This KS3 ICT quiz look at data capture which is all about collecting information, turning it into data and entering it into a computer. Capturing of data can be done in various ways; the best method depends on the type of data that you need to gather and what you want to do with it. In some cases, you might store it in a database. In other cases you would use a spreadsheet or a text file.
Data can be captured manually or automatically. If you were doing an investigation that involved temperature and brightness of light, that would be best carried out automatically. The sensors can be attached to a datalogger and the whole set up can be left for however much time is required. Professional scientists and geographers often use this method of data capture. Information about people would be collected manually, for example, a shop selling household appliances like fridges and washing machines would collect information about their customers manually. Customers would either fill in a form and hand it to the shop assistant or the shop assistant would manually enter the data onto their system as they ask the customer questions.
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You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Data and databases
A barcode reader is an example of automatic data capture. Even though it requires a person to use the reader, the data from the barcode is read automatically. The only time it is done manually is if the reader is broken or the barcode is not clear enough for the reader to work
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If it involves writing it must be manual
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Market research requires data capture from people, so it has to be done manually
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Multi-choice answer sheets for exams are often scanned by optical mark recognition (OMR) hardware and software
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A magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) device can read magnetic ink on documents
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The opposite is normally true, automatic data capture involves only the minimum possible human supervision which is why it is so useful. Imagine having to take a temperature reading every minute for 48 hours ... a datalogger with temperature sensor does not sleep or get bored and only requires human intervention at the start and end of the process
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A simple and logical layout is very important
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The person completing it could be confused and enter incorrect data, or enter data in the wrong place. Data from a poorly designed form could be both inaccurate and unreliable
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The important part is to get the information required. If the wrong questions are asked, irrelevant data could be gathered and useful data could be missed
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Responses should be restricted whenever possible so questions need to be carefully designed to lead to a short answer. Giving a small space for answers can work but sometimes people then just write outside the boxes
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