Monthly Schedule

(MODD, Period F)

M 10/2/06	HW due: Finish writing up your notes (at least half a page per topic) for all 4 of your teaching units. Ian and Chris, please also use the weekend to get partially caught up on past assignments.
T 10/3/06	HW due: Read pp. 161-166 (top), 170-173.
W 10/4/06	HW due: Read pp. 130-141.
Th 10/5/06	No additional HW due.
F 10/6/06	No school.
M 10/9/06	No school.
T 10/10/06	Optional Test on Chapters 1 and 5 and In-Class Discussion. Your topic list is the set of teaching units that were presented over the last week. Remember that there are two formulas for decibels. Use the 10 log(ratio) formula if you are looking at a ratio of power levels. (For example, a power ratio of 500,000 to 1 would be 57 dB.) Use the 20 log(ratio) formula if you are computing voltage ratios for a S/N ratio of quantization noise. Hint: In the second case, it is much easier simply to multiply the bit depth by 6 to get the SNR in dBV. For example, 16-bit quantization (CD audio standard) provides 16 · 6 = 96 dBV of signal-to-noise ratio for quantization noise. That’s a very high signal-to-noise ratio, and it explains why CDs sound so clean. HD audio (32 bits) provides even higher protection against quantization noise.
W 10/11/06	HW due: Read pp. 166-169, 181-194.
Th 10/12/06	HW due: Continue listing advantages and disadvantages of analog and digital storage. (Let us think about paintings, such as the ancient cave paintings in France.) You can find such lists on the Web (including my MODD postings from previous years), but I would be much more interested in ideas that you think of on your own, such as the observation that splices are always noticeable in analog. Try to come up with at least 3 advantages for analog and 3 advantages for digital that were not already listed in class yesterday.
F 10/13/06	HW due: Write pp. 195-196 #1, 2, 3, 18. Also, make sure that you have at least 3 analog advantages and 3 digital advantages (continuation of yesterday’s assignment).
M 10/16/06	No additional HW due. Please note, however, that Friday’s assignment should be complete by now for everyone. If you do not have a textbook, contact me by e-mail so that we can make alternate arrangements. In class: Demo day!
T 10/17/06	HW due: Read pp. 196-198 and answer the following questions related to yesterday’s demo. Q1. Why is audio aliasing sometimes called “foldover”? Q2. What field of mathematics is involved in edge detection? Q3. Why is edge detection so important? Q4. What are the advantages of viewing an audio signal displayed in the frequency domain instead of in the time domain? (“Frequency domain” refers to a plot of frequency on the x-axis and power in milliwatts on the y-axis. “Time domain” refers to the more conventional oscilloscope display you probably remember seeing: time in milliseconds is on the x-axis, and voltage is on the y-axis. We used both types of displays yesterday, as well as a third type of display known as a spectrogram, which shows energy by frequency as a function of time.)
W 10/18/06	HW due: Read pp. 198-202.
Th 10/19/06	HW due: 1. Read pp. 202-209. 2. Read about the error detection scheme for VINs (Vehicle Identification Numbers), and work through the 2 exercises found on that page. (An answer key is provided.) Show your work on your HW paper. It is better to do the work by yourself and then compare, but if you are lazy, there is no way I can physically stop you from checking the answer page first. 3. For 2 or 3 vehicles owned either by your family or friends, copy down the 17-character VINs and bring them to class. The VIN can usually be found on the driver’s side dashboard, visible only from the outside near the edge of the windshield. The VIN is also printed on your insurance card and vehicle registration card.
F 10/20/06	HW due: 1. Prepare yesterday’s HW for collection, including the reading notes (which are always required, even if not explicitly stated). 2. Read pp. 209-211. 3. Write Exercises 4.2 (pp. 212-213) #1- all, 6, 17, 18.
Weekend	At this moment, there is a student (Andrew) who needs to take Monday’s test to bring his average up from [undefined] to a positive number, 2 or 3 students who do not need to study much, since their previous scores were acceptable, and 3 or 4 students who need to study very hard, since their previous scores were not acceptable. (The imprecision in the count has to do with varying standards of what different people might call “acceptable.”) To prepare for Monday’s test, please review the topic list, the first version of the test, and the second version. Questions on Monday will be of comparable difficulty but may not necessarily be restricted to the types of questions illustrated on the two tests. For example, you may be required to perform hex addition or sketch a diagram of how clipping works, even though neither of those topics appeared on the first two versions of the test. Anything on the topic list is fair game, including dB for power ratios (not covered in the textbook, since your textbook deals only with dBV). Additional sample questions are on tests 00, 10, 20, and 30 from last year, although there are some topics represented there that go beyond the coverage of Monday’s test.
M 10/23/06	Test for Andrew (100 pts.). Everyone will be required to take this test, regardless of how well you scored on your previous test(s). However, unless your name is Andrew, the test cannot hurt you. In other words, it will not count against you if it would lower your average. Important: Bring in your HW so that it can be scored while you are working on your test.
T 10/24/06	HW due (required for everyone): Revisit and correct as many problems as you wish from yesterday’s test. If you do a good job on this exercise, your score will be adjusted upward.
W 10/25/06	No additional HW due. However, please correct any remaining errors on Monday’s test and any other old HW assignments that you may not have finished. In class: Review.
Th 10/26/06	Gigantic Quiz (100 pts.) on everything new since the first test: ads/disads of analog and digital technologies, color maps, blurring, sharpening, edge detection, error detection, error correction, Hamming codes, Levenshtein distance, ASCII, steganography (overview only), and bioinformatics (overview only). VINs, if quizzed, will be provided with all accompanying details, meaning that you do not have to memorize anything concerning VINs. However, decibels (both dB and dBV) will also make a return appearance. No calculator or notes will be permitted this time. To practice fluency with dB, fill in the gaps in the following table without using a calculator.
		Power ratio	dB
		1 : 10,000	–40
		1: 1000
		1:100	–20
		1:10
		1:1	+0
		10:1	+10
		100:1
		200:1	+23
		300:1	+25
		800:1
		1000:1
		2000:1	+33
		2500:1
		10,000:1	+40
		500,000:1	+57
		1,000,000:1
		5,000,000:1
		8,000,000:1	+69
F 10/27/06	Gigantic Quiz was postponed to today to avoid makeup (and to give everyone an additional day). For anyone who wishes to have another go at the steganography exercise, problem #8, I have revised the problem so that it works out better. Hand in your version of this problem on Monday.
M 10/30/06	HW due: Prepare a one-paragraph proposal for a topic you would like to pursue for your semester project. In your paragraph, describe not only the topic overview but also how you think you could bring a fresh angle to it. Make your topic fairly specific, since if it is too general, the other students will be tempted to yawn while you discuss something they could have learned by reading a Wikipedia article. Too-general example: Robotics. Better example: Experiments in robotic vision, using topics discussed in the textbook (edge detection, motion tracking, etc.). Too-general example: DVD file formats. Better example: Steganography applied to MPEG files. Too-general example: Cryptography. Better example: A new implementation of DES and tests to simulate how crackable it is. Too-general example: Game theory. Better example: Recent progress in computer chess algorithms and predictions for the next 20 years. If you have no ideas of your own, you may use one of those above. However, you will probably have more fun (and learn more) if you can dream up an interesting topic on your own. For now, do not worry if your topic seems “pie-in-the-sky” or unreasonably ambitious. Simply suggest something that you find irresistibly interesting. We will negotiate the scope of the project later so that your workload is reasonable. The main requirements are (1) a strong connection to MODD and (2) up-to-date information. (Sorry, you cannot recycle your Lower School science fair project.) Please note: This is only the first proposal. You may change your topic later if you need to. During the week of December 11-15, each student will present his topic to the class for approximately 15 minutes. Visual aids (e.g., PowerPoint slides) and interactive handouts are encouraged. If you prefer not to present to the class, a written report will be acceptable, but you will be subject to somewhat more stringent formatting and content requirements.
T 10/31/06	HW due: Read this article about endianness. Reading notes are required (as always).

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Last updated: 04 Nov 2006