Question

Signal transduction refers to any process of changing one signal to signal of another type. An example would be a series of pulsing lights into the sound for the word: "Help". Discuss how this transduction could be done by a device.

Answer 1

Transducer converts signal from in one form to the other, say , from light to sound. There are different transducers available depending on the types of signals. Here, I would like to discuss the basic functioning of sound recorder on paper.

Consider a diaphram and when sound energy hits the diaphram , the diaphram vibrates corresponding to the vibrations of the sound. Now, if we attach a needle to the diaphram , the needle vibrates accordingly thereby the drawing the pattern of sound waves and hence recording the sound. So, here the practical sound signal is converted into a visual marking from where we can reproduce the signal. This a typical example of this.

Other such common examples are microphone. Similar to the example mentioned above, the sound energy is converted to the mechanical vibrations which is the function of transducer.

Another example is that of antenna. Antenna while transmitting take the electrical signals and converts to the electro magnetic signals. The corresponding changes in the electrical signal is reflected in the electromagnetic signal.