Lecture 2
History of
Digital Communication
M. Adnan Quaium
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
Room – 4A07
Email – adnan.eee@aust.edu
URL- http://adnan.quaium.com/aust/cse4295
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 1
Topics
Telecommunication Systems and Electricity
◦ Optical Telegraphy
◦ Electric Telegraphy
The Advance of Personal Telecommunications
◦ Telephone
◦ From the Phonograph to the Gramophone
◦ Photography
Wireless Telecommunications – Radio and Television
◦ Wireless Telegraphy
◦ Radio
◦ Film and Cinema
◦ Television
◦ Analog and Digital Recording Methods
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 2
Telecommunication Systems and Electricity
◦ Optical Telegraphy
◦ Electric Telegraphy
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 3
Optical Telegraphy
Smoke and fire signals are considered the beginning of optical
telecommunication. Used in antiquity, they could bridge a greater
distance more easily than was possible with relay messengers.
The poet Aeschylus (525–456BC) reported that the Greek commander sent news of the fall of
Troy (1184 BC) to his wife by way of a fire signal message.
Whereas smoke signals do not allow freely formulated messages another
type of messaging that did was described by the Greek historian Polybius
(200–120 BC). He reported about the invention of torch telegraphy in 450
BC, which allowed messages to be formed using individual letters of the
alphabet.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 4
Optical Telegraphy
The Romans set up signal towers and watch towers along their empire’s
border (e.g., along the Limes Germanicus from the Rhine to the Danube).
From these points they could communicate with each other via fire
signals.
The telescope, invented in 1608 by Dutch eyeglass maker Jan Lipperhey
(ca. 1570–1618) played a decisive role in multiplying the optical range of
human perception.
French physicist Claude Chappe (1763–1805) invented signal transmission
system with swiveling signal arms called a semaphore.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 5
Optical Telegraphy
A disadvantage of the semaphore was
that the signal poles could be seen by
everyone and unauthorized people
and spies could also read the military
messages. This problem was resolved
using encryption techniques.
On top of that, poor weather
conditions were responsible for
irregular and unreliable operations.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 6
Electric Telegraphy
The research and exploitation of electricity at the beginning of the
eighteenth century had far-reaching consequences for the further
development of telecommunications.
Until that time the phenomenon of electricity was often
viewed as a curiosity or discounted as a parlor trick.
The Greek philosopher Thales von Milet (ca. 640–546 BC) had already
recognized the magnetic effect of static electricity. He observed how a
piece of amber attracted feathers when it was rubbed with a cloth.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 7
Electric Telegraphy
Only in 1730 was the British physicist Stephen Gray (1666–1736) able to
prove that electricity could propagate along a wire. The vision of
electrical message transmission was born.
An early form of the modern battery was developed by Dutch physicist
Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692–1761). His invention allowed the
possibility of storing electricity. However, a truly reliable and continuous
supply of electricity was still missing for a practical implementation of this
new means of electric communication.
In 1800 the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), developed the
first constant source of electricity, which was named the voltaic pile in his
honor.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 8
Electric Telegraphy
Even with this source of electricity it took another twenty years before
the Danish chemist Christian Oerstedt (1777–1851) discovered the effects
of electromagnetism.
Yet even before this time in 1804, Spanish physician and natural scientist
Francisco Salva y Campillo (1751–1828) had constructed an electrolyte
telegraph that used twenty-six separate transmission lines.
At the end of each line was a glass tube in which a surge of power caused the fluid
inside to form gas bubbles that rose to the surface.
The first truly significant practical device was invented by Carl Friedrich
Gauss (1777–1855) and Willhelm Weber (1804–1891) in 1833. This was
the pointer telegraph, based on the use of just two wires and introducing
a binary code system for the letters of the alphabet.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 9
Electric Telegraphy
Even with this source of electricity it took another twenty years before
the Danish chemist Christian Oerstedt (1777–1851) discovered the effects
of electromagnetism.
Yet even before this time in 1804, Spanish physician and natural scientist
Francisco Salva y Campillo (1751–1828) had constructed an electrolyte
telegraph that used twenty-six separate transmission lines.
At the end of each line was a glass tube in which a surge of power caused the fluid
inside to form gas bubbles that rose to the surface.
The first truly significant practical device was invented by Carl Friedrich
Gauss (1777–1855) and Willhelm Weber (1804–1891) in 1833. This was
the pointer telegraph, based on the use of just two wires and introducing
a binary code system for the letters of the alphabet.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 10
Optical Telegraphy
But the true communication device
was the writing telegraph, presented in
1837 by Samuel Morse, (1791–1872),
which achieved the breakthrough that
led to worldwide dissemination.
With his assistant Alfred Vail (1807–
1859), Morse developed a successful
alphabet code in 1840.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 11
The Advance of Personal Telecommunications
◦ Telephone
◦ From the Phonograph to the Gramophone
◦ Photography
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 12
Telephone
Physics teacher Phillip Reis (1834–1874) constructed one of the first
apparatus for the reproduction of all types of sounds, which was modeled
on the human ear. He succeeded in conducting a first public test in 1861
to electrically transmit – more or less successfully – a French horn solo
with the apparatus he had developed.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 13
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell
(1848–1922) used the
electromagnetic induction
discovered by Michael
Faraday (1791–1867) to
transmit speech.
“Mr. Watson – come here
– I want to see you”, is the
historical phrase that
comprised the first
telephone call in Bell’s
Boston home on March
19, 1876.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 14
From the Phonograph to the Gramophone
In 1877, Thomas A. Edison (1847–1931)
developed the carbon microphone
which considerably improved the
transmission quality of the telephone
and came up with the basis for
constructing the phonograph, a device
for recording sound.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 15
From the Phonograph to the Gramophone
Emil Berliner, (1851–1929), an
American electrical engineer
presented the first music playing
device in 1887. He called it the the
gramophone.
The gramophone was different
than the phonograph from the
start since this device was only for
playing and not for recording.
Because of its simple construction
it could be offered much more
cheaply than the phonograph.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 16
Photography
As early as 900, Arab scholars had used the pinhole camera as an
astronomical instrument for observing the solar and lunar eclipses. The
pinhole camera was described by Arab physicist and mathematician Ibn
Al-Haitham (965–1040).
In the sixteenth century this
invention was fitted with a
lens and developed further
into the camera obscura.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 17
Photography
The Paris theater designer Louis Jacques
Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851) developed a
technique for lasting photographs that was
subsequently named after him: the
daguerreotype. However, the image could not
be duplicated.
The first positive-negative process to allow the
reproduction of unlimited prints was invented
in 1839 by Englishman William Fox Talbot
(1800–1877).
Photography for the general public was
initiated by George Eastman (1854–1932), George Eastman with his handheld
who brought to the market a flexible and easy camera, which he named as Kodak.
to handle roll film in 1888.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 18
Photography
The path from analog film to the digital image was a short one. It began
between 1960 and 1970 when ideas were being generated during the
U.S. space program about how to get still images and moving video
images from groups of discrete sensor elements.
The breakthrough in the development of digital photography came in
1973 with a CCD image sensor (Charge-Coupled Device), developed by
the Fairchild company. With this high-resolution sensor, light pulses could
be transformed into electrical signals.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 19
Wireless Telecommunications – Radio and Television
◦ Wireless Telegraphy
◦ Radio
◦ Film and Cinema
◦ Television
◦ Analog and Digital Recording Methods
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 20
Wireless Telegraphy
A number of radio pioneers were fundamental in laying the groundwork
for wireless technology. They include Michael Faraday, James Clerk
Maxwell (1831–1879), Heinrich Hertz (1857–1895) and Eduard Branly
(1846–1940).
Three other great figures stand out in light
of their work at the end of the nineteenth
century, which paved the way for wireless
communication: the Russian naval
architect Alexander Stephanowitsch Popov
(1858–1906), the Italian engineer and
physicist Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1934)
and the Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra
Bose (1858–1937).
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 21
Radio
The first radio broadcast in history happened on December 25, 1906.
Radio operators on ships off the coast of Newfoundland were
undoubtedly astonished to suddenly hear a voice – between the beeps of
the Morse code – read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke,
followed by a violin play. Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932), a Canadian
engineer and inventor, can be credited with this first experimental
transmission.
The idea of establishing a broadcast medium for everyone and developing
it as a viable financial commodity can be attributed to David Sarnoff
(1891–1971).
Sarnoff contacted Marconi in 1916 with his idea of a radio music box. He
visualized it as a household consumer article such as the piano or
phonograph. The radio was born.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 22
Film and Cinema
A visual image remains on the retina of the
human eye for approx. 1/16 second before it
disappears. This phenomenon, only first
rediscovered in the nineteenth century, led to
the development of the first mechanical
apparatus for viewing moving images.
Founded on developments such as French
physiologist Étienne Jules Marey’s (1830–1904),
“photographic gun“ (1882), Thomas A. Edison
turned in a patent in 1889 for the
cinematographer.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 23
Film and Cinema
As soon as film came into being an attempt was made to combine it with
the Edison phonograph, yet the necessary synchronization of both media
presented a significant problem that had yet to be solved. A way still had
to be found to capture image and sound in one medium.
German engineer Hans Vogt (1890–1979) developed an optical sound
process, which was used immensely at that time.
Now there are digital optical tracks, such as the Dolby Stereo SR Digital,
the most often used digital sound procedure today.
Digital optical tracks allow a higher dynamic range and thus a better
sound quality, more channels for improved spatial imaging of sound and
increased noise reduction.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 24
Television
Paul Nipkow (1860–1940) developed a scanning disk. The disk, with a
series of holes spiraling toward the center, rotates as it picks up a part of
the image. The invention was called the electrical telescope.
The first completely electronic television camera, the iconoscope, was
patented in 1923 by Vladimir K. Zworykin (1889–1982), who is considered
the father of modern television.
The first regular television program started in Germany in 1935, but it
would only be in operation for half a year.
And in 1983, the first high definition television technology was introduced
in Japan (HDTV - High Definition TeleVision).
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 25
Analog and Digital Recording Methods
The first tape recorder in the world, the “Magnetophon K1,“ was
presented to the public at the Berliner Funkausstellung (Broadcasting
Exhibition). Used at first only in the professional arena, tape recording
technology witnessed a worldwide boom in the wake of a complete loss
of German patent ownership following World War II.
Alec A. Reeves (1902–1971) developed the pulse code modulation
method (PCM)in 1938.
The replacement of analog storage media, and thus the introduction of
digital storage and reproduction technology started with this PCM. PCM
signals are virtually disturbance free, because the stored information is
not dependent on the pulse amplitude, i.e., signal noise does not change
the coded information.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 26
Analog and Digital Recording Methods
Phillips and Sony introduced the digital audio compact disc (CD-DA) to the
public in 1979.
The first Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) was born in 1995. In comparison to a
CD it offered multiple memory (up to 17GB by using multiple optical
layers and both sides of the DVD).
At the beginning of HDTV, there were two competing standards in this
area: the Blu-ray disc and the leading HD DVD (High Density DVD). The
Blu-ray Disc, whose name comes from the violet-blue short-wavelength
laser beam employed in the scanning process, has a higher storage
capacity, at 25GB (single layer) up to 50GB (dual layer), than does the HD
DVD, with its 15GB or 30GB storage capacity.
CSE 4295 : Multimedia Communication prepared by M. Adnan Quaium 27
