Electromechanics in the context of Electro-mechanical game

Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is rejected at a higher temperature). Refrigeration is an artificial, or human-made, cooling method.

Refrigeration refers to the process by which energy, in the form of heat, is removed from a low-temperature medium and transferred to a high-temperature medium. This work of energy transfer is traditionally driven by mechanical means (whether ice or electromechanical machines), but it can also be driven by heat, magnetism, electricity, laser, or other means. Refrigeration has many applications, including household refrigerators, industrial freezers, cryogenics, and air conditioning. Heat pumps may use the heat output of the refrigeration process, and also may be designed to be reversible, but are otherwise similar to air conditioning units.

Electrical devices or electric devices are devices that functionally rely on electric energy (AC or DC) to operate their core parts (electric motors, transformers, lighting, rechargeable batteries, control electronics). They can be contrasted with traditional mechanical devices which depend on different power sources like fuels or human physical strength. Electronic devices are a specialized kind of electrical devices in which electric power is predominantly used for data processing rather than the generation of mechanical forces. To better differentiate between both classes, electric devices that emphasize physical work are also called electromechanical. Mechatronics accentuates the intersection of both fields.

Together, electronic and electric devices, their development, maintenance, and power supply comprise the subject of electrical engineering.

Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun games using light-sensitive sensors on targets to register hits, while others were simulation games such as driving games, combat flight simulators and sports games. EM games were popular in amusement arcades from the late 1940s up until the 1970s, serving as alternatives to pinball machines, which had been stigmatized as games of chance during that period. EM games lost popularity in the 1970s, as arcade video games had emerged to replace them in addition to newer pinball machines designed as games of skill.

A rotating magnetic field (RMF) is the resultant magnetic field produced by a system of coils symmetrically placed and supplied with polyphase currents. A rotating magnetic field can be produced by a poly-phase (two or more phases) current or by a single phase current provided that, in the latter case, two field windings are supplied and are so designed that the two resulting magnetic fields generated thereby are out of phase.

Rotating magnetic fields are often utilized for electromechanical applications, such as induction motors, electric generators and induction regulators.

An electrical contact is an electrical circuit component found in electrical switches, relays, connectors and circuit breakers. Each contact is a piece of electrically conductive material, typically metal. When a pair of contacts touch, they can pass an electrical current with a certain contact resistance, dependent on surface structure, surface chemistry and contact time; when the pair is separated by an insulating gap, then the pair does not pass a current. When the contacts touch, the switch is closed; when the contacts are separated, the switch is open. The gap must be an insulating medium, such as air, vacuum, oil, SF₆. Contacts may be operated by humans in push-buttons and switches, by mechanical pressure in sensors or machine cams, and electromechanically in relays. The surfaces where contacts touch are usually composed of metals such as silver or gold alloys that have high electrical conductivity, wear resistance, oxidation resistance and other properties.

The reed switch is an electromechanical switch operated by an applied magnetic field. It was invented in 1922 by professor Valentin Kovalenkov at the Petrograd Electrotechnical University, and later evolved at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 by Walter B. Ellwood into the reed relay. In its simplest and most common form, it consists of a pair of ferromagnetic flexible metal contacts in a hermetically sealed glass envelope. The contacts are usually normally open, closing when a magnetic field is present, or they may be normally closed and open when a magnetic field is applied. The switch may be actuated by an electromagnetic coil, making a reed relay, or by bringing a permanent magnet near it. When the magnetic field is removed, the contacts in the reed switch return to their original position. The "reed" is the metal part inside the reed switch envelope that is relatively thin and wide to make it flexible, resembling the reed of a musical instrument. The term "reed" may also include the external wire lead as well as the internal part.

A common example of a reed switch application is to detect the opening of a door or windows, for a security alarm.

This is a list of electronic music genres, consisting of genres of electronic music, primarily created with electronic musical instruments or electronic music technology. A distinction has been made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, electric piano, and the electric guitar. Purely electronic sound production can be achieved using devices such as the theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer. Genre, however, is not always dependent on instrumentation.

In its early development, electronic music was associated almost exclusively with Western art music, but from the late 1960s, the availability of affordable music technology—particularly of synthesizers—meant that music produced using electronic means became increasingly common in the popular domains of rock and pop music and classical music, resulting in major electronically based subgenres. After the definition of MIDI in 1982 and the development of digital audio, the creation of purely electronic sounds and their manipulation became much simpler. As a result, synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s. In the late 1980s, electronic dance music (EDM) records made using only electronic instruments became increasingly popular, resulting in a proliferation of electronic genres, subgenres, and scenes. In the new millennium, as computer technology became even more accessible and music software advanced, interacting with music production technology made it possible to create music that has some similarities and some differences to traditional musical performance practices, leading to further developments and rapidly evolving subgenres.

Unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM), or tab equipment were electromechanical machines used for performing data processing. Used well before the advent of electronic computers, unit record machines came to be as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century as computers became in the last third. They allowed large volume, sophisticated data-processing tasks to be accomplished before electronic computers were invented and while they were still in their infancy. This data processing was accomplished by processing punched cards through various unit record machines in a carefully choreographed progression. This progression, or flow, from machine to machine was often planned and documented with detailed flowcharts that used standardized symbols for documents and the various machine functions. All but the earliest machines had high-speed mechanical feeders to process cards at rates from around 100 to 2,000 per minute, sensing punched holes with mechanical, electrical, or, later, optical sensors. The corporate department responsible for operating this equipment was commonly known as the tab room, or tab department. Typically keypunches and verifiers were located elsewhere. The operation of many machines was directed by the use of a removable plugboard, control panel, or connection box. Initially all machines were manual or electromechanical. The first use of an electronic component was in 1937 when a photocell was used in a Social Security bill-feed machine. Electronic components were used on other machines beginning in the late 1940s.

The term unit record equipment also refers to peripheral equipment attached to computers that reads or writes unit records, e.g., card readers, card punches, printers, MICR readers.

In electrical engineering, a stepping switch or stepping relay, also known as a uniselector, is an electromechanical device that switches an input signal path to one of several possible output paths, directed by a train of electrical pulses.

The major use of stepping switches was in early automatic telephone exchanges to route telephone calls. Later, they were often used in industrial control systems. During World War II, Japanese cypher machines, known in the United States as CORAL, JADE, and PURPLE, contained them. Code breakers at Bletchley Park employed uniselectors driven by a continuously rotating motor rather than a series of pulses in the Colossus to cryptanalyse the German Lorenz ciphers.

Thiele/Small parameters (commonly abbreviated T/S parameters, or TSP) are a set of electromechanical parameters that define the specified low frequency performance of a loudspeaker driver. These parameters are published in specification sheets by driver manufacturers so that designers have a guide in selecting off-the-shelf drivers for loudspeaker designs. Using these parameters, a loudspeaker designer may simulate the position, velocity and acceleration of the diaphragm, the input impedance and the sound output of a system comprising a loudspeaker and enclosure. Many of the parameters are strictly defined only at the resonant frequency, but the approach is generally applicable in the frequency range where the diaphragm motion is largely pistonic, i.e., when the entire cone moves in and out as a unit without cone breakups.

Rather than purchase off-the-shelf components, loudspeaker design engineers often define desired performance and work backwards to a set of parameters and manufacture a driver with said characteristics or order it from a driver manufacturer. This process of generating parameters from a target response is known as synthesis. Thiele/Small parameters are named after A. Neville Thiele of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and Richard H. Small of the University of Sydney, who pioneered this line of analysis for loudspeakers. A common use of Thiele/Small parameters is in designing PA system and hi-fi speaker enclosures; the TSP calculations indicate to the speaker design professionals how large a speaker cabinet will need to be and how large and long the bass reflex port (if it is used) should be.

The automated manual transmission (AMT) is a type of transmission for motor vehicles. It is essentially a conventional manual transmission equipped with automatic actuation to operate the clutch and/or shift gears.

Many early versions of these transmissions that are semi-automatic in operation, such as Autostick, which automatically control only the clutch – often using various forms of clutch actuation, such as electro-mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or vacuum actuation – but still require the driver's manual input and full control to initiate gear changes by hand. These systems that require manual shifting are also referred to as clutchless manual systems. Modern versions of these systems that are fully automatic in operation, such as Selespeed and Easytronic, can control both the clutch operation and the gear shifts automatically, by means of an ECU, therefore requiring no manual intervention or driver input for gear changes.

A smart lock is an electromechanical lock that is designed to perform locking and unlocking operations on a door when it receives a prompt via an electronic keypad, biometric sensor, access card, Bluetooth, or Wi-FI from a registered mobile device. These locks are called smart locks because they use advanced technology and Internet communication to enable easier access for users and enhanced security from intruders. The main components of the smart lock include the physical lock, the key (which can be electronic, digitally encrypted, or a virtual key to provide keyless entry), a secure Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection, and a management mobile app. Smart locks may also monitor access and send alerts in response to the different events it monitors, as well as other critical events related to the status of the device. Smart locks can be considered part of a smart home.

Most smart locks are installed on mechanical locks (simple types of locks, including deadbolts) and they physically upgrade the ordinary lock. Recently, smart locking controllers have also appeared at the market.