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Information theory can be applied to information and communication systems that operate according to clearly established rules and have easily and completely differentiable components. These include observable physical information systems where communication takes place, or theoretical models of information and communication systems where significance and meaning are considered unimportant to the way a particular system functions. (from the Encyclopedia Britannica) "The chief concern of information theory is to discover mathematical laws governing systems designed to communicate or manipulate information. It sets up quantitative measures of information and of the capacity of various systems to transmit, store, and otherwise process information." "Some of the problems treated are related to finding the best methods of using various available communication systems and the best methods for separating the wanted information, or signal, from the extraneous information, or noise. Another problem is the setting of upper bounds on what it is possible to achieve with a given information-carrying medium (often called an information channel). While the central results are chiefly of interest to communication engineers, some of the concepts have been adopted and found useful in such fields as psychology and linguistics. The boundaries of information theory are quite vague. The theory overlaps heavily with communication theory but is more oriented toward the fundamental limitations on the processing and communication of information and less oriented toward the detailed operation of the devices employed." http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/yiannis/info.html |