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Our Next Meeting is
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Point Plaza Suites &
Conference Hotel at I-64 & US 17, Newport News, Va.
Social Hour - 5:30 PM
Dinner - 6:30 PM
Program - 7:30 PM
Members - $17
Spouse/Significant Other - $20
Guests - $20
Students - $14
If you will be joining
us for the speaker and not for dinner, we request a donation of
$5.
For Reservations: Call Digital Applications Inc., at 827-1250 no later
than noon on the Friday preceding the meeting.
OFFICERS
George Koscho, President
382-8909
Jim Pollan, Vice President 865-1400 ext 210
Bill Shumate, Treasurer 827-1250
Jim Moore, Secretary
Alan Sutton, Association Liaison 486-1700
DIRECTORS
Clara Fox, Awards 826-0519
Ed Miller, Newsletter / Website 553-0128
Bill Oshel, Program 249-2846
Steve Tyler, Corporate Sponsorships
Charles Anderson, Student Chapters Liaison
A
Brief Introduction to Fiber Optics Technology
By James Croydon |
Understanding how fiber optics are
made and function for uses in everyday life is an intriguing work of
art combined with science. Fiber optics has been fabricated from
materials that transmit light and are made from a bundle of very
thin glass or plastic fibers enclosed in a tube. One end is at a
source of light and the other end is a camera lens, used to channel
light and images around the bends and corners. Fiber optics have a
highly transparent core of glass, or plastic encircled by a covering
called "cladding". Light is stimulated through a source on one end
of the fiber optic and as the light travels through the tube, the
cladding is there to keep it all inside. A bundle of fiber optics
may be bent or twisted without distorting the image, as the cladding
is designed to reflect these lighting images from inside the
surface. This fiber optic light source can carry light over mass
distances, ranging from a few inches to over 100 miles.
There are two kinds of fiber optics.
The single-mode fiber optic is used for high speed and long distance
transmissions because they have extremely tiny cores and they accept
light only along the axis of the fibers. Tiny lasers send light
directly into the fiber optic where there are low-loss connectors
used to join the fibers within the system without substantially
degrading the light signal. Then there are multi-mode which have
much larger cores and accept light from a variety of angles and can
use more types of light sources. Multi-mode fiber optics also use
less expensive connectors, but they cannot be used over long
distances as with the single-mode fiber optics.
Fiber optics have a large variety of
uses. Most common and widely used in communication systems, fiber
optic communication systems have a variety of features that make it
superior to the systems that use the traditional copper cables. The
use of fiber optics with these systems use a larger
information-carrying capacity where they are not hassled with
electrical interference and require fewer amplifiers then the copper
cable systems. Fiber optic communication systems are installed in
large networks of fiber optic bundles all around the world and even
under the oceans. Many fiber optic testers are available to provide
you with the best fiber optic equipment.
In fiber optic communication systems,
lasers are used to transmit messages in numeric code by flashing on
and off at high speeds. This code can constitute a voice or an
electronic file containing, text, numbers, or illustrations, all by
using fiber optics. The light from many lasers are added together
onto a single fiber optic enabling thousands of currents of data to
pass through a single fiber optic cable at one time. This data will
travel through the fiber optics and into interpreting devices to
convert the messages back into the form of its original signals.
Industries also use fiber optics to measure temperatures, pressure,
acceleration and voltage, among an assortment of other uses.
About The Author
James Croydon - Fiber Optic
Technology and Fiber Network Installation Engineer ( http://www.lc-fiber.com
) - He maintains several sites related to fiber optics at http://www.fiber-optic-test-equipment.com
and http://www.fiber-optic-patch.com.
| Feb 7 |
Dinner Meeting, Dr. Gihan Mandour CNU
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| Mar 7 |
Dinner
Meeting, Toni Rufi, ECPI |
| Apr 4 |
WHRO
Tour |
| May 2 |
Dinner
Meeting, Tyron Ward, Configuresoft |
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Visit
the Chapter Store |
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Buy
Hampton Roads AITP Merchandise!
Books,
T-shirts, Hats, Coffee Mugs and MORE! Support the Hampton
Roads AITP Chapter Store today!
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Contact Us
AITP
The Association of
Information Technology Professionals
c/o Digital Applications Inc
2714 W Mercury Blvd, Hampton, VA 23666
Phone: (757) 827-1250
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February
Meeting Preview |
 Our
February 7th speaker is Dr. Gihan Mandour of Christopher Newport
University. Dr. Mandour is a professor of Computers and
Electrical Engineering.Dr.
Mandour has a special research interest in speech processing and
adaptive filtering.
Speech is the natural way of
choice for humans to communicate since it does not require
special equipment, or physical equipment or even visibility.
Speech processing involves many categories such as speech
coding, speech synthesis, speech recognition, and speech
enhancement. An adaptive filter is an algorithm technique that
uses some minimization criterion that varies from one filter to
another to adaptively change the filter coefficients in order to
satisfy the design rule of the filter.
Ongoing current research topics
in the research group include: classification of speech signals,
speech enhancement, adaptive noise cancellation from speech
signals and also processing and classification of bird sounds
which has potential uses in many digital system applications.
Prospective research projects
include: speech enhancement of cerebral palsy persons for better
use of their speech recognition software, assisting people with
hearing disabilities in their daily life by classifying common
sounds using visual displays, and gender speech recognition.
Please plan on joining us and
please bring a friend.
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January Meeting Highlights |
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Our January 10th. meeting
included a presentation by John Eagle. John is the Director of
Information Technology for the city of Hampton.
The City of Hampton was the first
city in the country to try providing wireless access in a
different way. A local vendor, Synaptx, approached the city regarding the use of downtown light
poles and other city assets to provide a free wireless network.
Whereas most downtown networks are paid for with taxpayer funds,
Hampton's network is privately owned and operated, yet is still
free to users. John will discuss this project in more detail
during his presentation, as well as community networks in
general and the future of broadband.
John has been with the city for
20 years, and is the president of VaLGITE, an organization
comprised of local government technology executives from across
the state.
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Tell a friend
about AITP! |
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