What is "black box"

Black box \Black" box`\ (bl[a^]k"b[o^]ks`), n.

1. any electronic instrument or part of an instrument whose function is defined, but which is treated as a unit without consideration of the internal mechanisms; broadly, any device whose internal workings are considered as incomprehensible or mysterious by the user; as, to treat the meter as a black box and take its readings on faith.

2. (aviation) a device which maintains a record of cockpit conversations and the readings of many of the instruments on board an aircraft, continuously or at frequent time intervals during a flight. It is of rugged design to withstand a violent crash, and is used to determine the causes of aircraft accidents.

   Note: They are often brightly colored to assist recovery, not actually black.

1947, RAF slang for "navigational instruments;" later extended to any sort of apparatus that operates in a sealed container. Especially of flight recorders from c.1964.

n. 1 (context aviation English) informal name for the brightly colored cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in an aircraft designed to aid in determining the cause of an accident. 2 (context transportation English) by extension, any similar device on motor vehicles, such as rail event recorders and ship trip recorders 3 A theoretical construct or device with known input and output characteristics but unknown method of operation.

n. equipment that records information about the performance of an aircraft during flight

Black boxes were devices which, when attached to home phones, allowed all incoming calls to be received without charge to the caller.

The black box (as distinguished from blue boxes and red boxes) was a small electronic circuit, usually a resistor or zener diode in series with the line. It relied on (now-obsolete) telephone exchanges controlled by mechanical relays.

These exchanges used a relay to detect a drop in line voltage (usually to less than -10V off-hook, compared to -48V when on-hook) to begin billing for a call; a separate relay controlled ringing on the line. The black box placed a resistor in series with the line, so that the off-hook voltage was closer to -36V: just enough to stop the ringing, but not enough to trigger billing. A bypass capacitor was often added to prevent the device from attenuating AC signals such as transmitted voice.

A call originating from a telephone fitted with a black box would still be charged for by the telephone company unless some method to circumvent the call charging was deployed. Black boxes were commonly built by phone phreaks during the 1960s to 1980s (and in some places like Eastern Europe, well into the 2000s) in order to provide callers with free telephone calls. Sometimes several friends would incorporate a black box into each of their telephones to enable them to hold long conversations with each other without having to pay for them. Another use of black boxes were in the incoming modems of computers running bulletin board systems that were popular back in the 1980s and early 90s.

Electronic switching systems rendered black boxes obsolete, as no audio path was established until the call was answered. The infinity transmitter, an eavesdropping device which in its original design relied on an audio path to the target line remaining open before a call was answered or after it was hung up by the recipient, was similarly affected by the demise of mechanical switching.

Black Box was an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The members of the group included a trio made up of a club DJ (Daniele Davoli), a classically trained clarinet teacher (Valerio Semplici), and a keyboard and electronic music "wiz" (Mirko Limoni). The three created an image for the Black Box act using French fashion model Katrin Quinol as its album/singles cover art and supposed lead singer in all of the group's music videos.

Davoli, Semplici, and Limoni had previously formed a group called Groove Groove Melody, producing dance music under names such as Starlight (who had a UK Top 10 hit in August 1989 with "Numero Uno") and Wood Allen. They went on to record music under many other aliases, most notably the alias Mixmaster, which scored a UK #9 hit in November 1989 with the song "Grand Piano".

Black Box is a novel by Israeli writer Amos Oz, first published in 1986.

The book's plot deals with the tensions resulting from a destroyed marriage. The behaviors of a wild and rebellious son, spiraling out of control, serve as an excuse for a rejected wife to write to her ex-husband and conjure up their past demons.

The book is written in the form of letters, which the various characters write to each other. The correspondence ultimately proves a metaphor for the fractiousness and contention between Israeli Jews of different political and religious outlooks.

A black box is a device, object, or system whose inner workings are unknown; only the "stimuli inputs" and "output reactions" are known characteristics.

Black box may also refer to:

Black Box (Garabed Bashur), formerly known as Commcast, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a mutant and sometimes acts as a supervillain. He first appeared as Bashur in Deadpool: The Circle Chase #2, first appeared as Commcast in #3, and first appeared as Black Box in Cable & Deadpool #13.

right|thumb|upright=1.3|Black Box gameboard and pieces

Black Box is an abstract board game for one or two players, which simulates shooting rays into a black box to deduce the locations of " atoms" hidden inside. It was created by Eric Solomon. The board game was published by Waddingtons from the mid-1970s and by Parker Brothers in the late 1970s. The game can also be played with pen and paper, and there are numerous computer implementations for many different platforms, including one which can be run from the Emacs text editor.

Black Box was inspired by the work of Godfrey Hounsfield who was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his invention of the CAT scanner.

Black Box is a 2002 Argentine film, written and directed by Luis Ortega. The film stars Dolores Fonzi, Eugenia Bassi, and others.

"Black Box" is an episode of The Outer Limits. It was first broadcast on December 11, 1998, during the fourth season.

Black Box is a compilation album by John Zorn's band Naked City featuring Yamatsuka Eye on vocals. The album is a collection of the "hardcore miniatures" from Naked City and Grand Guignol that were originally released on Torture Garden in 1990 and the extended piece Leng Tch'e which was only released in Japan in 1992. This compilation was released on Tzadik Records in 1996.

In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human brain. To analyse something, as an open system, with a typical "black box approach", only the behavior of the stimulus/response will be accounted for, to infer the (unknown) box. The usual representation of this black box system is a data flow diagram centered in the box.

The opposite of a black box is a system where the inner components or logic are available for inspection, which is most commonly referred to as a white box (sometimes also known as a "clear box" or a "glass box").

"Black Box" is the debut single by season seven winner of Australian Idol, Stan Walker. It was released digitally on 22 November 2009, as the lead single from his debut studio album, Introducing... Stan Walker. Blue covered this song for their new album Roulette.

Black Box is a science fiction short story published in May 2012 by Pulitzer Prize winning American writer Jennifer Egan. It was released in an unusual serialized format: as a series of tweets on The New Yorker's Twitter account over nine days beginning May 25, 2012. The story is in the form of "mental dispatches" from a spy living in the Mediterranean area in the near future.

Many similarities exist between the lead character and the character of Lulu in " A Visit From the Goon Squad," for which Egan won her Pulitzer, strongly suggesting to readers familiar with the two works that this story is connected to the universe Egan develops in that book.

Black Box is an American drama television series which ran for one season, from April 24 to July 24, 2014, and starred Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave, on ABC. The program had a straight-to-series order with a 13-episode commitment. The series was created by Amy Holden Jones and is co-produced by Ilene Chaiken, Bryan Singer, Oliver Obst, and Anne Thomopoulos.

After one season, ABC canceled Black Box on August 7, 2014.

Black Box is the fifth studio album released by the South Korean girl group Brown Eyed Girls. The album was released on July 29, 2013. The song "Recipe" was released on July 9 as a digital single. The song " Kill Bill" was used as the promotional song.

Black Box is a 2013 drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone, starring Josephine Decker and Austin Pendleton.

Black Box is a 1978 American short film directed by Scott B and Beth B and starring Lydia Lunch and Bob Mason.

According to film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Black Box is a "terrifying allegory of societal restriction of the individual."

A black box is a literary technique to provide a device solving complex problem, hiding the whole complexity and providing a result.