Nova zips over the sample table. Click! Her camera snaps a photo of a rock.
"So that is where the photo pile comes from," Rocket says.
Raven listens. "What do you notice? Nova just turned toward my voice."
Nova hovers closer. "Here is a hint," she says. "How do you see and hear? Computers need parts for that too."
Rocket reaches for his notebook. Time to list some parts!
You have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Computers sense the world with sensors.
A camera is a sensor that picks up light. It makes pictures.
A microphone is a sensor that picks up sound.
What a sensor picks up is called a signal.
| Your body | A computer sensor | What it picks up |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes | Camera | Light, to make pictures |
| Ears | Microphone | Sound |
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| A camera is a sensor. | ? |
| A microphone picks up light. | ? |
| What a sensor picks up is called a signal. | ? |
| Computers sense the world with sensors. | ? |
A camera picks up light. A microphone picks up sound.
But a signal by itself does not say what it is.
The computer still has to work out what the signal means.
This week, you will learn how that works.
Great listening, explorer! Tomorrow we learn how computers get meaning from signals.