Abstract
Personal digital assistant sales are growing exponentially, and as medical technology advances the amount of information available becomes staggering, making a handheld device, with the ability to store a great amount of information, progressively more valuable to health care providers. Mobile computing allows for a great deal of knowledge in a small package, creating a “walking library” with a mobile collection of data always accessible. There are many diverse types of PDAs, and this article discusses the history of PDAs, general purchasing issues, general PDA features, and the most significant differences between the Palm and the Windows CE operating systems.
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APPENDIX: GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS
APPENDIX: GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS
Bluetooth: short-range radio technology, usually used as a “cable replacement technology”
CF: Compact Flash
CPU: Central Processing Unit, essentially the brains of a computer
EMR: Electronic Medical Record
EPOC: PDA released by Psion, or the OS made by Psion
FSTN: Film compensative Super Twisted Nematic, type of flat-panel display screen
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service, a standard for wireless communications
GPS: Global Positioning Systems, a worldwide satellite navigational system
GUI: Graphical User Interface
Handheld PC: group of Windows CE devices that have a half VGA (640 × 240) or full size (640 × 480 or 800 × 600) screen with or without an integrated keyboard
HTML: HyperText Markup Language, authoring language of the Internet
ISP: Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the Internet
KB: Kilobyte, 1,000 bytes
Kbps: kilobits per second, or 1,000 bits per second
LAN: Local Area Network
LCD: Liquid Crystal Display, type of flat-panel display screen
MB: Megabyte, 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 bytes
MHz: Megahertz, one million cycles per second
MMC: Multimedia Cards
OMAP: Open Media Applications Platform
OS: Operating System
PACS: Picture Archiving and Communication System
PARC: Palo Alto Research Center
PC card: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PDA: Personal Digital Assistant
pIE: Pocket Internet Explorer
PIM: Personal Information Management
Pocket PC: group of Windows CE devices that have a quarter VGA (320 × 240) screen
RAM: Random Access Memory, place in a computer where the operating system, application programs, and data in current use are kept so that they can be quickly reached by the computer’s processor
RIM: Research in Motion, company creating wireless devices
RIS: Radiology Information System
RISC: Reduced Instruction Set Computer, a type of microprocessor that recognizes a relatively limited number of instructions
ROM: Read-Only Memory, computer memory on which data has been prerecorded
SDC: Secure Digital Card
SDMI: Secure Digital Music Initiative, specification to attempt to decrease illegal music copying
Symbian: group of Psion, Nokia, Motorola, and Erickson in an effort to produce the next generation of wireless PDA devices using the EPOC OS
TFT: Thin Film Transistor, type of LCD flat-panel display screen, in which each pixel is controlled by from one to four transistors
UXGA: Ultra Extended Graphics Array, display specification capable of displaying 1600 × 1200 resolution, approximately 1.9 million pixels
VGA: Video Graphics Array, a graphics display system developed by IBM
VPN: Virtual Private Network, a network constructed by connect nodes
WAP: Wireless Application Protocol, secure wireless specification
Wi-Fi: wireless fidelity, meant to be used generically when referring of any type of 802.11 network
Windows CE: Windows-based PDA OS
WYSIWYG: What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get
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Wiggins III, R. Personal Digital Assistants. J Digit Imaging 17, 5–17 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-003-1665-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-003-1665-8