Applications of words? What are some real-life applications of (Sturmian) words? I'm doing an undergraduate thesis on the Fibonacci infinite word $f$, and although what I'm doing is purely theoretical (by counting maximal occurrences of factors of $f$), I want to put in the introduction a one- or two-sentence application of words. But I can't seem to find one online. Thanks for the help.

Let me quote the introduction of J. Berstel, Sturmian and Episturmian Words. A Survey of Some Recent Results,
Algebraic Informatics LNCS 4728, pp 23-47 (2007)

Sturmian words have a geometric description as digitized straight lines.
  Computer representation of lines has been an active subject
  of research, although early theory of Sturmian words remained
  unnoticed in the patter recognition community. The paper [1] is a
  review of recognition of straight lines with respect to interaction
  with other disciplines.

[1] Klette, R., Rosenfeld, A.: Digital Straightness—a review Discrete Appl. Math. 139, 197–230 (2004)
