Impact of evolving output media on the designing and creation of graphic images

Impact of evolving output media on the designing and creation of graphic images

A BIG Change!

Over the past couple of decades technology has changed drastically. What once was a simple, basic world now relies on technology every day. From our mobile phones and computers to televisions and videos. You may have never stopped to notice just how mobile phone technology has changed over the years. What began as a bag that had to be plugged into your car is now a smartphone that you can use virtually anywhere in the world. The evolving industry of output media has had a large and positive impact on the design and creation of graphic images. 

Mobile Phones

Over the past 20 years, mobile phones have certainly changed how consumers communicate, how business is run and various tasks are performed. Nowadays, they are used by people of every age with the capability of taking pictures, videos, searching the web and playing games. Original mobiles could only play games such as snake whereas now we can play games from the internet or even an xbox, games such as Call of Duty. The phones of the 21st century will soon be overtaking the computer world. These essential items, once referred to as “Bricks”, are now is very impressive, because when they were first released they were much bigger with a long aerial. The first ever mobile phone was in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available weighing in at 2.3 pounds! Very different than today! Phones such as the new htc and windows phones possess almost the same characteristics as a PC just on a smaller screen! We can access the web, open and edit documents, play games and much more as well as the normal capabilities of a mobile.    Mobiles also now contain SD cards for extra capacity, so when your phone memory gets filled-which it definitely will, you can use a SD card to store more files and apps on it. the new mobiles also come with high quality cameras up to 12.1 mega-pixels, which is huge, this means the quality of videos and pictures will be very clear and will look HD quality! They have a high resolution which makes them very clear when uploading onto a PC as no format change is needed. The impact of mobile phones on today's society is massive. The development of graphics in this area has allowed us to use Google on the move, download apps for just about anything and literally complete any tasks. Google maps and tracking services allow us to use out phone like a sat nav to navigate around places, look us addresses and find things like train stations. Is this all good? With access to look at every address, crime may increase as people can find your house, walk your street and even see what your house looks like.

Monitors

Monitors have changed rapidly withing the last decade. They have a new thinner, lighter appearance , better hardware and new features that have been presented on the new monitors. When the first monitors arrived they were bulky. They only displayed a black and green screen. These were known as CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors. These were dangerous in monitors as it gave of poisonous gases if the computer was on for too long. whereas now you can buy very thin monitors, made of a better piece of hardware and have an LCD screen that offers a high quality image. LCD stands for liquid crystal display, this ensures the quality of the monitor is always high and the pixels are of high resolution.  An even bigger step from CRT monitors are LED monitors which are extremely thin,  you can also buy LED monitors, this is an extremely thin piece of hardware and stands for Light-emitting diode which emits light out the back. These have a reduced size, increased quality, and better resolution.  Manufactures of monitors have made them HD (High Definition) so it is possible to watch movies and TV shows on them just as you would as a normal TV, also most people prefer to watch TV shows on large screens, monitors come in different sizes, whereas before the CRTs were limited to small screens. This change in graphics has provided us with Flat screen TV's which are interactive allowing us to access the internet, make calls, video conference and much more! These smart internet enabled televisions are 1000x better than the old cathode ray tube models of the past! The old box like hardwares are in the bin and the plasma's and flat screens have taken over! What started of as a 3-inch TV are now colossal machines reaching over 50 inches. The impact of monitors has certainly changed the way we see the world. We can now view videos in real life quality. Many TV's offer HDD quality and blueray players enhance the graphics even more. 


Printers

This output medium, a printer,  has changed massively over the years, the first printers were very slow and large, they were mainly used by printing presses. Printers firstly started off being manually handled and were extremely slow, but then after the 1800′s, automatic printers began to be produced and was powered by steam. Now Printers have different uses and are many models to choose from, starting with; dye-sublimation printers, to photocopiers, up to laser printers and ink jet printers. Most businesses use a laser printer whose leading brand is HP. Laser printers produce high quality prints, allowing high resolution printing with resolutions reaching higher than 10,000 pixels per inch. They have a  relatively long lifespan. These printers weren't always lightening quick. The first mass produced desktop laser printer was release by HP in 1984. This printer was sold for £1,750! Expensive compared to a HP printer we can get for our homes nowadays for around £50!   But their are some printers which are expensive as they are targeted to graphic users and businesses instead of document users, these can cost up to £40,000!  These expensive printers include 3D Printers.  3D modelling printers allow us to create a 3D model or replica of an object, from Cars to tools. 3D Printers have had a massive ijmpact in todays society. We can now print out 3D limbs. Below is a video of how 3D printer has allowed a man who loost half his face, to have a plastic replica to wear. 

Even though printing limbs may be a good thing, as a race we may become reckless and just think "if i get hurt it doesn't matter, i can just print a new limb." 

Graphical Applications

We have many applications which are considered as graphic apps such as paint programs that allow you to create rough freehand drawings. The images are stored as bit maps and can easily be edited, presentation graphics software lets you create bar charts, pie charts, graphics, and other types of images for slide shows and reports. The charts can be based on data imported from spreadsheet applications. In the world of work applications such as Computer - aided design software have been developed to enable architects and engineers to draft designs.
Flat screen TV's are another example of how graphics have changed. With  the new interactive TV's we can access the internet make calls, video conference and much more! These smart internet enabled televisions are 1000x better than the old cathode ray tube models of the past! The old box like hardwares are in the bin and the plasma's and flat screens have taken over! 
The development in graphics has impacted most areas of our society especially in learning. Many primary schools use devices such as iPads and Apple Macs to aid there learning.  It's as simple as downloading an app and using it.
Since the technological revolution, graphic design has shaped a better life for people. Everything we use and experience today from a newspaper, a cup, a car, a map, a computer, a medical device, a chair, a street sign, or a shelter has been conceived by a designer, whilst historically and politically, designers have worked on the promotion of tolerance and respect, sustainability issues, ideology, beliefs, propaganda and national identity among others.  Without all these graphics where would we be? Living in the past.
In society the development of graphics has especially helped people with different problems. For example, an Agoraphobic woman (afraid to leave her house) is a world prolific fashionista and writes blogs from home and photographs herself in the clothes in her garden. This would not be possible if graphics had not been evolved. She wouldn't be able to share her pictures or pieces of writing over the internet.

What's ahead?

Upcoming technology that will be big will be perceptual computing. It will allow us to unlock computers or phones with just the front facing camera. Perhaps it could even develop and recognise face emotions such as if  you’re smiling, that emoticon could be inputted automatically. Will Apple be the company to do it? they have recently released the iPhone 5s which allows the phone to be unlocked with a finger print. Will face recognition be next?

Too much tech?

With all these new developments, is technology moving too fast? Perhaps yes. Technology is progressing faster than the ability of humans to understand its full ramifications.. However, the ever-moving technology could be the human races key to success. With advances in technology in medicine we are able to discover new things and medical research is rapidly increasing with much more success than without technology. 

"Like the chalkboard of our school days, the best technologies fade into the background, they weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it"

The video below shows what Microsoft think the future of technology. Will this really happen?