Data mining

Data mining is a type of database analysis that attempts to discover useful patterns or relationships in a group of data. The analysis uses advanced statistical methods, such as cluster analysis, and sometimes employs artificial intelligence or neural network techniques. A major goal of data mining is to discover previously unknown relationships among the data, especially when the data come from different databases. Businesses can use these new relationships to develop new advertising campaigns or make predictions about how well a product will sell. Governments also use these techniques to discern illegal or embargoed activities by individuals, associations, and other governments.
Data structure is the way in which data are stored for efficient search and retrieval. The simplest data structure is the one-dimensional (linear) array, in which stored elements are numbered with consecutive integers and contents are accessed by these numbers. Data items stored nonconsecutively in memory may be linked by pointers (memory addresses stored with items to indicate where the “next” item or items in the structure are located). Many algorithms have been developed for sorting data efficiently; these apply to structures residing in main memory and also to structures that constitute information systems and databases.
MIDI (in full Musical Instrument Digital Interface )is a protocol for transmission of musical data between digital components, such as synthesizers and a computer's sound card. MIDI uses 8-bit asynchronous serial transmission with a data rate of 31.25 kilobytes per second. The transmitted data do not directly represent musical sound but specify various aspects (pitch, loudness, starting and stopping points in time). The data are then applied to waveforms stored digitally on a computer chip to create a specific sound.
Object-oriented programming is computer programming that emphasizes the structure of data and their encapsulation with the procedures that operate upon it. It is a departure from traditional or procedural programming. OOP languages incorporate objects that are self-contained collections of computational procedures and data structures. Programs can be written by assembling sets of these predefined objects in far less time than is possible using conventional procedural languages. OOP has become extremely popular because of its high programming productivity. C++ and Objective-C (early 1980s) are object-oriented versions of C that have gained much popularity.
Protocol is, in computer science, a set of rules or procedures for transmitting data between electronic devices, such as computers. In order for computers to exchange information, there must be a preexisting agreement as to how the information will be structured and how each side will send and receive it. Without a protocol, a transmitting computer, for example, could be sending its data in 8-bit packets while the receiving computer might expect the data in 16-bit packets. Protocols are established by international or industrywide organizations. Perhaps the most important computer protocol is OSI (Open Systems Interconnection), a set of guidelines for implementing networking communications between computers.
Pattern recognition is, in computer science, the imposition of identity on input data, such as speech, images, or a stream of text, by the recognition and delineation of patterns it contains and their relationships. Stages in pattern recognition may involve measurement of the object to identify distinguishing attributes, extraction of features for the defining attributes, and comparison with known patterns to determine a match or mismatch. Pattern recognition has extensive application in astronomy, medicine, robotics, and remote sensing by satellites.
Speech recognition is the ability of computer systems to accept speech input and act on it or transcribe it into written language. Current research efforts are directed toward applications of automatic speech recognition (ASR), where the goal is to transform the content of speech into knowledge that forms the basis for linguistic or cognitive tasks, such as translation into another language. Practical applications include database-query systems, information retrieval systems, and speaker identification and verification systems, as in telebanking. Speech recognition has promising applications in robotics, particularly development of robots that can “hear.”