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The History of Technology

History of Technology Graph

Overview

The setting of Ready Player One is in 2045, which is obviously ahead of the present. Technology is a vital element in this novel. The main character, Wade, is particularly obsessed with the 1980's culture because of the explosion of entertainment technology in the United States. The History of Technology is divided into six parts that are: radio, television, arcade, films, computer, and music. Entertainment is definitely one of the most important factors in our life. Therefore, it is essential to learn some background information so as to explore either characters' psychologies or the dominance of technology in Ready Player One. Each image below takes you to different histories. Please click on them, and you are ready to enter the amazing technology world!

Radio

The first commercially successful radio was created in 1894 by Guglielmo Marconi. The device uses airborne Hertzian waves to transmit signals from one place to another. Around its inception, it was primarily used in the war by military and marine soldiers. It wasn't until August 31, 1920 that the radio was used to broadcast its first news program. From that moment, radio was used to transmit just about anything, from Parsifal the opera to the Amos 'n Andy show.

AM Radio

AM

Otherwise considered the “Golden Age” radio, this was the first type of radio used. AM stands for “amplitude modulation” and was made using vacuum tubes during World War I.

AM Radio

FM

This radio was created in 1933 and was made for high-fidelity sound. FM stands for “frequency modulation” and it is the more common radio type due to its better sound quality.

Satellite Radio

Satellite

Now, satellite radio is emerging as the most common radio type. It wasn't created for public use until 1990, for fear of it ruining the FM/AM radio industry

Film Industry

When it comes to the cinema in the United States, people would think of Hollywood because of its long history and world-wide known popularity. “The major film studios of Hollywood including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Lightstorm Entertainment are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009)” (Wikipedia).

3D Films

Avatar is a 3D film (three-dimensional stereoscopic film), which was directed by James Cameron and released in 2009. It gained public praises immediately after the premiere in London because of the groundbreaking usage of technological equipments. “During filming, Cameron made use of his virtual camera system, a new way of directing motion-capture filmmaking. The system shows the actors' virtual counterparts in their digital surroundings in real time, allowing the director to adjust and direct scenes just as if shooting live action” (Wikipedia). Though 3D films have existed since 1915, it became successful in the twentieth-first century primarily on account of Avatar. Cameron made good use of some innovations such as motion-capture stage, which according to Cameron, “the method allows the filmmakers to transfer 100% of the actors' physical performances to their digital counterparts” (Wikipedia).

Learn more about the pros and cons of 3D films here.

Music Devices

It is hard to trace back the deprivation of music in the world because every known culture and even the most isolated tribes have a form of music. Music “may have been in existence for at least 55,000 years and the first music may have been invented in Africa and then evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life” (Wikipedia). The tendency of music players transformed from big devices such as loudspeaker to portable devices such as MP3 player.

Loudspeaker

Loudspeaker

“The most widely used type of speaker in the 2010s is the dynamic speaker, invented in 1925 by Edward W. Kellogg and Chester W. Rice” (Wikipedia). A speaker cabinet is often a rectangular or square box that made of wood or plastic. There are various designs of speaker, such as moving-iron loudspeakers which are still used nowadays for hearing aids, electrostatic loudspeakers which “can make for precise sound-field positioning” (Wikipedia) but the size is normally large, etc.

Learn more about the pros and cons of active and passive speakers here.

MP3 Player

MP3 player “is an electronic device that can play digital audio files” (Wikipedia). It is a portable media player. “The term 'MP3 player' is a misnomer, as most players play more than the MP3 file format” (Wikipedia). The MP3 technology started in 1987 in Germany. Later, an employee of Advanced Multimedia Products Company, Tomislav Uzelac, created the first successful MP3 player in 1997. Other commodities that go along with MP3 players are headphones and earphones. People can enjoy listening to music anytime and anywhere.

Learn more about the pros and cons of MP3 Players here.

Learn more about the history of music players here.

Arcade/Home Console

Inspired by the Coney Island amusement park in New York City, the first arcade game was created in the 1930s. The coin-operated machine started off with Pinball, then branched out to games like Pac-Man and Frogger. This was the beginning of the video game industry, and led to home video game consoles, like the Atari 2600, Nintendo 64, and the Xbox 360.

Atari 2600

This game console was released September 11, 1977 and required ROM cartridges. It hooked up to the TV and had a joystick, along with a keypad, trak-ball, driving controller, and panels.

NES

This Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was originally made in Japan in 1983 and was advertised as a family computer. In 1985, the NES was on the market in the U.S. It was on this console that the most famous video game came out, Mario Bros.

Playstation

Like the NES, the Playstation manifested in Japan and later, the U.S. in 1995. This console was made through Sony and is considered a fifth generation console.

Xbox/

Xbox

This console was released on November 15, 2001 by Microsoft. Its controls are similar to a Playstation and it’s known for the video game, “Halo.” This console was also unique because of the fact that it was made in the U.S., something unseen since the Atari.

Wii

This seventh generation console was released on November 19, 2006. This console was revolutionary with its “wiimote,” allowing for more motion-censored games. The wiimote vibrates and the wii sensor picks up on certain movements. Games like Just Dance and Wii Sports became popular games because of this function.

Television

Much like the first game console, the first television came out in the 1920s and was mechanical. It wasn’t until after World War Two that the television became commercially popular.

Mechanical

The first public display of a motion picture was on March 25, 1925 in Selfridge’s department store in London, England by the Baird Company. Mechanical televisions soon stopped being created around 1939.

Electronic

The first successful electronic television was created by American inventor, Philo Farnsworth, on September 3rd, 1928.

Color

It wasn’t until January 1st, 1954 that the first national color broadcast aired. The idea had been around since the late 19th century, but all-electronic color didn’t exist in the U.S. until 1953. However, color televisions were so expensive that they didn’t sell well until more than half of all network prime-time programming switched to color.

Digital

Digital television (DTV) was created in 1990 by transmitting audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signals. Despite this change, there are still some places in the world that use analog televisions due to its accessibility.

Smart TV

Along with the invention of digital TVs, the Smart TV emerged. It is the combination of a computer and a digital TV and is starting to gain in popularity.

3D

Although the first 3D television was created in 1935, its quality was not at its peak like today. Unfortunately, the market for 3D televisions is dwindling and sales in 3D televisions have gone down, as well, along with special 3D television programs.

Computer

There is no specific answer about which computer is the first invention due to different classifications. But generally, “Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the 'father of the computer', he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century” (Wikipedia). However, not until 1936 did Konrad Zuse created “the first really functional modern computer” (Computer hope) The first desktop computer unveiled to the public in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, and later Hewlett Packard, a computer and peripheral manufacturers that founded in 1939, began marketing the first mass-marketed desktop computer. As the computers became common nowadays, many social networking services appeared, such as Skype and Facebook. Computers connect the relationships outside the country to the whole world.

Skype

“Skype is an application that provides video chat and voice call services. Users may exchange such digital documents as images, text, video and any others, and may transmit both text and video messages“ (Wikipedia). It first released in 2003. The percentage of video-calling in the international call market share increased from 2.9% to 40% in less than a decade.

Learn more about the pros and cons of Skype here!

Facebook

“Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and online social media and social networking service” (Wikipedia). It first launched in 2004. It is a platform for people to create their profiles and add other users as “friends.” Users can “exchange messages, post status updates and digital photos, share digital videos and links, use various software applications (“apps“), and receive notifications when others update their profiles or make posts” (Wikipedia). The total amount of users grew rapidly from 100 million in 2008 to 1390 million in 2014. Because of the overwhelming popularity, “Facebook” was declared as the new Word of the Year by Collins English Dictionary.

Learn more about the pros and cons of Facebook here!