Audio

audio - definition, concept and what it is

The different ways of transmitting sounds through some technological system or device is known as audio. In other words, audio systems are those that allow you to record, store or reproduce sounds. In this sense, there are all kinds of devices or audio media, such as radio, MP3, record player, floppy disk or audiobooks, among others.

When information is audible and at the same time visible, the audiovisual concept is used, since hearing and sight intervene in the information process. In any case, to refer to audio systems it is possible to do so through the perception of a signal, which can be analog or digital. We understand by signal a data, a symbol or a sign that serves to inform about something and in this way the signal replaces the written word or conventional language.

Analog signal

An analog signal is something continuous, that is, a set of specific data points and all possible points between them. Signals are usually illustrated on two perpendicular axes, in such a way that the vertical axis represents the value or power of the signal and the horizontal axis represents the time coordinate. Some examples of analog signals are the human voice captured by a microphone and converted to an analog signal through a loudspeaker, television until the late 20th century, analog radio, music cassettes, or video tapes.

The digital signal

The digital signal is a modality of signal generated by a type of electromagnetic phenomenon that encodes a content and that can be analyzed in terms of some quantities that represent discrete values, which means that it can take a number of finite values ​​(for example, a light interrupt can only have two values, open or closed). In this sense, digital signals are of the binary type, 0 or 1 (it works or it does not work).

Among the examples of digital signals we can highlight a large part of the digital devices that we use today (the CD-ROM, the computer, the telephone and many others). It should be noted that the human voice is an analog signal but when we speak on the phone this device transforms the analog signal into digital.

What is an audiometry

The hearing of a sound is representable on a graph and this is done by means of audiometry. The human ear perceives certain frequencies but they are not always adequately captured, since age or some pathologies deteriorate our hearing capacity. Thus, our ability to hear is represented through the audiometric graphs.

Photos: iStock - Mikolette / no_limit_pictures

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