Tutorial Two

Digital Imaging

Digital images can be stored on such hardware devices such as CD’s, hard drives, memory USB sticks, ipods and iphones.  It is the software that allows you to view and manipulate them such as Adobe Photoshop, Windows Photo Gallery and Paint.  Here is a fantastic clip which shares how easy it is to manipulate images on software such as Photoshop:

The use of digital imaging to provide information and recording.

Digital imaging can provide information and recording.  The most relevant example of this would be Moodle powerpoints.  As students, we have powerpoints for each course to help us learn.  In these powerpoints we can come across images which assist the lecturer in explaining the concept being taught.  This is a prime example of how digital images can provide information.  Other examples are tutorials on Youtube.  When I was learning how to use Photoshop in high school, I would often log in to Youtube and search for a “how to ... in Photoshop” clip for using a certain tool in the program that I did not know about.  By watching the clip, the digital imaging provides information from recording it and shares it with the world. Another example is Google Earth.  These digital images of the world provides information about where things are in place, and what they look like.

“A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature”

I don’t like this statement because it makes me think a lot and I’m finding myself going around in circles getting very confused ...

I think that the person who stated this needs to elaborate a little.

Well, in relation to digital camera technology, I can see what they are getting at.  There is a debate between the taking pictures by using old camera’s with film and manipulating them in a “dark room”, and taking pictures using a digital camera and manipulating them on a computer.  I can see the true beauty in photographs that are developed in a dark room because behind every image you can see the time, effort and patience that it took the photographer to develop it and you can see how natural light, and the production process that took place made the image how it came out.  Sometimes there are weird and wonderful outcomes of manually producing a photograph such as when an unknown drop of a chemical gets on to the undeveloped image or if a accidental streak of light hit the paper before it went through the developing process.  These things are what make the dark room process so unique and mysterious.  Generally, when we digitally process an image, the only unpredicted thing that is produced is if an ink cartridge bursts all over the image or if the paper slips in the machine... which I personally find hard to see the beauty in.  Although on the other hand, digital manipulation of images can create amazing pictures and can be very useful, for example in the policing world where they are able to clear up fuzzy photographs and put together mental representations of offenders to create a digital suspect who looks similar to who they are after.

Of course, there are many ethical issues surrounding the use of images and distribution via information technology.  Things can include taking photographs of other people and displaying them on the internet for anybody to see without their permission.  Another example could be displaying a photograph of somebody’s idea which has not being published yet, which could cause problems with Intellectual Property laws which I talked about in Tutorial One.

Digital images could be used in occupational therapy practice in many ways.  For instance, if a stroke patient had very bad sight and found it difficult to read a handout on how to carry out a hemi-dressing technique, then the step by step images on the paper could be digitally displayed on a large television screen for the patient to be able to see it better.