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Cambridge (CIE) O Level Your notes

Computer Science
Text, Sound & Images
Contents
Character Sets
Representing Sound
Representing Images

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Character Sets
Your notes
Character Sets
What is a character set?
A character set is all the characters and symbols that can be represented by a computer system
Each character is given a unique binary code
Character sets are ordered logically, the code for ‘B’ is one more than the code for ‘A’
A character set provides a standard for computers to communicate and send/receive information
Without a character set, one system might interpret 01000001 differently from another
The number of characters that can be represented is determined by the number of bits used by the
character set
Two common character sets are:
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
Universal Character Encoding (UNICODE)

ASCII
What is ASCII?
ASCII is a character set and was an accepted standard for information interchange
ASCII uses 7 bits, providing 27 unique codes (128) or a maximum of 128 characters it can represent

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Your notes

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Your notes

ASCII only represents basic characters needed for English, limiting its use for other languages

Extended ASCII
Extended ASCII uses 8 bits, providing 256 unique codes (28 = 256) or a maximum of 256 characters it
can represent
Extended ASCII provides essential characters such as mathematical operators and more recent
symbols such as ©

Limitations of ASCII & extended ASCII

ASCII has a limited number of characters which means it can only represent the English alphabet,
numbers and some special characters
A, B, C, ………, Z
a, b, c ,.............,z
0, 1, 2,........, 9
!, @, #, …..
ASCII cannot represent characters from languages other than English
ASCII does not include modern symbols or emojis common in today's digital communication

UNICODE
What is UNICODE?
UNICODE is a character set and was created as a solution to the limitations of ASCII
UNICODE uses a minimum of 16 bits, providing 216 unique codes (65,536) or a minimum of 65,536
characters it can represent

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UNICODE can represent characters from all the major languages around the world

EXAM TIP Your notes

Exam questions often ask you to compare ASCII & UNICODE, for example the number of bits,
number of characters and what they store

ASCII vs UNICODE
ASCII UNICODE

Number of bits 7-bits 16-bits

Number of 128 characters 65,536 characters

characters

Uses Used to represent characters in the Used to represent characters across the
English language. world.

Benefits It uses a lot less storage space than It can represent more characters than
UNICODE. ASCII.
It can support all common characters
across the world.
It can represent special characters such
as emoji's.

Drawbacks It can only represent 128 characters. It uses a lot more storage space than
ASCII.
It cannot store special characters such
as emoji's.

WORKED EXAMPLE
The computer stores text using the ASCII character set.

Part of the ASCII character set is shown:

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Character ASCII Denary Code

E 69 Your notes

F 70

G 71

H 72

(a)
Identify the character that will be represented by the ASCII denary code 76 [1]
(b)
Identify a second character set [1]
Answers
(a) L (must be a capital)
(b) UNICODE

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Representing Sound
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How Sound is Sampled & Stored
How is sound sampled & stored?
Measurements of the original sound wave are captured and stored as binary on secondary storage
Sound waves begin as analogue and for a computer system to understand them they must be
converted into a digital form
This process is called Analogue to Digital conversion (A2D)
The process begins by measuring the amplitude of the analogue sound wave at a point in time, called
samples
Each measurement (sample) generates a value which can be represented in binary and stored
Using the samples, a computer is able to create a digital version of the original analogue wave
The digital wave is stored on secondary storage and can be played back at any time by reversing the
process

In this example, the grey line represents the digital wave that has been created by taking samples of the
original analogue wave

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In order for the digital wave to look more like the analogue wave the sample rate and bit depth can be
changed
Your notes
Sample Rate & Sample Resolution
What is sample rate?
Sample rate is the amount of samples taken per second of the analogue wave
Samples are taken each second for the duration of the sound
The sample rate is measured in Hertz (Hz)
1 Hertz is equal to 1 sample of the sound wave

In this example you can see that the higher the sample rate, the closer to the original sound wave the digital
version looks

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Your notes

The sampling rate of a typical audio CD is 44.1kHz (44,100 Hertz or 44,100 samples per second)
Using the graphic above helps to answer the question, “Why does telephone hold music sound so
bad?”

What is sample resolution?

Sample resolution is the number of bits stored per sample of sound
Sample resolution is closely related to the colour depth of a bitmap image, they measure the same
thing in different contexts

What effect do sample rate and sample resolution have?

Sample rate Sample resolution

High Low High Low

Playback quality ⇑ ⇓ ⇑ ⇓

File size ⇑ ⇓ ⇑ ⇓

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Representing Images
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Bitmap Images
What is a bitmap?
A bitmap image is made up of squares called pixels
A pixel is the smallest element of a bitmap image
Each pixel is stored as a binary code
Binary codes are unique to the colour in each pixel
A typical example of a bitmap image is a photograph

The more colours and more detail in the image, the higher the quality of the image and the more binary
that needs to be stored

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Resolution & Colour Depth

Your notes
What is resolution?
Resolution is the total amount of pixels that make up a bitmap image
The resolution is calculated by multiplying the height and width of the image (in pixels)
In general, the higher the resolution the more detail in the image (higher quality)
Resolution can also refer to the total amount of pixels horizontally in a display, such as:
Computer monitors - 1440p means 1440 pixels horizontally compared to 4K which is 3840 pixels
(roughly 4 thousand)
TVs - HD (high definition) channels have a resolution of 1080p, 1080 pixels horizontally compared
to newer UHD (ultra high definition) channels with 3840 pixels (4K)
YouTube - The quality button allows a user to change the video playback resolution from 144p (144
pixels horizontally) up to 4K

What is colour depth?

Colour depth is the number of bits stored per pixel in a bitmap image
The colour depth is dependent on the number of colours needed in the image
In general, the higher the colour depth the more detail in the image (higher quality)
In a black & white image the colour depth would be 1, meaning 1 bit is enough to create a unique binary
code for each colour in the image (1=white, 0=black)

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Your notes

In an image with a colour depth of 2, you would have 00, 01, 10 & 11 available binary codes, so 4 colours

As colour depth increases, so does the amount of colours available in an image

The amount of colours can be calculated as 2n (n = colour depth)

Colour Depth Amount of Colours

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1 bit 2 (B&W)
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2 bit 4

4 bit 16

8 bit 256

24 bit 16,777,216 (True Colour)

What is the impact of resolution and colour depth?

As the resolution and/or colour depth increases, the bigger the size of the file becomes on
secondary storage
The higher the resolution, the more pixels are in the image, the more bits are stored
The higher the colour depth, the more bits per pixel are stored
Striking a balance between quality and file size is always a consideration

WORKED EXAMPLE
1. Define the term Pixel [1]
2. If an image has a colour depth of 2 bits, how many colours can the image represent? [1]
3. Describe the impact of changing an images resolution from 500x500 to 1000x1000 [2]

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Answers
1. The smallest element of a bitmap image (1 square) Your notes
2. 4
3. The image quality would be higher [1] the file size would be larger [1]

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