February 4, 2004

Introductory Material: The Goals and Scope of CSCI E-129

Goals of Engineering Sciences E-129

Course Syllabus

A useful conceptual framework for discussing key elements of communication processes

The Shannon Diagram

In the beginning: history as a guide to understanding communication concepts

The CSCI E-129 chronology of communication related events: Part 1: 4004 BC to 1899

Communication media:

Visual Communication: torches, flares, smoke signals, semaphore, railroad signals and signal flags

Sonic or Auditory Communication: bells, sirens, horns, whistles, signal drums and Hooke/Wheatstone "Aconcryptophone"

Shocking communication: communication by electric current flow on a electrical conductor

The encoding/decoding of messages:

Early encoding schemes: synchronism and code-books

Lesage's electrostatic telegraph: spatial multiplexing - parallel data formats

von Sömmering's electrochemical telegraph: spatial multiplexing - parallel data formats

Chappe's code (local copy)

Edelcrantz's octal code (reference)

Uniform Product Code (UPC)

Encoding visual messages

Picture or pixel scanning: a fundamental communication concept which is often attributed to  Alexander Bain (1811-1877)

The picture scanning concept

In 1883 Paul Nipkow (1860-1940) envisaged and demonstrated a complete scanning system.

A schematic of the Nipkow's Disk system (source)

An early AT&T facsimile system based on Bain's scanning concept.

Early Communication Systems:

Chappe's Semaphore System (1793-1852): in 1793 Claude Chappe began the development of an optical semaphore telegraph system which eventually covered France with a total of 556 stations spanning 4800 Km.

Edelcrantz's Shutter System: in 1794 Abraham Niclas Clewberg-Edelcrantz built and tested the first Swedish experimental optical telegraph system between Stockholm and Drottningholm.