Applications of ICT - 3.3.4telecommunications and information technology

This presentation aims to: Allow you to describe the use of

telecommunication and information technology in: Telephone Systems Banking Production Control Global Positioning Systems Navigation Weather Forecasting

Introduction This particular topic only asks you to be able to

describe the different technologies.

As you have already been given the identifiers all you need to focus on when revising is:

Amplification (extending your understanding of the identifier)

Exemplification (given an example of how the identifier is used)

Navigation

Telephone Systems

BankingProduction

Control

Global Positioning

SystemNavigation

Weather Forecasting

Mouse click has been disabled on certain slides to allow you to work through the menu system. To override this just press space bar to continue the presentation in a serial order.

Telephone Systems This section will cover:

Voice mail Menus Ringback Videophone Caller display Conference call

Voice Mail Before voice mail existed, people used to

record messages on answering machines.

They used small tapes to record messages.

Because messages were saved serially (one after the other) removing messages involved taping over the old message.

Voice Mail Voice mail systems are very sophisticated in comparison.

They allow you to: Delete/Store multiple messages

Forward messages to another voice mail inbox

Have different messages be read out to the caller depending on your status (away, on holiday etc)

Retrieve messages from another phone

Use voice recognition to forward messages as a text message or email

Voice Mail These systems can be used by one

person or by a company.

The school has a voice mail service for parents who call into school.

If they leave a message the message can be forwarded to the voice mail inbox of the appropriate member of staff.

Menus With the introduction of tone dialling

phones (digital), telephone menu systems were created.

Now, a lot of companies use menu systems to filter customers towards the correct departments.

ExampleThank you for calling

elephant.co.uk

Press 1 if you are calling about renewing

a policy.

Connect to sales.

Press 2 if you are calling about an

existing claim or if you want to make a new

claim.

Press 1 if you are calling about an existing claim.

Press 2 if you are calling to make a new

claim.

Press 0 to return to previous menu.

Press 0 for all other enquiries.

Connect to customer services.

Ring Back If try calling a friend but their phone is either

engaged or has no signal, you can request a ringback.

When your friend’s phone is no longer busy or has a strong enough signal to receive a call, your phone will ring.

When you answer your phone your friends phone will start ringing.

Video Phone 3G phones make use of high bandwidth

connections allowing for video calls to be made.

The idea has been around for a while but still isn’t all that popular compared to normal calling.

If you have ever watched Thunderbirds you’ll know that when there is a problem the characters will talk via video calls.

Caller Display Mobile phones have caller displays and many new

house phones have the same feature.

When a call is placed the telephone number is displayed on a screen.

If the number is stored in the address book the name of the contact will be displayed.

Many companies withheld their telephone numbers because they want to make sure that people always call their menu driven service.

Conference call Most telephone calls are placed between two

people.

But what if a third person should be part of the call?

It is possible to invite someone else into the conversation by dialling their telephone number during the call. (This feature often costs more and has to be set up

through your telephone service provider)

Activity Copy and complete this table:

Identify Amplify Exemplify

Voice Mail

Menus

Ringback

Videophone

Caller Display

Conference Call

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Banking This section will cover:

ATM (Automatic Teller Machines) Credit/Debit Card Cheques Internet Banking

ATMs Also known as a cash machine…

ATMs allow people to withdraw money without the need for any other human interaction.

They also allow you to check your balance, change your pin, request a new cheque book and some even let your top up your mobile phone!

There are different kinds of ATMs too. Some are used for cash withdrawal, others for cash and cheque deposits and some are used only to check and print off full statements.

ATMs When you put in your card into an ATM it will read your

sort code and account number from the magnetic strip or the chip device.

It will then ask the user to enter the PIN number and will request the details of the account using the details on the card.

These details might include: Has the card been lost or stolen and is it activated? The account’s PIN number (used to verify inputted PIN) The account’s current balance The account’s overdraft agreement

Credit/Debit Cards The most popular way for people to pay

for goods and services these days is to pay using a credit or debit card.

The introduction of Chip and Pin systems have made buyer goods and services even faster and more secure.

Difference in card types Credit Card:

The bank provides a person with a temporary loan. When a person uses a credit card the bank pays for the goods or service. They then ask for the money at the end of the month. There are then two ways of paying at the end of the month, either by paying off the interest or by paying off the loan in one go.

Debit Card: When a person pays for a goods or service the

money is automatically taken from their account.

Why so popular? It is far safer to carry a credit/debit card around

because if your purse or wallet is lost or stolen no one can use your money (unless they know your pin).

You can also cancel cards which prevents them from being used. As the cards are checked every time they are used it is difficult to use the card.

Also, paying for goods/services online using a credit card (like Master Card) provides the customer with insurance, meaning they can claim their money back through the credit card company if there is a problem.

Theft of cards The only real way to make use of someone else’s

card is to use it online or over the telephone.

If you don’t know the person’s PIN number you can’t use it in a shop.

If you have a copy of the top of the card (done easily by swiping them over carbon copy paper) you can’t use it because most websites ask for the security number on the back.

Theft of cards If a thief had your whole card they would still need your

billing address…but if your driver’s licence was in your wallet when it was stolen then they would have that.

This is why it is important to keep your bank’s lost and stolen number handy…because the quicker you can cancel your cards the better!

But…rest assured…more websites are now asking for additional security details when you make a purchase. They ask for a secondary PIN or Password which ‘should’ only be known to you!

Cheques Cheques are still a popular way of

transferring money from one place to another.

They are often used by people who pay by post (ebay is keeping cheques alive!)

Companies often also give refunds via cheques to make it seem more official!

Cheques Cheque books are important things to keep safe…but

there are checks in place to ensure that your cheque isn’t being fraudulently used!

The bank will keep a record of your signature which they compare with the signature on the cheque.

They also check to make sure the same pen has been used on the cheque to ensure no one has tempered with it after it was written.

They can also look to see if any ink eraser fluid has been used to modify the details on the cheque!

Cheques and technology Because of the nature of cheques, different technology is

used to ‘read’ them.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Used to read amount written on the cheque)

MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) Used to read the account number, sort code and cheque

number Sorting cheques

Done using the sort code so they can be processed by banks Recoding transactions

A record of each transaction is made which then appears on bank statements.

Internet Banking Used by more and more people, it has grown in

popularity as more and more people connect to the internet.

People now transfer money from one account to another, check balances and pay bills using internet banking…

If you make use of online banking take a closer look at what you can do with it. If you haven’t got online banking go to a bank’s website and look at the demos they have!

Activity Copy and complete this table:

Identify Amplify Exemplify

ATM

Credit/Debit Cards

Cheques

Internet Banking

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Production Control The manufacturing sector now makes

heavy use of CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture).

This essentially means that robots carry out the manufacturing of goods.

There are, of course, some benefits and negatives to this.

Positives of CAM Robots don’t get tired meaning they can work 24/7.

Initial costs are high but running costs are low.

They make very few mistakes (usually only if there is a fault or a bug in the system).

They are incredibly fast – Cadbury’s makes use of a system called Flow Wrap which allows them to wrap 800 bars of chocolate per minute! (do you think they would let me use their machine to wrap

my Christmas presents?)

Negatives of CAM Replace human workers meaning higher

unemployment.

Not very flexible – they tend to be suited to make certain types of products. Humans can be retrained to make lots of products.

The control part… Sensors are used extensively to ensure that products

are being made correctly.

For example, when a machine fills up a bottle of tomato sauce, it checks the weight of the bottle to ensure it was filled correctly.

If it wasn’t then it is either discarded or topped up.

Some machines learn from mistakes and adjusts it’s operations automatically so that it doesn’t make the same mistake again.

Activity Describe what Production Control

Means. Given an example of where and how it is used.

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Global Positioning Systems We have already covered GPS in the

previous unit of work…but that was looking at how it worked.

Now you need to understand how it is used.

Global Positioning System People use GPS navigation devices (Sat

Navs) in the following ways: Finding the shortest route between two

points. Avoiding certain types of roads. Travel to Points of Interest (POIs). Provides driver with estimated travel time

and time of arrival. Some systems provide drivers with current,

average and maximum speeds achieved.

Sat Navs In order for the system to work it must know the

following things: Start/Current Location Finish location

The system then checks previous position and current position to determine what direction you are travelling.

It makes adjustments for positioning errors by placing you on the road that it believes you are on based on direction of travel, and distance from the road’s location.

Activity Complete the following table:

Feature How is it used? Benefit to driver

Points of Interest The driver can find points of interest such as Petrol Stations and Hospitals.

If a driver needs to fill up but doesn’t know the area well they can use the POI feature to find the nearest station.

Now you list as many as you can….

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Navigation Some people don’t like using Sat Nav

systems (they can be a little annoying at times!)

Instead they prefer to use route finders such as the ones on Multimap and The AA websites.

Navigation In order for them to work, they need to know

your starting location and the ending location.

The user can include ‘via’ points if they wish.

A route is then calculated based on the user’s preferences: Avoid toll roads and motorways Fastest route Shortest route

Navigation What these navigation systems can’t do

is provide you with a new route if you miss a turn!

This type of system is fantastic providing you never make a mistake!

Activity Describe how online route finders can

be used by people planning a trip.

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Weather Forecasting Weather forecasting consists of:

Measuring and recording data Calculating a forecast Producing forecast information

Measuring and Recording This can be carried out in the following ways:

Satellite images Temperatures Moisture in the atmosphere Humidity Rainfall Wind speed Wind direction Cloud cover Atmospheric pressure Sunshine

Measuring and Recording Data is collected from a variety of sources and

from a variety of locations including: Satellites Bouys on the ocean Sensors on the ground

In order for forecasts to be accurate, data must be collected at regular time intervals.

The more data collected the more accurate the forecast can be.

Modelling a forecast In order to make a forecast you need to know what the

weather has been doing!

The data that was collected is fed into a very powerful computer where complex calculations are carried out.

Often, various models are produced with predictability values attached to them.

The weather forecaster must then decide which forecast they believe will be the most likely to occur.

Producing a forecast The output of all the number crunching is usually

displayed to the user with these variables: Temperatures Wind speeds Wind direction Visibility Cloud cover Rain (snow) fall Possibility of thunder and lightning Pollution levels UV index levels

Producing a forecast Computers are much better at

predicting weather patterns now.

You can now find forecasts for up to 15 days away!

This is really useful for people who are planning events or for the military who are planning missions.

Activity Describe each process of weather

forecasting: Collecting and recording data Calculating the forecast Producing the forecast report

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