3/2/2021 Assignment_01_

Devices

3.

Girum Tesfaye Gedecho

ETHIOPIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
AND CITY DEVELOPMENT
4. Contents
4. Contents..............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
1. Input devices.......................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning.............................................................................3
1.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................3
1.2. Architectural and Urban Design...................................................................................................4
1.2.1. Social, economic, political, environmental...........................................................................5
1.3. Technology and Construction Management................................................................................6
1.3.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................6
2. Processing devices...............................................................................................................................6
2.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning and Architectural and Urban Design....................7
2.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................7
2.2. Technology and Construction Management................................................................................7
2.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................7
3. Output devices....................................................................................................................................7
3.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning.............................................................................8
3.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................8
3.2. Architectural and Urban Design...................................................................................................8
3.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................8
3.3. Technology and Construction Management................................................................................9
3.3.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.....................................................................9
4. Storage devices....................................................................................................................................9
4.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning and Architectural and Urban Design....................9
4.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental...................................................................10
4.2. Technology and Construction Management..............................................................................10
4.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental...................................................................10
5. The Internet.......................................................................................................................................11
5.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning, and Technology and Construction Management
11
5.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental...................................................................11
5.2. Architectural and Urban Design.................................................................................................11
5.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental...................................................................11

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6. Ethernet.............................................................................................................................................12
6.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning, Technology and Construction Management,
Architectural and Urban design.............................................................................................................12
6.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental...................................................................12
7. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................12
8. References.........................................................................................................................................14

List of figures:

Figure 1. Satellite image of Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, ©Google 2021...................4
Figure 2. Graphic Tablet, ©Amazon.com 2021............................................................................................5
Figure 3. Getfam Hotel, Addis Ababa Ethiopia ©Getfam Hotel Inc. 2017....................................................6
Figure 4. Servers in data centers of google, ©Google 2011......................................................................10

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Introduction
When planning and implementing an architectural design, urban planning, spatial planning, and
construction management, professionals (or others) and their employees use the devices such as input,
processing output, storage, internet, and Ethernet for both their work process and as part of the built
infrastructure as an output of their work process. The use of these devices and services can be well
planned or integrated with the social, economic, political, and environmental situation of places and the
respective societies; and sometimes the deployment and use of these devices and services may not be
properly planned and integrated. As a result of these cases, there can be positive and negative
consequences for societies and their environment. In this paper, I will try to revisit the impact of
Internet, Ethernet, Computers, and Devices such as Input, Processing, Output and Storage on the Social,
Economic, Political and environmental Situation of Societies with regards to Planning (urban or
regional), Design (Architecture, urban), Construction (Management, technology).

1. Input devices
Input devices are hardware devices that take information from the user of the computer system,
convert it into electrical signals, and transmit it to the processor. The primary function of input devices is
to allow humans to interact with the computer system. Examples of input devices include keyboards,
mice, scanners, cameras, joysticks, microphones, and sensors. Cameras, scanning devices, satellites,
microphones, sensors; such as motion sensors, humidity sensors, proximity sensors, radiation sensors,
position sensors, vision sensors, light pens, graphic tablets etc. are some of input devices that
architectural designers, urban and regional planners, and construction managers use.

1.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning

One of the applications that urban, regional and environmental planners often use is GIS. GIS stands for
"Geographic Information System" and is a computer-based system that accepts and stores
geographically referenced data, links them with their attributes (data in tables), and allows the user to
perform a wide range of information processing including manipulation, analysis, and modeling. GIS is
an organized collection of data, software, hardware, network, people, procedures, and application
methods.

A variety of scanning devices and satellites are used to automatically capture spatial data. All the devices
and satellites have the advantage of being able to capture spatial features from a map at a rapid rate of
speed. Modern surveyors have a number of automated tools to make distance and direction
measurements easier. More electronic systems measure distance using the time of travel of beams of
light or radio waves. The total station captures distance and direction data in digital form. See also other
data sources and inputs in GIS.

Here are some of the positive and negative impacts of input devices---that are used in urban and
regional planning, such as cameras, satellite sensors, and other scanning devices, on social, economic,
political, and environmental aspects of human lives.

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 1.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental.
Urban and regional planners use satellite imagery for urban and land development which in turn can be
used to collect strategic planning information for a district or an entire city. High-resolution satellite
imagery and LiDAR embedded in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Computer Aided Drafting
(CAD) map have gained popularity among planners, developers and engineers for large-scale mapping of
any region for most applications of urban and territorial development. These can be taken as positive
impacts of satellite sensors and cameras on social, economic, political and environmental arena through
urban, regional and environmental planning. See more about satellite sensors.

Figure 1. Satellite image of Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, ©Google 2021

On the other hand, using satellites (satellite imagery) as an input device in urban, regional and
environmental planning also has disadvantages. As the total area of the Earth is very large and the
resolution is relatively high, the satellite databases are huge, and the processing of images (creating
useful images from the raw data) takes time. The satellite data on Google Maps is typically between 1 to
3 years old. According to the Google Earth Blog, data updates usually happen about once a month, but
they may not show real-time images. Google Earth gathers data from various satellite and aerial
photography sources, and it can take months to process, compare and set up the data before it appears
on a map. An urban planner may use old and relatively outdated data to do the planning. Which in turn
will turn out to be a plan that does not take into account the contemporary situation on the ground
where the society resides.

Depending on the sensor used, climatic conditions also can affect image quality: for example, it is
difficult to obtain images for areas of frequent cloud cover, such as highlands, and dense and
mountainous rural areas. For these reasons, publicly available satellite imagery data sets, when used by
urban planners, may be misinterpreted and affect social, economic, political, and environmental aspects
of human lives and residences.

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 1.2. Architectural and Urban Design
Light pen and graphic tablets are commonly used input devices by architectural and urban designers. A
light pen is computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a
computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It is used to select text, draw pictures and interact with user
interface elements on a computer screen or monitor. While a graphics tablet (also known as a digitizer,
drawing tablet, drawing pad, digital drawing tablet, pen tablet, or digital art board) is a computer input
device that enables a user to hand-draw images, animations, and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus,
similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. See more about light pen and graphic
tablets.

1.2.1. Social, economic, political, environmental

Graphic tablets are used by architectural and urban designers to place lines more accurately and they
use the movements associated with drawing. They can more faithfully reconstruct their personal
architectural designs than with the mouse or the touchscreen system. The sensitive pen can be used to
trace existing printed images as it detects pressure through the paper. It can be useful when copying old
jobs to digital media for storage or retouching.

However, despite their accuracy in rendering artwork, graphics tablets are a poor choice for basic
operations like point and click to make menu selections. Most interfaces on desktop and laptop
computers are designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind. Despite their precision in rendering the
artwork, the tablet’s pen or the mouse can cause the cursor confusion if they are left on the tablet while
attempting to use another device. This makes the output less attractive and vaguely reliable. Such
building designs when built on the ground, bother both the constructors i.e., civil engineer and the
construction managers and the people who reside in them. Which in turn causes literal and figurative
headaches. One way is through the introduction of stressful visual landscapes. Dead-end corridors, low
ceilings, lack of windows, and restricted access to views can lead to disorientation. These design
elements can leave occupants asking stress-inducing questions like, ‘where is the front door?’ and ‘how
do I get out of here?’ See also impacts of output devices.

Urban planners also use 3D laser scanning, to measure dimensions faster and more accurately
compared to traditional methods. Moreover, using 3D laser scanning could avoid the need to revisit
sites to take multiple measurements. However, because 3D laser scanners read the light of a laser in
order to record data, ambient light may blend with the laser and interfere with the scan’s accuracy.
Depending on the severity of this interference, the scan may be noisy or even unusable, which in turn
results in poor outputs.

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 Figure 2. Graphic Tablet, ©Amazon.com 2021

1.3. Technology and Construction Management

1.3.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
The most inputs construction and technology managers use include planning, organizing, leading,
controlling, design efficiency, human resources, quality, sustainability, supply chain, and safety, much of
which are associated with planning and designing. Constructions are outputs of planning and designing.
Earlier I tried to stipulate the impacts of some input devices that architectural designers and urban
planners use. The effects also apply to construction - the output of their designs and plans. See also the
conclusion.

Figure 3. Getfam Hotel, Addis Ababa Ethiopia ©Getfam Hotel Inc. 2017

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2. Processing devices
A processing device is any device in a computer that interprets and manipulates incoming data from
input devices and is responsible for converting incoming data into useful information. Central processing
unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), motherboard, network card, sound card, video card are some
examples of processing devices. See more about processing devices.

Modern computer architectures with multi-core CPUs and GPUs allow for creating high-performance
applications. Urban planners process raster data or point clouds such as satellite images or LIDAR data
respectively with software tailored to simple workstations. A GPU or its full form graphics processing
unit is a chip or electronic circuit capable of rendering graphics for display on an electronic device. It is a
specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation
of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded
systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and CAD - computer-aided designs.

2.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning and Architectural and Urban
Design
2.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
Urban, regional and environmental planners, and architectural and urban designers are often
recommended that they use computers with GPU embedded in them. It is highly recommended to use
GPU because it makes the computation blazingly faster than the CPU (Central Processing system).
However, some critics are being raised against the invaluableness GPU.

Computers that have GPU embedded in them are generally expensive depending on the model. Even
some laptops with dedicated GPU are more costly than integrated graphics. The higher the price, the
greater the performance of the card will be, and vice versa. This factor may affect the efficiency of the
planners and the designers plans and designs, which in turn results in poor outputs. See also the
conclusion.

If a computer has GPU embedded in it, there are high resolution and colors. Whenever there are high
resolution and colors there is always a performance effect. This is because the system needs to deal with
more information. Due to this, the texts and icons may appear much smaller. Let’s say, a planner with
short-sightedness may find this difficult to deal with.

Computers with GPU embedded in them consume more power. Hence, an enormous amount of heat is
generated which overheats the GPU. However, for countering this most of the graphics cards comes
with 1-3 fans. These fans can cool down the GPU to some extent. Thus, computers, particularly laptops
become bulkier and heavy if it is having a dedicated GPU. It is almost impossible to find ultra-thin
laptops today with powerful GPU. A GPU consumes more power than any other device on your
computer. It throughout does many processing and calculations which require lots of power. This makes
it harder for a planner and designer to do their job efficiently in countries with high energy fluctuations
such as Ethiopia. See also the conclusion.

2.2. Technology and Construction Management

2.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
As discussed earlier, the most inputs construction and technology managers use include planning,
organizing, leading, controlling, design efficiency, human resources, quality, sustainability, supply chain,

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and safety, much of which are associated with planning and designing. Constructions are outputs of
planning and designing. Earlier I tried to stipulate the impacts of GPU that architectural designers and
urban planners use. The effects also apply to construction - the output of their designs and plans. See
also the conclusion.

3. Output devices
An output device is any computer hardware component that converts information into a human-
readable form. It can be text, graphics, tactile, audio, and video. Some of the output devices are Visual
Display Units (VDUs) i.e., a monitor, printer, graphic output devices, plotter, speakers, etc. A new type of
output device is being developed these days, known as a speech synthesizer, a mechanism attached to
the computer that produces verbal output that sounds almost like human speech. Monitor, printers,
headphones, computer speakers, projector, GPS, Sound Card, Video Card, braille reader, speech-
generating device are some examples of output devices. See also other types of output devices.

DID YOU KNOW? 3D projectors are designed to project two images of the same thing from
different angles at the same time. Wearing 3D glasses, the viewer can see a 3D projection
composed of multiple superimposed images.

3.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning

In urban, regional and environmental planning, the planners use various types of output devices. Some
of these devices are: 2D and 3D printers, 2D and 3D projectors, laser cutters, GPS (global positioning
system), CNC (computer numerical control), LED (light emitting diode), speakers and headphones. These
output devices may impact the society in the following ways.

3.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental

Nowadays, it is difficult to find an industry untouched by 3D technology. Applying it to urban planning
can help the parties cut costs, complete projects with greater efficiency, and more. However, these
innovations do not mean that city planners can disregard all their previous methods, but these
possibilities give them new options to ponder when determining how to meet needs while planning
cities for current and future inhabitants.

The negative impact that can be raised about 3D technologies; specifically, 3D printing is that potential
reduction in human labor, since most of the production is automated and done by printers. Which may
increase the number of unemployed man power.

3.2. Architectural and Urban Design

In architectural and urban designing, the designers use various types of output devices. Some of these
devices are: 2D and 3D printers, 2D and 3D projectors, laser cutters, GPS (global positioning system),
CNC (computer numerical control), LED (light emitting diode), speakers and headphones. These output
devices may impact the society in the following ways.

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 3.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
Architecture is to realize a beautiful design, vision, or to combine form and function to create something
new. A creative idea starts in the mind. Translating this to our colleagues can sometimes be a challenge,
let alone our customers. This is where 3D printing comes in to help architects. Using 3D printing for
architecture allows architects to quickly create a tangible model. The impact of a physical object is
stronger than viewing on a computer screen. A 3D printer does all the work for them, saving their time
they were supposed to spend creating a model or modeling by hand.

However, the direct negative impact of 3D technologies on social, economic and political environment is
that potential reduction in human labor. Which, as I mentioned earlier, may increase the number of
unemployed man power.

3.3. Technology and Construction Management

3.3.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
Since architectural design and urban planning are inputs for construction technology and management,
every single factor that affects these architectural design and urban planning, also affects construction
technology and management.

As 3D printing is becoming more popular and accessible, people are more likely to create fake and
counterfeit products and it will be almost impossible to tell the difference. This has obvious problems
around copyright, as well as quality control. See also the conclusion.

4. Storage devices
A storage device is any type of processing hardware used to store, transfer, or extract data files and
objects. Storage devices can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently. They can be
internal or external to a computer, server or computing device. Floppy disks and Hard drives are some
examples of magnetic storage devices. While Blu-ray disc, CD-RW disc and DVD-RW are some examples
of optical storage devices. USB flash drive, SmartMedia Card, and memory card are examples of flash
memory devices. Cloud storage and network media are online and cloud storage appliances. See also
other types of storage devices.

😊 Fun Fact: Research suggests the human brain consists of about 86 billion neurons. Each
neuron forms connections to other neurons, which could add up to 1 quadrillion (1,000 trillion)
connections. Over time, these neurons can combine, increasing storage capacity. Human brain's
memory storage capacity estimated to be closer to around 2.5 petabytes. (2.5 million gigabytes)
Yet, it forgets basic math. 😁

4.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning and Architectural and Urban
Design
In the traditional style of urban planning and management, urban planning departments typically use
planning data files or popular databases to process data. The former are the CAD (computer-aided

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design) data file formats, but the setback is that the planning data attribute cannot connect to the
spatial entity and is also difficult to update, maintain, query, etc. data. The latter is the lack of database
information that cannot be defined in accordance with the corresponding entity. Both management
methods do not have the spatial query and analysis capabilities, so the information cannot be shared,
which can lead to data confusion and loss. Not only will this waste a lot of manpower and resources, but
it will also affect the smooth progress of urban planning.

Figure 4. Servers in data centers of google, ©Google 2011

Urban, regional and environmental planners by collaboration with GIS, use different types of digital and
non-electronic storage devices. Some of them includes: paper, shared computer hard drive, laptop and
mobile device memory, portable flash drive, file servers, and cloud storage.

4.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental

Non-electronic storage devices like paper, when kept in optimal conditions can survive for centuries and
are immune from digital hacking. However, papers are highly vulnerable to physical destruction and loss
and requires expensive physical security.

Cloud-based storage is dependent on having an internet connection. If designers or planners are on a

slow network, they may have issues accessing their storage. Let's say, in the event, they find themselves
somewhere without internet, they won't be able to access their files. This makes it harder for a planner
and designer to do their job efficiently in countries with poor internet signal transmission such as
Ethiopia. See also the conclusion.

4.2. Technology and Construction Management

4.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
Cloud-based construction management provides the construction industry with a world of benefits,
making the projects that use them run more smoothly. Cloud-based construction management refers to
more than storage systems or devices; deals with the strategy and management processes of a
construction project.

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However, data stored in the cloud is subjected to digital hacking. It’s evenhanded to feel like
relinquishing physical control of one's data makes it less secure and subjected to digital hacking,
especially given some of the high-profile data breaches that have happened. Losing physical control of
data increases susceptibility of getting it stolen. Which in turn is more likely to create fake and
counterfeit products. This has obvious problems around copyright, as well as quality control. See also
the conclusion.

5. The Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the
Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of
networks consisting of private, public, academic, corporate, and government networks of local and
global reach, linked by a wide range of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The
Internet carries a wide variety of information resources and services, such as interconnected hypertext
documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), e-mail, telephony, and file sharing. See
more about the internet.

5.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning, and Technology and

Construction Management
5.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
The internet offers unparalleled opportunities to enhance efficiency, improve public safety, and support
development, it also presents several important challenges that urban and regional planners will have to
negotiate in order to realize these benefits.

With smart and forward-looking leadership, the internet lets urban and regional planners, and
construction managers create a revolution in city planning and management. By embracing the potential
of the special purposed emerging technology of the internet - IoT (Internet of Things), governments can
improve service delivery, increase sustainability, and make their cities safer and more livable places for
all residents.

However, urban and regional planners, and construction managers must take seriously their role in
ensuring the privacy and security of their project data. Defending against cyberattacks is a growing
problem, especially when it comes to critical infrastructure, hacking smart meters can cost millions, and
a more malicious intruder could put the security of urban residents at risk, which in turn affects the
social, economic and political environment. In order to successfully utilize the Internet, city and regional
planners and site managers should make data protection and security their top priority.

5.2. Architectural and Urban Design

Computers can and are used as tools for visualization, communication, and information processing
purposes in the architectural design process. Today we have reached a stage where computers should
be used as a design tool, knowledge integration tool, and decision support tool that assists architects
throughout the design process. This must also be worked out in the training of architects. Therefore,
today there is a critical need to improve architects' knowledge, especially with regard to ICT skills.

5.2.1. Social, economic, political and environmental

The widening of the use of the Internet opened the horizon that computers became more and more a
medium and speed up this ongoing process. Today it is difficult to imagine an architectural practice and

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architecture office that is not making use of this new medium. It became an inevitable essential and
crucial tool and the internet as communication media for any successful office.

DID YOU KNOW? The average person now spends almost 10 hours a day online – we spend
more time on the Internet that we do sleeping!

However, not everyone who merely has the access to the internet uses the Internet and computers in
such a way. The user must have to learn the basic principles of CAD (computer-aided design) software to
be able to use the needed program and take the advantages of each to use it in an efficient way. This
basic knowledge is given to the first-year students who are studying architecture, urban planning, and
construction management in EiABC.

6. Ethernet
Ethernet is the traditional technology for connecting devices in a wired local area network (LAN) or a
wide area network (WAN), allowing them to communicate with each other via a protocol: a set of rules
or a common network language. Ethernet describes how network devices can format and transmit data
so that other devices on the same campus area or local network segment can recognize, receive, and
process information. An Ethernet cable is the physical, sheathed cabling over which data travels. See
more about ethernet.

6.1. Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning, Technology and

Construction Management, Architectural and Urban design
6.1.1. Social, economic, political and environmental
All of the positive and negative impacts of the Internet also apply to that of the ethernet. Slight impact
difference between ethernet and the Internet is that if two computers, that are connected by ethernet
connectors, send data at the same time, a collision will occur. When this happens, the data sent is not
usable. Generally, both computers will stop sending and wait for a random amount of time before trying
again. This results in ineffectiveness of the design and plans urban planner and architectural designers.
However, a special protocol has been developed to address these problems. It is called Carrier sense
multiple access with collision detection or CSMA/CD. See also the conclusion.

7. Conclusion
The use of computers and devices such as: input, processing and output devices, and internet and
ethernet requires the determination of the most important technology, innovation, or invention for
civilization as a whole and then for society today. These are asked to carefully consider all of the
alternatives and respond to the following two questions. The first one is ‘what input devices had the
biggest impact on civilization throughout history?’ and the second ‘what input devices have or had the
biggest impact on our lives?’ We need to think broadly about these and reflect on devices that we
cannot live without. The first question can be answered by considering how civilization was affected by

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these devices over time. And the second once can only be answered by concentrating on the big picture,
by considering how each of us personally and society overall have been affected by these devices.

The threat of computers and these devices technology-driven unemployment is serious problem. It has
happened in the past and will happen again in the future. However, there is a case for optimism because
new technologies create new jobs and opportunities. In fact, not everyone who merely has the access to
these devices uses and computers the Internet. The user must have to learn about at least the basic
concepts of computing. That in turn creates education opportunities to the society. The vast majority of
jobs today did not exist twenty years ago and this trend will continue. Lifelong learning and continual
retraining are necessary to ensure that workers' skills are up to date and relevant for the new jobs being
created.

Even though, collapses occur due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones,
and fires, some of the main causes of building collapse are poor design, faulty construction, foundation
failure, extraordinary loads, unexpected failure modes, or a combination of causes. These can be termed
as the results of unwise usage of input components, that directly affects the social, economic, political
and environmental aspects of human lives.

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8. References

1. 3D AND 4D MODELING FOR DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTIONCOORDINATION: ISSUES AND

LESSONS LEARNED, by B-C Björk 2006 http://itcon.org/2007/26/
2. Database Architecture & Storage 2011, by Matei Zaharia http://web.stanford.edu/class/cs245/
3. The Research on Urban Planning Data Storage System by Xiaosheng Liu1 and Tingli Wang2 1
School of Architectural and Surveying Engineering, JiangXi University of Science and Technology
School of Applied Science, JiangXi University of Science and Technology lxs9103@163.com,
228679192@qq.com
4. The role of ICT as a partner in Architectural Design Education Sevil Sariyildiz and Peter van der
Veer Delft University of Technology, Faculties of Architecture and Civil Engineering, the
Netherlands.
5. The Impact of Memory and Architecture on Computer Performance Nelson H. F. Beebe Center
for Scienti®c Computing Department of Mathematics University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT 84112
USA
6. Computer Input Devices: Design for Well-Being and Productivity by Anna Lourdes Pereira
University of California, Berkeley
7. Recent Advances in Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning
by JOS P. VAN LEEUWEN Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Architecture,
Building and Planning, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
8. Computers for the construction industry Innovation, Information Technology, Construction
September 1983ǀ ǀ Project Management Quarterly Muspratt, by Murray A.

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