Managing Interactive Media

Managing Interactive Media

Glossary: Numbers (7 entries found)

16 by 9
Aspect ratio (width to height) of widescreen television (conventional TV has an aspect ratio of 4 by 3). Widescreen has now become the standard format for broadcast television in most countries.
2.5G
Intermediate stage between current mobile telephones and 3G. See also, HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE.
2G
Second generation mobile phone systems. The first generation were analogue; 2G systems are digital but designed for speech and small messages (SMS). So-called 2.5G systems added data capability such as GPRS and HSCSD while 3G systems add higher-bandwidth multimedia capability including photographs and movies.
3-D
Three-dimensional, appearing to have depth.
3-DO
Obsolete consumer multimedia player.
3G
Third generation mobile telephone systems, another name for UMTS.
8-, 16-, 24- or 48-bit image
The more bits a colour image has, the more colours can be shown in it. An 8-bit image can have 256 colours because eight bits can be used for numbers from zero (00000000 in binary arithmetic) to 255 (11111111 in binary arithmetic). However, these colours can usually be chosen from a larger palette of perhaps millions of colours. If the 256 colours are all shades of grey then a photographic-quality monochrome image can be reproduced. A 16-bit image will have thousands of colours, and can look photographic in many circumstances. For a truly photographic colour image the millions of colours available in 24 bits are necessary (or even more). Note that on the Apple Macintosh an 8-bit matte or alpha channel can be added to the 24 bits, and the image can be referred to as being 32-bit. Also the PNG format can handle 48-bit colour images with an alpha channel. 1 bit gives you two colours (usually black and white). 2 bits give you four colours. 4 bits give you 16 colours. 8 bits give you 256 colours. 16 bits give you 65 536 colours. 24 bits give you 16 777 216 colours. 48 bits give you 281 474 976 710 656 colours.