In 2026, in order for my phone to send the sound of my voice from my home state of Massachusetts to London, it first has to go through the process of digitization. This process relies on several key components, including a battery, a microphone, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a digital amplifier, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and a speaker. First, the battery produces energy, allowing electrons to move throughout the circuit. Next, when sound enters the microphone, it is represented as continuous analog waves. These waves are then converted into electrical signals. This signal must then be transformed into digital form, which is where the ADC comes into play. The ADC takes multiple samples of the electrical signal at specific time intervals and assigns each sample a number based on its amplitude at that point. Since the ADC can only assign values from a limited set, each sample is matched to the nearest available value rather than the exact original amplitude. Following this, the values are then encoded into 1s and 0s. The 1s and 0s then pass through a digital amplifier, which reduces noise by correcting corrupted electrons and sending out new ones. Finally, the signal is converted back into analog form through the DAC and played through the speaker.
There are multiple tradeoffs involved in the process of digitization. One tradeoff is that the more frequently the signal is sampled, the more accurate it is to the original analog version, however, this requires more storage to hold the data. On the other hand, sampling less frequently makes the audio less accurate to the original analog version, but it requires less storage. Additionally, the wider the range of values used to represent the analog wave, the more accurate it sounds, however, this requires the transmitter to process a large amount of data per second in order to maintain a continuous signal.