4.

Input and Output Devices

Contents

 Input-output unit—Input unit, output unit

 Input devices—Human data entry devices, source data entry devices
 Human data entry devices
o Keyboard
o Pointing devices—Mouse, trackball, joystick, digitizing tablet
o Pick devices—Light pen, touch screen
 Source data entry devices
o Audio input device (microphone, sound card, speech recognition)
o Video input device (video camera, digital camera)
o Optical input devices—Scanner (hand held, flat bed), OCR, MICR, OMR,
barcode reader
 Output devices—Hard copy devices, soft copy devices
 Hard copy devices
o Printer—Impact printers (dot matrix, daisy wheel, drum), non-impact printers
(ink-jet, laser)
o Plotter—Drum plotter, flatbed plotter
o Computer output on microfilm (microfiche)
 Soft copy devices—Monitor, visual display terminal, video output, audio response
(speakers, headphone)
 I/O port—Parallel port, serial port, USB port, firewire port
 Working of I/O system—I/O devices, device controller, device driver

Why this chapter

What is the use of the computer for us? We may want to process data, write project reports,
listen to sound recordings, watch a movie and do many more things. But to do any of these
things, we should be able to provide the data to the computer and also get the output from
it. The input devices and output devices are used this purpose. The aim of this chapter is to
introduce the different kinds of input and output devices.

4.1. Introduction
A computer interacts with the external environment via the input-output (I/O) devices
attached to it. Input device is used for providing data and instructions to the computer.
After processing the input data, computer provides output to the user via the output device.
The I/O devices that are attached, externally, to the computer machine are also
called peripheral devices. Different kinds of input and output devices are used for different
kinds of input and output requirements. In this chapter, we shall discuss different kinds of
input devices and output devices.

4.2. Input-Output Unit
An I/O unit is a component of computer. The I/O unit is composed of two parts—input unit
and output unit. The input unit is responsible for providing input to the computer and the
output unit is for receiving output from the computer.
4.2.1. Input Unit

 The input unit gets the data and programs from various input devices and makes
them available for processing to other units of the computer.
 The input data is provided through input devices, such as—keyboard, mouse,
trackball and joystick. Input data can also be provided by scanning images, voice
recording, video recording, etc.
 Irrespective of the kind of input data provided to a computer, all input devices must
translate the input data into a form that is understandable by the computer, i.e., in
machine readable form. The transformation of the input data to machine readable
form is done by the input interface of input device.

4.3. Input Devices

Input devices allow users and other applications to input data into the computer, for
processing. The data input to a computer can be in the form of text, audio, video,
etc.Figure 4.1 shows some users working in an office. The data is entered manually by the
user or with minimal user intervention. Input devices are classified as follows—

Figure 4.1. Users working on computers in an office

4.4. Human Data Entry Devices

Input devices that require data to be entered manually to the computer are identified as
human data entry devices. The data may be entered by typing or keying in, or by pointing a
device to a particular location.

4.4.1. Keyboard

Features Keyboard is a common input device. It is provided along with the computer, and
is easy to use. It is used for entering the text data. For inputting the data, the user types
the data using the keyboard. When the data is being typed, the display monitor displays the
typed data. Cursor is a vertical line, an underscore, blinking line, etc. Cursor moves with
each typed character. The position of cursor indicates the location on monitor where the
typed-in character will be displayed. A keyboard is shown in Figure 4.2.
4.5. Source Data Entry Devices
Source data entry devices are used for audio input, video input and to enter the source
document directly to the computer. Source data entry devices do not require data to be
typed-in, keyed-in or pointed to a particular location.

4.5.1. Audio Input Device

Audio input can be provided to the computer using human voice or speech. Audio input to
the computer can be used for different purposes. It can be used for making telephone calls,
for audio and video conferencing over Internet, to record voice, to create audio files and
embed these files to be sent over e-mail, or, to translate spoken words into text, etc.

4.6. Output Devices
Output devices provide output to the user, which is generated after processing the input
data. The processed data, presented to the user via the output devices could be text,
graphics, audio or video. The output could be on a paper or on a film in a tangible form, or,
in an intangible form as audio, video and electronic form. Output devices are classified as
follows—

 Hard Copy Devices

o Printer
o Plotter
o Computer Output on Microfilm (microfiche)
 Soft Copy Devices
o Monitor
o Visual Display Terminal
o Video Output
o Audio Response

4.7. I/O Port
The peripheral devices can be connected to computer in several ways. Devices such as
network adapters and sound cards are connected to expansion slots inside the computer.
Printers and scanners are connected to ports on the backside of the computer. Also in a
portable computer, the PC Card connects to the PC Card slot on it.

The I/O ports are the external interfaces that are used to connect input and output devices
like printer, modem and joystick to the computer. The I/O devices are connected to the
computer via the serial and parallel ports, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, Firewire port,
etc. (Figure 4.27).

4.8. Working of I/O System

The working of I/O system combines I/O hardware and I/O software. The I/O hardware
includes ports, buses and device controllers for different devices, and I/O devices. The I/O
software is the device driver software that may be embedded with operating system or
comes with each device. The working of I/O system is described as follows—
  I/O Devices are attached to computer via the ports of computer. There are many
standard ports available on the backside of the computer case like serial port and
parallel port. If one or more devices use a common set of wires, it is called a bus.
For example, PCI bus, PCI Express bus, etc.
 Device Controller operates on a bus, a port or a device. It controls the signals on
the wires of port or bus. The controllers have one or more registers for data and
control signals. Controller may be simple like a serial port controller for a serial port,
or, complex like a SCSI controller. Some devices have their own built-in controllers.
 Device Driver is software via which the operating system communicates with the
device controllers. Each device has its own device driver, and a device controller
which is specific to the device. The device drivers hide the differences among the
different device controller and present a uniform interface to the operating system.
 Application programs use an I/O device by issuing commands and exchanging data
with the device driver. The device driver provides correct commands to the
controller, interprets the controller register, and transfers data to and from device
controller registers as required for the correct device operation.

Summary
 A user interacts with the computer via Input-Output (I/O) devices. The peripheral
devices are attached externally to the computer machine.
 Input unit accepts input data from the user via input device, transforms the input
data in computer acceptable form and provides the transformed input data for
processing.
 Output unit accepts output data from computer via output device, transforms the
output information to human readable form and provides the transformed output to
user.
 Some devices are both input and output devices. Hard disk drive, floppy disk drive,
optical disk drives are examples of input-output devices.
 Keyboard is used to enter text data. Standard keyboard contains 101 keys to 110
keys.
 Mouse is a small hand-held pointing input device used to enter data by pointing to a
location on the computer monitor screen.
 Trackball looks like an upside-down mouse and requires the ball to be rotated
manually with a finger.
 Joystick is a stick with its base attached to a flexible rubber sheath inside a plastic
cover. It is used for playing video games.
 Digitizing tablet has a flat bed tablet, and a pen with an electronic head which is
moved on the tablet. Digitizing tablet is used for computer aided design of buildings,
maps, etc.
 Light pen contains a photocell in a small tube and is used to select objects directly on
the computer screen.
 Touch screen is a clear glass panel that is placed over the view area of the computer
screen. The user uses the fingertip on the computer screen to select an option. It is
used in ATMs.
 Audio input devices use a microphone to input a person’s voice, a sound card to
translate analog audio signals from microphone into digital codes and speech
recognition to translate spoken words into text.
 Video input is provided using video camera and digital camera. Computer vision is an
area of computer science that deals with images.
 Scanner is used to input data directly into the computer from the source document
without copying and typing the data. A scanner can be a hand-held scanner or flat
bed scanner.
 OCR is a technique for the scanning of a printed page, translating it, and then using
the OCR software to recognize the image as ASCII text that is editable.
 MICR is used in banks to process large volumes of cheques. It is used to recognize
the magnetic encoding numbers printed at the bottom of a cheque.
 OMR uses an optical mark reader to detect marks on a paper. OMR is widely used to
read answers of objective type tests, questionnaires, etc.
 Barcodes are adjacent vertical lines of different width that are machine readable.
Barcode reader reads the barcode. They are used to read labels in departmental
stores and in libraries.
 Printer prints the output onto a paper. Plotter is used for drawing maps, blueprints of
ships, buildings, etc.
 Impact printers are those in which the typeface strikes against the paper. Dot matrix
printers, daisy wheel printers and drum printers are examples of impact printers.
 Non-Impact printers do not hit or impact a ribbon to print. Ink-jet printers and laser
printers are non-impact printers.
 COM is a high-speed and low-cost process to record computer output directly from
the computer tape on a microfilm. It is used to store manuals and for archiving of
records.
 Monitor is attached to the computer on which the output is displayed. The clarity of
image on the computer screen depends on the resolution of screen, the dot pitch,
and the refresh rate.
 Screen image projectors display information from the computer onto a large white
screen.
 Audio output device like speakers, headset or headphone are used to output sound
from the computer system.
 I/O ports connect the I/O devices to the computer. Serial and parallel ports, USB
port and Firewire are some of the commonly used I/O ports.
 I/O system uses the I/O hardware (buses, ports, device controllers and I/O devices)
and the I/O software (device drivers) for its working.
Questions
Section 4.1–4.2
1.Define peripheral devices.

2.Explain in detail the input unit of the computer.

3.What is the purpose input interface?

4.Explain in detail the output unit of the computer.

5.What is the purpose of output interface?

6.Name three input-output devices.

Section 4.3–4.4.1
7.Show the classification of the input devices.

8.Describe the features of the keyboard.

9.Give a description of the keyboard.

10.What is a cursor?

11.Explain the working of a keyboard

12.Name the different sections of a keyboard.