Class 07 - Information

What is Information?

Class 07 - Information

What is Information?

• Information arts• Information design• Information society• Information age• Information system• Information theory

What is information?

Is it information?

The next Mark Six result will be,

6, 22, 25, 39, 41, 49 + 13

What is information?

你亞媽喺女人

Is it information?

How much information?

Which one of the two previous messages

contain more information?

How to measure information?

Any surprise?

Clarify any uncertainty?

Is information equal to meaning?

Describing Information

In-formationDe-formationTrans-formationCon-formation

What is form?

What is form?

ShapePatternRelationships of parts in a system

Form expresses relationships.

Form vs. Information

Information is not the same as form.

Forming, informing, communicating, detecting, making known, etc.

What is information anyway?

Information is the transfer of form from one medium to another.

Communication of relationships.

Information, The New Language of Science, Hans Christian von Baeyer

How is it done?

When moving from one medium to another, the pattern/form has to be translated.

Code

Encoding and decoding

Remember this

And this

Coding with fingers

We can count from 0 to 1023 with 10 fingers. 1024 numbers are coded with the use of just 10 fingers.

It is a kind of digital code, in fact, binary code.

Any analog coding?

Note that most analog signals are represented and transmitted through some kinds of wave.

The most simple wave form is the Sine Wave.

Sine wave

The formula

y = sin (t)

Sine wave

The general formula

y = a*sin (w*t + b)

Two sine waves can add together,y1 = a1*sin(w1*t + b1)y2 = a2*sin(w2*t + b2)

to form a complex wave form.

Fourier Theorem

Any periodic function can be approximated by the sum of various sine waves.

See the demonstration at

http://www.jhu.edu/~signals/fourier2/

y = a1*sin(wt+b1) + a2*sin(2wt+b2) + a3*sin(3wt+b3) + …

Fourier Theorem

By finding out all the a’s and b’s for the formula, any periodic function can be encoded using these numbers: a1, b1, a2, b2, a3, b3, …

y = a1*sin(wt+b1) + a2*sin(2wt+b2) + a3*sin(3wt+b3) + …

That is the pre-digital computer age. Pairs of discrete numbers can be used to represent a continuous wave form.

Being digital

Then comes the digital age where a continuous function is represented by discrete numbers through the process of sampling.

Remember the Director self portrait exercise.

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Pig

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Analog or Digital

Familiar coding

Morse Code

Two symbols, 3 including space, are used to represent all the letters and numbers.Note the number of digits for each characters vary.

Another familiar code

ASCII Code

Note the use of 8 digits of binary code to represent all the characters commonly used in computer.

Game

• One student writes down the name of

another student and hide it.

• The other students guess the hidden

name by asking questions to the first

student.

• The student can only answer yes or no.

• See who gets it right first and count

the number of questions asked.

Game answer

The amount of information containing in the question ‘who is the student?’ can be measured by the number of questions asked to discover that students.

A good question may eliminate half of the students to be considered.

Game answer

If there are 16 students, one good question will reduce it to half, i.e. 8 students.

4 questions will be required to single out the hidden student.

Note, 2 to the power 4 is 16. We need 4 binary digits to encode this piece of information.

Information content

Which one of the three pictures contain more information?

Information content

Which one of the three pictures contain more information?

Number sequence revisited

Take the following number sequences. Which one of them contain more information?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, …1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, …4, 7, 3, 1, 2, 1, 9, 6, 5, …8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, …1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 3, 1, 4, 5, …

Randomness

A random sequence contains the most information. There is no formula to reproduce the sequence except by listing it out completely.

There is no program/algorithm to generate the exact sequence except by copying and listing it out.

Randomness and redundancy

4, 7, 3, 1, 2, 1, 9, 6, 5, … 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, …

The first sequence seems to be random. The second is obviously not. It contains a lot of redundancy after the first 1, 2.

Is it good to have no redundancy then?

Redundancy

Artworks and communication design contain a lot of redundancy.

Redundancy

Artworks and communication design contain a lot of redundancy.

Redundancy

Artworks and communication design contain a lot of redundancy.

Redundancy

Artworks and communication design contain a lot of redundancy.

Every Icon

John F. Simon

http://www.numeral.com/appletsoftware/eicon.html