposed IT
same decisions that a hu- 68 on every page. 136 system must have. 314
man expert would, in a File Transfer Protocol: Sys- foreign key: Database field
given knowledge domain. tern for transferring files whose sole purpose is to future warrior: See wired
260,335 over the Internet, often form part of a relationship soldier.
external hard disk: Portable used for uploading web with another table. 148
storage device often used sites. 84, 209 forms: See data entry form. fuzzy logic: Logic in which
for backups. 33 filter (Internet): Software 152 items can have multiple
external link: HTML link which blocks some Inter- formula: In spreadsheets, a values. Used in AI. 337
which points to a separate, net content, based on a combination of cell refer-
external web site. 203 series of rules or lists of ences and mathematical fuzzy set theory: System in
extranei: Content on a LAN content. 188,228,290 operations. 170, 178, 182, which items can be partial
which is available to au- filters (graphics): See digital 194 or complete members of a
thorised third parties. 193 effects. forums: Online areas where set. Used in AI. 337
eye tracking software: Ac- firewall: Hardware or soft- users can post messages to
cessibility software that ware that controls access each other. 220 game controllers: Input
tracks where a user is to a network. 44, 73, 292 fragmentation: Problem that device with buttons used
looking on the screen. 29 firewire: Interface for attach- occurs as files are saved on for games playing. 21
failover system: See Redun- ing external hard disks non-contiguous sectors on
dant system. 15 and digital video cameras. a disk. 47 Gantt chart: Used to chart
fair use: Exceptions to copy- 39 free and open source soft- the stages of a planned IT
right law that allow copy- first party cookie: Cookie ware: Software whose project and the people
ing in certain limited cir- left by a web site the user source code is freely avail- responsible for each stage.
cumstances. 135 directly visited. 207 able and can be changed 315
false negative: When a sys- FLAC: Lossless file format and distributed. 55, 297
tern incorrectly rejects an for audio. 132 freeware: Software which is gateway: Computer which
action instead of accepting Flash: Technology often distributed for no cost. 55 acts as a bridge between a
it. 91, 226, 292 used to create interactive Frequently Asked Ques- local area network and the
false positive: When a sys- web pages. 204 lions: List of questions Internet. 69
tern incorrectly accepts an flash memory/flash drive: and answers often found
action instead of rejecting See solid state storage. in manuals and help GB: See Gigabyte.
it. 92, 226, 291 flat classrooms: Use of IT to screens. 61, 320 Gbps: Gigabits per second.
feasibility study: Exarnina- connect classrooms with FTP: See File Transfer Proto-
tion of a proposed system other classrooms around col. Measure of network band-
to see if its creation is the world: 222 full backup: Backup that width. 77
possible. 314 flat file database: Database copies all data from a Geographical Information
Federation Against Soft- which consists of just one system. 49 System: Mapping system
ware Theft: Organisation table. 146 full body scanners: Security with layers of additional
that works to reduce ille- fleet management: Software system used at airports to data for analysis and plan-
gal copying of software. 58 to track and manage fleets produce a digital image of ning. 239
feedback loop: Use of previ- of vehicles, including passengers 'without geotagged: Item of data
ous answers (right or route planning and data clothes'. 216 (usually an image) with
wrong) to improve the analysis functions. 216 full disk encryption: System GPS coordinates embed-
decision making process fleet tracking: Software to that encrypts all data ded. 241
next time. 173, 330 display the location of saved to a hard disk auto- GHz: See gigahertz.
fibre optic: Types of net- vehicles, such as trucks or rnatically and transparent- GIF: Lossless file format for
work connection that taxis. 216 ly.109 images.132
offers extremely high flight simulator: Simulator full motion platform: Hard- Gigabyte: Storage unit: 1024
speed transfers. 76 hardware and software ware device which can megabytes. 12
field: Single item of data used to train pilots. 180 move in many directions gigahertz: Unit of measure-
about a single record in a flipping: Image effect found to increase the realism of ment for a processor's
in most graphics software. simulators. 180 clock speed. 1000 MHz. 30
GIS: See Geographical Infor-
mation System.
Global Climate Model: See
climate model.
Global Positioning System:
System of satellites which
can pinpoint a user's loca-
lion on the Earth to within

·._ Glossary

a few metres. 25, 216, 243, rnents to allow them to generally like a human- infrared sensor: Common
303 input data. 29 bipedal, upright, and input device in robotics.
GNU Free Documentation head wand: Accessibility arms, and a head. 344 345
License: Licensing system hardware that lets a user humidity sensor: Common
for authors who wish to input using a wand con- input device used in ro- inkjet printer: Printer that
distribute their work nected to their head. 29 botics. 346 works by spraying ink
freely. 135 header: Area of a document hyperlinks: 203 through nozzles at a sheet
goal seek: Spreadsheet tool which appears the same IDE (hardware): Interface of paper. 28
used to determine the on every page. 136 for attaching internal hard
required values to meet a heat sensor: Common input disks. 39 input: Data or information
certain goal. 185 device in robotics. 345 IDE (software): See Integral- that is entered into the
GPS: See Global Positioning heuristics: General rules for ed Development Environ- computer. 19
System. performing a task, used to rnent.
GPS receiver: See Global improve the perform of identity theft: Stealing per- input mask: Validation
Positioning System. searching algorithms in AI sonal data in order to technique. Ensures only
GPS satellite: See Global applications. 338 impersonate a person. 105 the specified characters
Positioning System. high contrast mode: Acces- IF-THEN rule: See inference can be entered into a field .
Graphical User Interface: sibility setting for users rule. 157
System the user controls with eyesight problems. 29 image editor: See graphics
using a mouse to click on High Definition Television: software. input switches: Accessibility
icons, buttons, and win- 282 implementation: Stage in hardware that lets a user
dows.44 high performance cornpu- the SDLC where the sys- input data by pressing a
graphics software: Applica- ting: High speed cornpu- tern is created simple on-off switch. 29
tion software for creating ting using multiple pro- (programmed). 320
and editing images. 52 cessors: 176 incident escalation: Moving installation: See deploy-
green screen: See blue horne automation: See smart a problem with an IT pro- rnent.
green. horne. ject to a higher level if it
grid computing: See distrib- horne directory: Directory cannot be solved. 323 Integrated Development
uted computing: 176, 267 that contains a users per- incident management sys- Environment: Software
GPS receiver: See Global sonal files. 94 tern: See incident tracking used to write and compile
Positioning System. horne network: Small local system. programs. 310
GUI: See Graphical User computer network used in incident tracking system:
Interface. homes. 68 Used to keep track of intellectual property: Crea-
hacking: Gaining illegal Horne Theatre PC: Cornput- problems and difficulties tions of the mind, such as
access to a computer sys- er with multimedia capa- encountered in an IT sys- stories, films, music, and
tern: 94 bilities designed specifical- tern. 323 computer programs. 55,
hand writing recognition: ly for watching television incremental backup: Back- 135,226
System to recognise hu- and films. 15, 283 up that copies only the
man writing and convert it host: See server. changed data since the last intelligent cars: See smart
to text. 339 HTML: HyperText Markup backup. 49 cars. 217
handover: Point at which Language. The standard index (databases): See sec-
the developers of a system language for creating web ondary key. interactive whiteboard:
formally pass it to the pages. 202 inference engine: Part of an Device that uses a projec-
client. 320 HTPC: See Horne Theatre expert system which tor for output and touch
hard copy: A printed paper PC. attempts to relate the users inputs, using a special
copy of data. 28 HTTP: HyperText Transfer input with knowledge pen.27,227
hard disk: Magnetic second- Protocol. The standard stored in the knowledge
ary storage device found protocol of the world wide base. 335 internal link: HTML link
in most desktop and lap- web. 82 inference rule: Rule used by which points to a different
top computers. 33 HTTPS: Secure version of the inference engine in an part of the same page. 203
hardware: Physical parts of HTTP which offers en- expert system to describe
a computer system. 14 crypted communication. the relationship between internal support: Support
hardware address: See MAC 82, 108, 199: key concepts. 336 for an IT system provided
address. hub: Hardware device for information system (IS) within an organisation.
HDTV: See High Definition connecting several corn- managers: Person respon- 323
Television. pulers on a network. 69 sible for all IT purchases,
head control systems: Ac- Human Genome Project: deployments, and systems Internet: 193
cessibility software that 264 within an organisation. Internet monitoring: Tech-
tracks a users head move- humanoid: Robot designed 314
nology to monitor Internet
data sent and received,
usually by employees. 188
Internet Protocol: Standard
protocol used on many
LANs and on the Internet.
SeeTCP. 78
Internet Service Provider:
Company that provides
Internet access to homes
and businesses. 69, 209
Internet voting: See online
voting.

Glossary -

Internet Watch Foundation: key logger. which is flat. 27, 245 duce file size. 126
Organisation that works keyword density: Frequent- legacy system: System loyalty card: 194
with British ISPs to block m-commerce: See mobile
access to illegal content on ly with which key words which runs on obsolete
the Internet. 291 appear in a web page. 210 hardware or has been commerce.
keyword filter: Filter that discontinued by its manu- m-leaming: Mobile learn-
intranet: Content on a LAN blocks web pages contain- facturer. 310
which is only available to ing specified key words. length check: See field size. ing. Use of mobile devices
members of an organisa- 291 Lidar: Remote imaging to teach and learn. 221
tion. 193 keyword prominence: Loca- method used by satellites. MAC address: Unique ad-
tions within a web page 238 dress embedded in net-
IP address: Unique address that key words appear. life cycle (hardware): Stages work connected devices.
assigned to every comput- 210 an item of hardware goes 78
er on a network. 78, 291 keyword spamming: Over- through, from manufac- machine learning: Tech-
use of key words in a web ture to disposal. 242 nique for making a com-
IPTV: Internet Protocol page in an attempt to in- light sensor: Common input puter produce better re-
Television. 283 crease search engine rank- device in robotics. 345 suits by learning from past
ing. 210 lights: Common output experiences. 330
IrDA: Short range, low Kilobyte: Storage unit: 1024 device in robotics. 346 machine translation: Tech-
bandwidth, line-of-sight bytes: 37 link farm: Service that links nique for automatically
wireless communication knowledge base: Area of an many pages to each other translating one human
technology. 16 expert system where all in an attempt to increase language into another. 339
facts about the knowledge search engine ranking. 211 macro: In application soft-
ISP: See Internet Service domain are stored. 335 load testing: Testing of an IT ware, a set of actions
Provider. knowledge discovery: See system with the amount of which are recorded so
data mining. work it can be expected to they can be played back
IWF: See Internet Watch knowledge domain: Area of process in real world con- later. 192
Foundation. knowledge in which an ditions. 316 macro virus: Virus that takes
expert system specialises. Local Area Network: Com- advantage of the macro
Java: Programming lan- 335 puter network in a small programming languages
guage often used to create knowledge engineer: Pro- area such as an office built into some software.
interactive web pages. 204 grammer responsible for building. 69 96,193
entering expert knowledge location based service: Any Magnetic Ink Character
JavaScript: Scripting Ian- into an expert system. 335 service (e.g. web page Recognition: Input device
guage often used to create knowledge representation: content) which varies that reads text written in
interactive web pages. 204 Different techniques for according to the user's special magnetic ink. Of-
representing concepts and location. 241 ten used at the bottom of
joystick: Input device used their relationships inside a log file: Chronological rec- cheques. 24
for games playing and computer system. 340 ord of events, used for magnetic storage: Type of
flight simulators. 21 LAN: See Local Area Net- reporting purposes and secondary storage that
work. audit trails. 71 users magnets to read and
JPG: Lossy file format for laptop: Portable computers logic: See Boolean logic. store data. Examples in-
images.132 that come in many shapes login: Process of authenti- elude floppy disks and
and sizes. 15, 230 eating oneself before using hard disks. 32
KB: See kilobyte. laser imaging: Technique a computer system. 68 magnetic stripe readers:
Kbps: Kilobits per second. used by satellites to image lookup: Feature of spread- Input device that reads the
the Earth. sheet and database soft- magnetic stripe on cards
Measure of network band- laser printer: High speed ware to retrieve data from like ATM cards and bank
width. 77 printer. 28 other fields. 183 cards. 22
Kensington lock: Special laser scanning: Technique lossless compression: Com- magnetism sensor: Com-
lock for securing portable used to build 3D computer pression technique in mon input device in robot-
devices to immovable models of real world loca- which the original file is ics. 346
objects to prevent theft. 16 tions. 284 completely recoverable, mail merge: Automatically
key escrow: Idea of having lasers: Common input de- with no loss of quality. customising a standard
encryption keys stored by vice in robotics. 345 Compare lossy compres- letter with individual
a third party company so layer: Feature of graphics sion. 124 names and addresses. 50,
the government can access and multimedia software. lossy compression: Com- 192
themifneeded. 110 117 pression technique in mainframe: High end com-
key field: See primary key. LCD screen: Output device. which some file data is puter system that achieves
key logger: Software or The newer type of monitor sacrificed in order to re- very high data through-
hardware which records put.14
all key strokes on a com-
puter system. 94
key pair: A public key and
private key that work
together in a public en-
cryption system. 107
keyboard: Input device that
lets the user enter text and
numeric data. 19
keystroke monitoring: See

maintenance: Alterations microphone: Input device devices which are moved tasks by switching rapidly
made to a system after it for sound data. 21 through the air to control a between them. 30
has been formally handed computer system. 225 myoelectric control: Control
over. 322 microprocessor: See Central Motion Picture Association of IT using electrical im-
Processing Unit. of America: Film industry pulses from the body. 259
malware: Generic name for group that works tore- MySQL: Database system
malicious software. 96 microwave: Networking duce illegal copying of often used by data driven
technology for medium to films. 276 web sites. 204
MAN: See Metropolitan long range wireless com- motors: Common output narrowband: Low speed
Area Network. munication. device in robotics. 346 network connection. 77
mouse: Input device used to native resolution: Resolu-
Massively Multiplayer MIDI: Musical Instrument control a cursor or pointer. tion of an LCD display
Online Game: Games Digital Interface. System 19 that produces the best
played by connecting to a for communication be- MOV: Lossy file format for display quality. 27
central server and interact- tween musical hardware video.132 natural language pro-
ing with other players in a and software applications. MP3: Lossy file format for cessing: Techniques for
virtual world. 278 133 audio.132 processing human ian-
MP4: Lossy file format for guages to enable a com-
Massively Multiplayer milestones: Key points dur- video. 132 puler to understand their
Online Role Playing ing project development, MPAA: See Motion Picture meaning. 333
Game: See Massively such as the completion of Association of America. netbook: Lightweight lap-
Multiplayer Online Game. a stage. 315 MPEG: Lossy file format for top computer designed for
video. 132 portability. 16
master page: In DTP, a page MIPS: See Millions of In- multi-core: Processor with network administrator:
whose contents is applied structions Per Second. more than one processor Individual responsible for
to all pages in a publica- core, to increase its perfor- maintaining and running a
tion. 136 mission creep: When the mance. 30 network. 71, 314
use of an IT system ex- multi-factor authentication: network manager: See net-
MB: See megabyte. tends beyond its original Use of several authentica- work administrator.
mbps: Megabits per second. purpose. 293 tion techniques together, neural control: Control of IT
such as passwords and using electrical impulses
Measure of network band- mixed reality: Combination security tokens. 90 from the brain. 259
width. 77 of virtual reality and real multi-touch: Input device neural networks: See Artifi-
MDI: See Menu Driven life training. 302 able to recognise touches cia! Neural Network.
Interface. and gestures made with news aggregator: Software
medical expert system: MMC: Solid state secondary multiple fingers. 21 which fetches news head-
Expert system for medical storage device, often used multi-user licence: Software lines from a variety of
diagnosis support. 257 for digital cameras. 34 licence that allows a spe- sources for display in one
Megabyte: Storage unit: cific number of copies to location. 281
1024 kilobytes: 37 MMOG: See Massively be used at one time. 58 newsletter: 210
megahertz: Unit of measure- Multiplayer Online Game. multimedia: Use of images, non-functional require-
ment for a processor's audio, text, and video data ments: Conditions that a
clock speed. 30 MMORPG: See Massively together. 221 proposed IT system must
megapixel: Refers to 1 mil- Multiplayer Online Role multimedia keyboard: Key- meet, such as working on
lion pixels. 122 Playing Game. board with buttons to certain hardware or giving
Menu Driven Interface: perform common tasks results within a certain
Interface that presents a mobile commerce: Use of such as program launch- time. 314
series of pre-defined op- mobile phones to conduct ing.19 non-volatile storage: Stor-
tions to the user. 42 online purchases. 199 multimedia software: Ap- age which does not lose its
meta tags: HTML tags to plication software for contents when the power
add additional infor- MODEM: Device for con- creating and editing is removed. 32
mation about a web page necting a computer to a presentations, animations, normalisation: Process of
and its content. 210 telephone line, used in and video. 53 converting a database
Metropolitan Area Net- dialup connections. 76 multiprocessing: A system from a flat file database to
work: Computer network with more than one pro- a relational database. 147
over a large area such as a monitoring: See employee cessor, to increase its per- object oriented graphics:
city. 74 monitoring. 188 formance. 14 See vector graphics.
MHz: See megahertz. multitasking: A single pro- OCR: See Optical Character
MICR: See Magnetic Ink morphing: Effect that trans- cessor running multiple Recognition.
Character Recognition. forms one image into an-
micro-payments: Online other over a series of
payments, generally less frames. 134
than $100. 295
microblog: Blog-like system motherboard: The circuit
which limited post length, board to which the inter-
such as Twitter. 85 nal computer components
connect: the CPU, the
RAM, the ROM, and the
secondary storage devices.
30

motion capture: System to
digitise the movements of
an actor. 130

motion controllers: Input

Glossary -~

ODT: File format for docu- cide not to participate. 160, multiple processors. 176 from a single computer. 73
ments, based on an open 257 parallel running: Running Personal Health Record:
standard. 137 Optical Character Recogni-
tion: Input device that the old system and the Electronic health records
off-the-shelf software: Soft- reads printed text, scans it, new system side by side. which are stored on the
ware which is widely and converts it to text that 322 patient's own computer
available for general pur- can be edited in a word parameter query: Database system. 256
chase. Compare custom I processor. 24 query whose criteria are personally identifiable data:
bespoke software. 53, 310 optical fibre: See fibre optic. decided by the user at run- See personal data.
Optical Mark Recognition: time.150 PERT chart: Charting sys-
OMR: See Optical Mark Input devices that reads passphrase: See password. tern to show the inter-
Recognition. simple multiple-choice password: Word or phrase dependencies in projects.
style answers by looking used to authenticate a 315
one time password: Pass- for marks on the paper. 24 user.90 Petabyte: Storage unit: 1024
word generated by a secu- optical scanning electronic pattern recognition: Com- terabytes: 37
rity token, which expires voting system: Voting putational Intelligence pH sensor: Common input
as soon as it is used. 90 machines which count technique where comput- device in robotics. 346
paper ballots cast by vot- ers are trained on exam- pharming: See DNS Poison-
online advertising: 211 ers. 295 pies and learn to recognise ing.
online banking: Use of the optical storage: Storage similarities between them. phase out: Gradually re-
devices which use lasers to 339 moving an old IT system
Internet to perform tasks store and read data. Exam- payment gateway: Compa- from use. 323
such as bill payment, pies include CDs and ny that handles Internet phased changeover: One
money transfers and other DVDs.33 payments for customers part of an organisation
banking tasks. 193 organisational IT policies: and businesses. 199 switches to a new IT sys-
online encyclopaedias: Web Policies governing the paywall: System to prevent tern to test it, while others
site containing a large appropriate use of IT, data access to a web site's con- remain using the old sys-
number of articles for integrity, security proce- tent unless the user pays a tern. 322
research purposes. 144 dures, and other aspects of subscription fee. 281 phishing: Use of fake emails
online lessons: 320 IT use with an organisa- PB: See petabyte. and web sites to trick us-
online mapping: 239 tion. 314 PDA: See Personal Digital ers into revealing sensitive
online reputation: User's output: Information which Assistant. data. 104
rating based on comments is produced by a computer PDF: See Portable Document PHP: Technology used to
and reviews made by system. 27 Format. create dynamic web pages.
other users of a system. outputs: In system develop- peer to peer: Network in 204
201 ment, a section of a re- which all computers are PHR: See Personal Health
online voting: Casting votes quirements specification: equal and there are no Record.
over the Internet. 295 317 centralised servers. 72, 275 physical security: Locks,
onscreen keyboard: See soft P2P: See Peer to peer. PEGI: See Pan European alarms, and other tech-
keyboard. package tracking: Use of Game Information. niques used to securely a
open courseware: Educa- RFID and a web site to perfective maintenance: 322 building or computer
tiona! material which is show customers the loca- Personal Area Network: room.111
released for free use and tion of packages awaiting Short range network be- piracy: Copyright infringe-
distribution. 223 delivery. 217 tween a computer and a ment.
open government: Use of IT packet sniffer: Software or mobile phone or similar pixel: Individual dots which
to publish data about hardware used to collect portable device. 74 make up bitmap graphics.
government operations, data travelling over a personal data: Data which 116
improving transparency. network. 94 could identify a user, or pixels per inch: Number of
298 pages per minute: Speed at lead to social impacts such pixels displayed in each
open source: See free and which a printer produces as identity theft. inch of screen output. 127
open source. output. Personal Digital Assistant: plagiarism: Use of another
open textbooks: See open PAN: See Personal Area Mobile device bigger than user's work without prop-
courseware. Network. a phone but smaller than a er credit or citation being
operating systems: Software Pan European Game Infor- laptop. Probably has a given. 226
that manages the comput- mation: Organisation that keyboard or at least a plain text file: See text file.
er system, controls the provides content ratings stylus (pen) and a touch- plaintext: Message before it
hardware, and provides a for computer games. 279 screen. 16 is encrypted, or after it has
user interface. 44 parallel processing: High personal firewall: Software been decrypted. 106
opt-in: System in which speed computing using application that controls planned obsolescence: Idea
users must explicitly de- network access to and that IT equipment is de-
cide to participate. 160,
257
opt-out: System in which
users must explicitly de-

~ Glossary
0

signed to have a short life plication software for profile privacy settings: Recording Electronic:
expectancy before failing creating slides used for Settings in social networks Voting machines where
or becoming obsolete. 245 lectures, presentations, and other systems to con- users cast votes over a
platform: A particular com- and lessons. 50 trol how a user's data is network like the Internet.
bination of hardware and pressure sensor: Common shared with others. 230 295
operating system. 44 input device used in ro- push technology: System
plugins: Software added to botics. 346 programmer: Person who which notifies users of
web browsers to extend preventative maintenance: creates software. 314 changes to web pages
their functionality. 204 322 without them having to
PMBoK: Project Manage- price comparison sites: Sites project goals: Clear state- visit the page. 85
ment Body of Knowledge. which aggregate price ment of the intentions of a quad-core: A multi-core
A project management data from a variety of proposed IT project. 313 system with four proces-
methodology. 326 sources to offer customers sor cores. 31
PNDRE: See Public Net- the best deal. 215 project initiation document: quality assurance methods:
work Direct Recording primary key: Field which Document used in In project development,
Electronic. contains a different value PRINCE2 to describe the used to ensure the whole
PNG: Lossless file format for for every record in that key features of an IT pro- development team are
images.132 table. 145 ject. 308 following standardised
podcast: Sound files record- primary storage: Storage best practises. 320
ed and uploaded to a web systems which are found project management meth- quality control processes:
server, usually in episodic inside the computer and odology: Systems and Processes to ensure code
format. 222 are electronic. RAM and techniques designed to produced by program-
Point of Sale: Checkout ROM are examples. 32 encourage successful pro- mers followed accepted
system in a shop, usually PRINCE2: PRojects IN Con- jects and avoid project best practices. 320
connected to a store data- trolled Environments 2. A failure. 315 queries: Method of extract-
base and EFT system. 194 project management meth- ing data from a database
pop-ups: Windows that odology. 327 project management soft- that matches specific crite-
open up while browsing a print server: Computer on a ware: Software to help ria: 150
web site, usually contain- network that receives and plan, manage, and guide radar: Remote imaging
ing adverts. 211 processes print requests. the process of IT project method used by satellites,
port: Number used to deter- 68 development. 315 and input device used by
mine the type of service printers: Output device robots. 238, 345
required when a computer which produces paper project manager: Person Radio Frequency Identifica-
connects to another. 79 copies. 28 with overall responsibility tion: System of tags which
Portable Document Format: privacy policy: Policy gov- for an IT project. 315 contain data that can be
Common file format for erning what data a compa- read from a distance using
the exchange of docu- ny or web site will collect project plan: Clear defini- radio waves. 25, 194, 216,
ments.137 about you and how it will tion of the goals, scope, 274,293
POS: See Point of Sale. be used.160 and schedule of a pro- radio tag: Tags which broad-
power consumption: 242 private key: Key used for posed IT project. 315 cast their position over a
power settings: 242 decryption in a public key large distance using radio
PPI: See Pixels per inch. encryption system. 107 projector: Output device for waves. 25
PPT: File format used by processes: In system devel- displaying content on RAID: See Redundant Array
Microsoft's PowerPoint opment, a section of a large screens. 27, 229 of Inexpensive Disks.
presentation software. requirements specifica- RAM: See Random Access
precision guided weapons: tion. 317 prosthetics: 259 Memory.
Weapons that use IT to processor: See Central Pro- protocols: A standard set of Random Access Memory:
improve their accuracy or cessing Unit. Primary storage which is
effectiveness. 304 procurement: In system rules for performing tasks, fast, relatively expensive,
prediction: Output of a development, the act of such as communication. 78 and volatile. 32
computer model. 166 acquiring required re- prototype interface: Early range check: Validation
predictive text: System that sources. 327 version of a user interface technique. Ensures a field
predicts the word being product activation: Process to get feedback about its is between a certain range
typed based on the letters of registering software effectiveness. 319, 320 of values. 156
already typed. 230 online before it can be proximity sensor: Common ranking of sites: Performed
presence check: Validation used, to reduce illegal input device in robotics. by search engines to pro-
technique. Requires a field copies. 58 345 duce their results page
to be completed. 156 productivity software: See proxy server: Computer on a listings. 211
presentation software: Ap- application software. network which acts on raster graphics: See bitmap
behalf of another, or
through which all Internet
data must pass. 73
public domain: Software to
which the author has
waived all rights. 55
public key: Key used for
encryption in a public key
encryption system. 107
Public Network Direct

Glossary : -~

graphics. referrer: Site that directed and non-functional re- RSI: See Repetitive Strain
RDBMS: Relational DBMS. the user to the current web quirements for a proposed Injury.
site. 213 IT project. 314
See Database Management resolution (graphics): Refers RSS: Really Simple Syndi-
System. refurbish: Method of pro- to the number of pixels in cate. A push technology.
re-skilling: When a de- longing the life of old IT an image. 24, 116 85
skilled user retrains, often equipment: 246 resolution (computer mod-
in a technology related els): Attribute of a model RTF: See Rich Text Format.
discipline. 193 regression testing: Testing which affects its accuracy. safety critical system: Sys-
read I write web: See web to ensuring changes to an 175
2.0. 85 IT system did not break restore (a backup): Copying tern whose failure could
read me file: Help file con- any previously working data from a backup copy result in injury or loss of
taining latest updates and functionality. 323 back to the main system. life. 62
information about using a 49 sample precision: See bit
system. 61 relational database: Data- reuse: See refurbish. rate.
Read Only Memory: Prima- base containing multiple reward card: See loyalty sample rate: Number of
ry storage whose contents related tables and no re- card. samples taken each second
are written at manufacture dundant data. 147 RFID reader: See Radio when recording sound.
and cannot be altered Frequency Identification. 133,237
later. 32 relational database manage- 25 SAN: See Storage Area Net-
real-time data collection: ment system: Application RFID tag: See Radio Fre- work.
Data logging systems software used to create, quency Identification. sat nav: See satellite naviga-
which report data as soon enter, edit, and retrieve RIAA: See Recording Indus- tion system.
as it is collected. 216 data in a relational data- try Association of Ameri- SATA: Interface for connect-
record: Collection of fields base. 51 ca. ing storage devices like
that represent a single Rich Text Format: Standard hard disks. 39
entity, such as a person. relationships (in ERDs): 318 file format that can store satellite imaging: Technique
145 relationships (in databases): documents that include used to produce images of
Recording Industry Associ- formatting data. 37, 137 the Earth. 238
ation of America: Music 147 robot: Computerised device satellite navigation system:
industry group that works relative cell reference: In a that performs manual or Portable device that uses
to reduce illegal copying physical tasks, either au- GPS to plot the user's
of music. 276 spreadsheet, a cell refer- tonomously or under re- position. 239
recycling (of e-waste): 246 ence which updates when mote control. 343 scaling: Changing the size of
reduce: (chemicals in e- moved. 170, 178, 182, 194 robotic arm: Common out- an image. 116
waste): 246 relative link: HTML link to put device in robotics. 346 scanner: Input device used
Reduction of Harmful Sub- a file, with no path sped- robotic fingers: Common to digitise photographs
stances: Law governing fied.203 output device in robotics. and paper copies of data.
the chemicals that can be relays: Common output 346 24
included in electronic device in robotics. 346 RoHS: See Reduction of school information system:
equipment. 248 reliability. 62 Harmful Substances. Database system for stor-
redundancy: See data re- remote access: Ability to ROM: See Read Only ing and managing infor-
dundancy. connect to a computer as Memory. mation about a school, its
Redundant Array of Inex- though you were physical- root user: User will full students, and staff. 231
pensive Disks: System ly present at the keyboard. control over a computer scope: Clear definition of the
where multiple hard disks 71 system. 94 boundaries of an IT pro-
contain duplicate data, to remote desktop: See remote rootkit: Type of malware ject. 313
be used in the event of one access. 189 which infiltrates the oper- screen magnification: Acces-
failing. 38 remote monitoring: Use of ating system and attempts sibility setting for users
redundant data: See data IT to monitor the health of to hide itself from view. 97 with eyesight problems. 29
redundancy. 146 patients over a large dis- rotating: Image effect found screen reader: See text-to-
redundant system: System tance. 255 in most graphics software. speech.
which will take over the remote sensing: Techniques 116 scripting: Programming
role of a primary system if used by satellites to image route planning: Software to language to provide inter-
it fails. 38, 242 the Earth. 238 plan the optimum route activity in web pages. 204
reference software: Elec- remote vehicle disabling: between two points. 216 SDLC: See System Develop-
tronic encyclopaedia soft- Ability to disable a vehicle router: Hardware device ment Life Cycle.
ware containing articles, over a computer network used to connect two sepa- Search Engine Optimisa-
images, videos, and other if it has been stolen. 216 rate networks. 69 tion: Techniques used to
reference items. 221 Repetitive Strain Injury: increase a web page's
Injury caused by overuse search engine rankings.
or incorrect use of a com- 210
puter. 252
report generation: 153
requirements specification:
Clear list of the functional

search engines:210, 211, 290 to reduce illegal copies. 58 smart homes to monitor sound sensor: Common
searching (AI): AI technique serious games: Games de- resource usage. 275 input device in robotics.
smart shopping trolley: 346
that considers all possible signed to teach players Shopping trolley with
solutions, looking for the about an issue. 223 RFID technology to offer source code: Instructions
best. 333 server: Computer on a net- enhanced functionality. that make up the software,
searching (databases): See work that provides ser- 194 entered by the program-
query. vices or performs work for smart weapons: See preci- mer using a programming
secondary key: Field by others. 68 sion guided weapons. 304 language. 55, 310
which a database is often set theory: Mathematical smart phones: Mobile phone
searched. 145 theory used in some AI with capabilities including spam: Unwanted, bulk
secondary storage: Storage techniques. 337 Internet access and a cam- email. 100, 210
systems which are con- shareware: Software which era. 16
nected externally to the is free to use initially, but smishing: Phishing attacks spam bot: Program that
computer's motherboard. which must be pay for if committed using text mes- scans web pages for email
32 use continues. 55 sages (SMS). 104 address, in order to send
secondary use: Using data Silverlight: Technology social bookmarking: Web spam.101
for a purpose other than often used to create inter- site that lets users store
the one for which it was active web pages. 204 and manage their favour- spam filters: Program de-
collected. 160 simplification: Difference ite links, and share them signed to identify and
secret key encryption: En- between a computer mod- with others. 85 block spam messages
cryption system in which el's representation of a social engineering: Tricking while letting genuine mes-
a single key is used for process, and the real life a user into revealing their sages through. 101
both encryption and de- process. 166 password or other sensi-
cryption. 106 simulation: Software and live data. 94 speakers: Output device for
secure deletion: See disk hardware to recreate an social media: See web 2.0. sound. 27, 346
wiping. experience of a real event. social network: Web site
secure online payment:199 302 that lets users create per- speech recognition: Com-
Secure Socket Layer: Sys- single-user licence: Soft- sonal profile pages and puler system that can
tern used to encrypt https ware licence that allows share them with friends. process spoken language
web traffic.108 the use of only a single 85 and understand its mean-
security token: Hardware copy on a single comput- social news: News sites ing. 339
device that must be pre- er.58 which rank news stories
sent during login to au- sip and puff: Accessibility based on user ratings. 281 speech synthesis: See text to
thenticate a user. 90 hardware for users with soft keyboard: Keyboard speech. 230
security update: Software very limited mobility: 29 which is displayed on
update to fix a security sirens: Common output screen and controlled by speed throttling: Reducing a
problem discovered in device in robotics. 346 clicking on buttons with processor's clock speed to
software. 95 site licence: Software licence the mouse or a touch save power when not in
select query: See query. that allows an organisa- screen. 19 use.30,243
selection tools: Tools in lion to use software on an software: The instructions
graphics software for se- unlimited number of com- and programs which are sponsored links: Links
lecting only a subset of an pulers. 58 run by the CPU. 14 show by search engines
image.117 sitemap: Overview of a web software testers: People because the link owners
self checkout: Supermarket site and all the links and who perform alpha, beta, paid a fee. 211
technology that lets users pages within it. 206 and acceptance testing.
scan and pay for their own smart card readers: Device 320 spreadsheet: Application
goods without staff assis- to read a smart card. 22 software verification: Ensur- software for performing
lance. 194 smart cards: Credit card ing software functions numerical calculations and
sensitive data: See personal sized card containing a correctly by examining its analysis. 50, 170, 178, 182,
data. microchip for data storage source code. 297 194
sensors: Input devices used and processing. 257 solid state storage: Type of
to measure certain traits, smart cars: Cars incorporat- secondary storage device spyware: Malware which
such as sound, heat, or ing IT to improve driver that uses electronic circuits covert!y records a user's
light. 25, 217, 238, 345 safety and comfort. to read and store data. 34 actions, such as their key
SEO: See Search Engine smart home: Building with sonar: Remote imaging presses. 96
Optimisation. integrated IT to improve method used by satellites.
serial number: Registration comfort and energy effi- 238 SQL: See Structured Query
number needed during ciency. 274 sorting: 153 Language.
software installation, used smart meters: Component of
SSADM: Structured Sys-
terns Analysis and Design
Method. A project man-
agement methodology.
325

SSL: See Secure Socket Lay-
er.

stereolithography: '3D
printer' that can produce
actual objects from com-
puter models. 285

sticky keys: Accessibility

Glossary ~

setting for users with same time. 220 telecommuting: See tete- title attribute: HTML attrib-
movement problems. 29 system administrator: Per- working. ute that provides a text
Storage Area Network: description of links. 208
Network dedicated to sonal in overall charge of a telehealth: See telemedicine.
providing disk storage to computer system in an telemedicine: Using IT to TLS: See Transport Layer
other computers on the organisation. 94 Security.
network. 74 system context diagram: perform medical consulta-
store-and-forward telemed- High level DFD of a sys- lions when the doctor and Top Level Domain: Suffix at
icine: Telemedicine using tern. 317 patient are in geograph- the end of a URL, such
techniques such as email, System development life ically separate locations. as .com or .org. 82, 209
which do not operate in cycle: Stages through 254
real time. 254 which a IT project devel- telesurgery: Using IT to touch pad: Input device
streaming media: Video or opment must pass, from perform surgery on a pa- commonly found on lap-
audio data that is played planning to completion. tient in a geographically tops instead of a mouse.
while it is downloading. 313 separate location from the 20
135,283 Tab Separated Values: File doctor. 254
Structured Query Lan- format for transferring teleworking: Working away touch screen: Input device
guage:Languageforman- data, which stores fields from an organisation's that lets the user touch
aging databases by typing and records in a plain text main office or base, using areas of the display to
commands. 153, 204 file. 152 portable computers. 190 perform tasks.
stylesheet: See Cascading tab-delimited text files: See template: Document used to
Style Sheets. Tab Separated Values. provide a guiding layout touch sensitive input: 227
stylus: Input device used in table: In databases, a collec- in a word processor, trackball: Input device that
conjunction with touch tion of records represent- presentation, or DTP ap-
screens. ing a type of item. 145 plication. 136 uses a rotating ball to
supercomputer: Fastest tactile feedback: Output in Terabyte: Storage unit: 1024 control the cursor. 20
computers available, capa- the form of movement or gigabytes: 37 tracking number: Used as
ble of performing trillions vibrations. 302 Teraherlz: Unit of measure- part of package tracking
of calculations per second. tagging: Adding key words ment for a processor's systems. 198
14, 176 to an item such as a photo clock speed. 30 tracks: Common output
support: 323 to describe its content. 85 test plan: List of all tests and device in robotics. 346
support staff: Staff who train tags (HTML): Used as part test data that should be training: Preparing users for
users and help them with of HTML to control the tried with a system. 320 a new IT system. 320, 322
problems as they occur: appearance of web pages. text file: File containing text training data: Example data
314 202 with no formatting or used in a pattern recogni-
SVG: Standard file format take-back scheme: Scheme other information. 37, 137 tion system. 339
for vector image data. 132, operated by IT manufac- text-to-speech: Accessibility Trans-border data flow:
206 turers to accept customers' feature for users with Transfer of data between
SWF: Small Web Format or old hardware for recycling eyesight problems. 29 countries. 159
ShockWave Flash. File at its end of life. 247 thin client: Networking Transport Layer Security:
format used by Flash. targeted advertising: Use of system whereby client System used to encrypt
switch: Hardware device for data about customers to computers rely on servers https web traffic. 108
connecting several com- determine which adverts to perform their pro- Trojan horse: Malware
puters on a network. 69 they are most likely to find cessing tasks. 70 which pretends to be a
SWOT: Analysis method useful. 194, 207 third party cookie: Cookie genuinely useful program
sometimes used when TB: See terabyte. left by a web site the user to trick the user into using
creating a business case. TCP/IP: Transfer Control did not directly visit it. 96
314 Protocol I Internet Proto- (usually by advert compa- true colour: Image with 24
symmetric key encryption: col. Common protocol for nies). 207 bit colour depth. 122
See Secret key encryption. LANs and the Internet. 78 third party hosting: Use of a TSV: See Tab Separated
synchronous: Data transfer technical documentation: separate company to store Values.
method in which the send- Documentation intended a web site on their servers. Turing test: Proposed test to
er and receiver are syn- for programmers and 209 see if a computer is intelli-
chronised, allowing higher developers of an IT sys- third party payment ser- gent or not. 333
speed transfer. 83 tern. 314 vice: See payment gate- tutorials: Step by step help
synchronous learning: tele-learning: Learning that way. on using a system. 61, 320
Learning which does re- occurs when the teacher THz: Unit of measurement TXT: See text file.
quires the teacher and and students are in sepa- for a processor's clock typography: The choice of
student to be online at the rate geographicalloca- speed. 1000 GHz. fonts and typefaces. 136
tions. 220 TIF: Lossless file format for UAV: See Unmanned Aerial
images. 132 Vehicle.
unauthorised access: Gain-
ing illegal access to a com-
puter system: 90
Unicode: Encoding system

· Glossary

to store text, with support defragmenting disks. 47 by teachers to upload ken words into text. 21,
for multiple languages validation: Checks to ensure lessons and materials for 320
and alphabets. Compare students. VoiP: See Voice over Inter-
ASCII. 37 whether data is in the virtual machine: Software net Protocol.
Uninterruptible Power correct format. 156 application that runs a volatile storage: Storage
Supply: Backup power variables: Components of a virtual 'computer' inside a which loses its contents
system which powers a computer model which window. 243, 312 when the power is re-
computer if the mains can be altered to vary the Virtual Private Network: moved.32
electricity fails. 38 output. 166 System to allow a remote Vorbis: Lossy file format for
unique identification num- vector graphics: Graphics computer to securely con- audio.132
ber: Used by cookies to which are stored as a se- nect to a LAN, as though it Voter Verified Paper Audit
help recognise return ries of mathematical were physically connect- Trails: E-voting machine
visitors to web sites. 207 shapes and properties. 52, ed. 75,254 that produces a paper
Universal Product Code: A 128 virtual reality: 3D virtual receipt to combat potential
type of barcode. verification: Checking environment which pro- voting fraud. 297
Universal Serial Bus: Com- whether data is correct. jects images into a headset VPN: See Virtual Private
mon interface for connect- 157 worn by the user. 258, 302 Network.
ing peripheral devices video CODECs (coder- virtual reality headset: 302 vulnerability scanner: Soft-
including mice, printers, decoders): Software re- virtual world: 3D virtual ware to scan a system for
and digital cameras. 16 quired to view certain environment to which potential security prob-
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: compressed video and users connect over the lems. 95
Remote control aircraft audio formats. 134 Internet. 212, 278 VVPAT: See Voter Verified
used for surveillance. 304 video conferencing: Use of virtualisation: Using a sys- Paper Audit Trails.
UPC: See Universal Product video cameras and micro- tern in a virtual machine. W3C: See World Wide Web
Code. phones to conduct a con- 243 Consortium.
upload: To transfer data versation over a network. Virus: Computer program WAN: See Wide Area Net-
from a client to a server 220 which damages files and work. 74
computer. 66, 209 video editing software: data spreads when infect- waterfall development:
UPS: See Uninterruptible Application software for ed programs are copied. Development method that
Power Supply. creating and editing video. 96 focuses on completing
uptime: Measure of how 53 virus definition file: Used each stage of the SDLC for
long a computer system Video On Demand: Televi- by anti-virus programs to the entire project before
has been operating with- sion and films which can recognise known viruses. moving onto the next. 324
out restarting. 15, 209 be streamed at any time 96 watermarking: Embedding
URL: Universal Resource from the Internet, rather vishing: Phishing attacks the author's name or logo
Locator. Specifies the loca- than waiting for a TV committed using tele- into an image to act as a
tion of an item, such as a broadcast. 283 phone calls or VoiP sys- copyright reminder. 135
web page, on the Internet. viral advertising: Advertis- tems.104 WAV: Lossless file format
82,291 ing using social media, visualisation: Graphical or for audio. 132
USB: See Universal Serial spread by users rather animated output from a web 2.0: Refers to web pages
Bus. than the advertising com- computer model or simu- which allow user interac-
user acceptance testing: pany.212 . lation. 177, 238 tion and collaboration. 85,
Tests performed by a cli- virtual actors: Animated VLAN: See Virtual LAN. 221,294
ent before formally accept- characters used in films, VLE: See Virtual Learning web 3.0: Proposed evolution
ing an IT system from the created entirely using Environment. 220 of the world wide web. 85
developers. 320, 324 computer graphics soft- VOD: See Video On De- web analytics: See web
user documentation: Docu- ware.114 mand. traffic analysis. 212
mentation intended for virtual environment: 302 voice control: See voice web bug: Technique used
users of an IT system, virtual globe: 3D represen- controlled interface. by spammers to detect if
helping them understand tation of the Earth with voice controlled interface: an email address is valid
and use it. 314 added data layers. 239 Ability to operate a com- or not. 103
user interface: Method used virtual keyboard: See soft puter by issuing spoken Web Content Management
to communicate with a keyboard. 18 commands. 21, 42 System: Web page that
computer system. 56, 319, Virtual LAN: Network form Voice over Internet Proto- allows users to upload
335: by several LANs which col: System that lets users content which is automati-
user manual: 320 are in separate geograph- make telephone calls over cally formatted and dis-
utility software: Software icallocations. 75 the Internet. 21 played. 208
used to perform mainte- Virtual Learning Environ- voice recognition: Use of web crawler: Software
nance jobs such as ment: Form of Content software to convert spo- which scans web pages
Management System used

--=-Glossary

looking for key words, so wiki: Type of web page that has been compromised by
search engines can index any visitor can edit. 85 malware and is part of a
them. 211 botnet. 98
web databases: 144 WiMax: Long range wireless
web development software: network technology. 77
Application software for
creating HTML pages for wired soldiers: Technolo-
web sites. 52 gies used to improve sol-
web hosting: Company that dier effectiveness. 303
stores web sites on their
servers, making them wireless hotspot: A public
accessible on the Internet. wireless access point. 77
209
web server: Computer wizard: Step by step help
which houses web pages system to guide a user
and serves them to com- through a task. 61
puters that request them.
68,209 WLAN: Wireless LAN. A
web spider: See web crawl- LAN what allows Wi-Fi
er. connections. 74
web traffic analysis: Statis-
tics about visitors to a web WMA: Lossy file format for
site, including duration video.132
and pages viewed.
web-based software: See word processing software:
cloud computing. Application software for
webcam: Input device used creating written docu-
to record video, often ments such as letters or
found in laptop comput- essays. 50
ers. 25
WebCMS: See Web Content World Wide Web Consorti-
Management System. um: Organisation that
WEEE: Waste Electrical and manages standards on the
Electrical Equipment di- world wide web. 206
rective. 247
weighted filter: Filter that worm: Malicious software
considers key words as which replicates itself and
well as their context or spreads between comput-
relationship to other key er systems and over net-
words. 292 works. 96
WEP: Wired Equivalence
Protocol. Wireless net- WPA: Wireless Protected
work encryption system. Access. Wireless network
109 encryption system. 109
What-if scenario: Use of a
computer model to test the WPA2: Wireless Protected
results of different situa- Access 2. Wireless net-
tions and scenarios. 168 work encryption system.
wheels: Common output 109
device in robotics. 346
white list: List of allowed WWW: World Wide Web- a
web sites in a filtering series of interlinked multi-
system. 291 media pages stored on the
Wide Area Network: Com- Internet. 84
puter network over a large
area, such as a country or WYSIWYG: What You See
several countries. 74 Is What You Get. Refers to
WiFi: Most common type of programs that present
wireless connection. 69 their output onscreen
exactly as it will appear
when printed. 136: 202

XML:206
YB: See Yottabyte.
yottabyte: Storage unit: 1024

zettabyes: 37
ZB: See Zettabyte :
zettabyte: Storage unit: 1024

exabytes: 37
zip file: Compressed file

format for general data.
126
zombie: Computer which

Image Credits

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Unless otherwise noted all images are Copyright© 2010-2012 Stuart Gray

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