Embedded Technology

Embedded means to "fix into a surrounding mass", and Technology means "electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group".

Digital Culture

During the last 20 years digital technology has begun to touch upon almost every aspect of our lives. Most forms of mass media, television, recorded music and film are produced and even distributed digitally. These media are beginning to converge with digital forms, such as the Internet, the World Wide Web, and video games, to produce a seamless digital mediascape. At work we are now surrounded by technology, whether in offices or in supermarkets and factories, where almost every aspect of planning, design, marketing, production and distribution is monitored or controlled digitally. In "Digital Culture", Charlie Gere articulates the degree to which our everyday lives are becoming dominated by digital technology, whether in terms of leisure, work or bureaucracy. This dominance of digital technology is reflected in other areas, including the worlds of finance, technology, scientific research, media and telecommunications. Out of this situation a particular set of cultural responses has emerged, for example, in art, music, design, film, literature and elsewhere. This book offers a new perspective on digital culture, by examining its development and showing that, despite appearances, it is neither radically new, nor ultimately technologically driven. The author trace its roots to the late 18th century, and shows how it sprang from a number of impulses, including the informational needs of industrial capitalism and contemporary warfare, avant-garde artistic practice, counter-cultural experimentation, radical philosophy and sub-cultural style. It is these conditions that produced both digital technology and digital culture and that determined how they have developed.

Essay Ideas

After discussion with my tutor, my chosen subject area had to be a lot more specific. My main interest was working with the Arduino hardware, which I had used during previous modules of my studies.

The main requirement with this was to take the subject further to the next level. I managed to come up with the subject area "Embedded Technology". This came from a discussion with another tutor, and he advised me to focus on the fact that Arduino is becoming more and more of a portable source of technology.

In addition to that, I went onto going deeper by choosing a specific form of embedded technology which was the RFID technology.

Oyster Card with RFID Technology

This now enabled me to find out specific aspects of the RFID and its anticipated effects in the future.

Week 3 Lecture

During the Lecture of week 3, we were given many tips on how to go about writing our essays.

First page consisting of title, author, date,
• An introduction detailing the questions that were being researched including the scope. Resources and the level of success attained
• Main body of the report detailing what you have found and learnt including discussions of alternative where appropriate
• A conclusion which reflects your own understanding and stance on the subject under investigation
(YOU GET MORE CREDIT, SAYING THINGS IN YOUR OWN WORDS!)
• Recommendation are an important part which will be borne out of contextualising your work
(YOU CONCLUSION NEEDS TO BE MORE THAN JUST A PARAGRAPH
• Anything you claim, make sure you can justify it
• Appendices to deal with any supplementary material to...
• A complete bibliography
AIMS OF THE REPORT
• Demonstrate your ability to undertake research
• Research carried out is credible and academically sound (level 6)
• Demonstrate ability to collect, collate and process relevant material
• your understanding qualifies you as "local" expert in the topic (people can learn from you
• Communicate effectively
(MAKE SURE YOUR WORK IS OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARD)
• Formal style, introduction, body and conclusion, analytical thinking, careful proof-reading and neat presentation
• Check out "The writing centre website"
• Look at 1. "E-Journals" and 2. "TVU tutorials" on blackboard BUT YOU NEED TO BE REGISTERED WITH TVU E-RESOURCES
• Demonstrated "EndNoteWeb"

University of Canberra

We were provided with a resource of the University of Canberra. Which gave some vital information required to help me with my assessment 1 essay

A Report	An Essay
Presents information	Presents an argument
Is meant to be scanned quickly by the reader	Is meant to be read carefully
Uses numbered headings and sub-headings	Uses minimal sub-headings, if any.
May not need references and bibliography/reference list	Always needs references and bibliography/reference list
Uses short, concise paragraphs and dot-points where applicable	Links ideas into cohesive paragraphs, rather than breaking them down into a list of dot-points
Uses graphics wherever possible (tables, graphs, illustrations)	Rarely uses graphics
May need an abstract (sometimes called an executive summary)	Will only need an abstract if it is very long, or if your lecturer asks for one specifically
May be followed by recommendations and/or appendices	Seldom has recommendations or appendices

Students Initial Interested Subject Research Areas

During the lecture we were instructed to voice out initial interested subject areas, and this is what the students came up with:

• Compression Technology
• Render Optimisation
• Motion Capture
• A.I - is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents," where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chances of success.
• Simulation
• Texture Mapping
• Texturing

Research Seminar Week 1

For the first week of Research Seminar we were instructed to think of 3 subject areas and questions to research for our assessment 1 task which is to research in depth a particular subject.
I managed to come up with:

• Arduino
• What famous works have been produced using Arduino?
• How can the Arduino board be more effective?
• What scientific knowledge is required to effectively use Arduino?

• C++ Programming Language
• Who created C++ and why?
• A life without C++, what would it be?
• What are the significants of characters/commands in C++?

• Processing
  
• How does Processing work?
• Is there any limitations to creating games using processing?
• How can contemporary Art benefit from processing?