WORKING OF INPUT DEVICES

INPUT DEVICES : is any hardware that takes input from the user.

TYPES OF INPUT DEVICES

 Keyboard
 Optical Mouse
 Trackball
 Joystick
 Light Pen
 Touch Screen
 Scanner
 Digital Camera

KEYBOARD: enters data into computer by pressing one key at a time.

STRUCTURE
 Alphanumeric Keys : (A-Z),(0-9),(+,-,*,/)
 Numeric Keypad : (0-9) on right hand side
 Function Keys : F1 – F12
 Cursor Movement Keys : , , , 

WORKING

Keyboard Keyboard System

Keyboard CPU
Controller Buffer Software

 When user press a key on keyboard, a tiny computer chip called Keyboard Controller,
records that a key has been pressed.
 Keyboard Controller places the code into a part of memory, called Keyboard Buffer,
indicating the key has been pressed.
 This code is called Key’s Scan Code.
  Then keyboard sends an Interrupt request
(special message to computer system in form of
signals) to the system software when it receives a
complete key stroke.

 When system software receives

an interrupt request, it evaluates
the request to determine an
appropriate response.
 It passes the scan code to CPU
then.

ADVANTAGE

 Faster in entering data than in positioning devices.

 More reliable and produce fewer error than others.

DISADVANTAGE

 Take a lot of time in practice to type quickly.

 Typing speed is still very slow when compared with computer speed.
MOUSE

Pointing device that translates the motion of mouse into signals.

MECHANICAL MOUSE

 Two rollers are placed attached to the

mouse ball exactly at 90 degree to each
other.
 When mouse ball rotates, rollers also
rotate.
 On either side, there is an infrared emitter
and on board chip read pulses (signal) from
infrared sensors turns them into binary
data.

DRAWBACK

Performance Degradation like ball takes dust and

obstructs proper motion of shafts.

OPTICAL MOUSE

 It uses small camera that takes 1500

pictures every second.
 Light Emitting diode (LED) bounces off
light of surface onto Complementary
Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
Sensor.
 CMOS sends each picture to digital to
see how the image has changed since
previous change.
 The Digital Signal Processor operates
at 18 million instructions per second.
 By analyzing these images, processor
determines the movement of cursor on screen.

ADVANTAGES
  User friendly for computer beginner.
 Easy and convenient to use GUI.
 Selection and movement on screen is faster than using keyboard.

DISADVANTAGE

 Not easy and convenient to input text.

 Issuing command is slower than keyboard.
 Needs practice.
 Requires flat screen to operate.

TRACKBALL

A pointing device that works similar to mouse.

STRUCTURE

Ball placed in base of mechanical mouse, is placed on top along with two buttons.

WORKING

To move graphic cursor on screen, only ball of trackball is to be moved, not the whole device.

VARIOUS SHAPES

 A ball
 A button
 A square

ADVANTAGE

Good for limited desk space as user doesn’t have to move entire device.

DISADVANTAGE

 It usually not as accurate as mouse.

 Ball mechanism of trackball also requires more frequent cleaning than a mouse.
LIGHT PEN

It is handheld input device that contains a light source or can detect light.

STRUCTURE

WORKING

 Light Pen contains a lens that focuses light from computer monitor onto photoelectric
cell.
 As monitor’s electron beam passes through lens, cells emit an electric pulses.
 Strengthen by an amplifier, pulse is sent as digital signal and computer determine
location of pen on screen.
 A touch of light pen’s control button tells computer to note this position for selection.

ADVANTAGE

 More direct and precise than mouse.

 Convenient for application with limited desktop space.

DISADVANTAGE

It requires special designed monitors.

TOUCH SCREEN

A monitor that has a touch sensitive panel on screen.

STRUCTURE

You interact with the computer by touching areas of screen with fingers that acts as input
device.

WORKING

Whenever user touches the screen, it disturbs the electrons emitted on screen and computer
processor recognizes the area where the electron are being damaged and considers it as
selection.

EXAMPLE

Kiosks, located in stores, hotels, airports and museums.

ADVANTAGE

 No extra peripherals are needed except monitor.

 It allows easy access o commands.

DISADVANTAGE

 It is not suitable for inputting a large amount of data.

 Only items already on screen can be detected.
SCANNER

An input device which translates paper document into an electronic format, which can be
stored in computer. The input document can be text, picture, graphics.

TYPES

FLATBED SCANNER

Like a copy machine, this consists of a box

having a glass plate on the top, and a lid
that cover the glass plate.

WORKING

The document is to be scanned is placed

upside down on glass plate. Light source
below plate moves horizontally from left to
right. After scanning one lne, light beam
moves up a little and scan next line and
process repeates for all lines.

HANDHELD SCANNER

It has set of LEDs placed in a small case, which conveniently held in hand during operation.

WORKING

To scan a document, a scanner

is slowly dragged very steadily
and carefully over document.
DIGITAL CAMERA

It allows you to take pictures and store

photographed images digitally.

STRUCTURE

WORKING

 It uses magnetic or semiconductor

technologies to store pictures in
binary form.
 These pictures can easily be
transferred to computer and after
transferring camera gets ready for
the next picture.
 The no. of photographs a camera can click depends upon the memory card of camera
which can be easily enhanced by adding a memory slot to it.
 Web Cameras can directly be connected to the computers where after clicking picture
it gets saved in computer directly.
 It is also useful in video conferencing.

ADVANTAGE

 It saves money for buying films and developing costs in long term.
 Images can be reviewed and edited.
 Unwanted images can be deleted from the memory.
 Photographic Images can be directly digitized without using scanner.
 Best for 3-D objects.

DISADVANTAGE

 Normally, these are more expensive than ordinary cameras.

 Photo Printing cost is higher than ordinary cameras.
 WORKING OF OUTPUT DEVICES
OUTPUT DEVICES: is any hardware component that can convey information to user.

TYPES OF OUTPUT DEVICES

• Monitors

• Printers

• Plotters

• Speakers

• Projectors

MONITORS

• It’s the most important output device

• 2 common types

– CRT

– LCD

• Featured by:

– Refresh rate

– Resolution

– Visible screen size

– Response time

CRT MONITORS

PIXEL:

CRT monitors a CRT is used as the picture of monitor. The screen is divided into rows and columns. Each
cell of this screen is called Pixel.
 • This vacuum tube contains a
negatively charged cathode which
shoots electrons at the back of
positively charged screen.

• The screen is coated with

phosphorous chemical.

• When the electrons strike the back

of the screen, phosphorous is excited
and it provides a glow to individual
pixels.

• The distance between these pixels

called as Dot Pitch and it is measured
in millimeters.

• The picture tube redraws the picture

after a short interval. The number of
times the electronic gun redraws the
picture on screen is called as the Refresh Rate and it is measured in Hertz(Hz).

• The number of pixels per unit area of the screen is called as Resolution. More the resolution, more
clearer will be the picture.

ADVANTAGES OF CRT

• Higher refresh rates.

• Ability to adjust images.

• Display full motion video better.

• Significantly lower cost because the technology has matured.

• Work better at multiple resolutions.

• Modern version may include a sleep mode for energy efficiency.

• Color fidelity, so essential for graphic artist, has not been matched by LCD’s.

• Screen images viewed from side angle are as good as when viewed straight on.

DISADVANTAGES OF CRT
 • Larger size takes up more desk space, the bigger the screen, the bigger the foot
print.

• Heavy weight.

• Heavier size limits easy and convenient movement.

• Expands more energy and throws off heat.

DVST

DVST behaves like a CRT with an extremely long persistence. A line written on the screen will be
visible for up to an hour before it fades away from sight. It is an alternate method for
maintaining the screen image which stores the picture definition inside the CRT instead of
refreshing the screen.

WORKING

DVST resembles the CRT, it uses the same e-gun and phosphorus coated screen. It also has two
guns

PRIMARY GUN:

It is used to store the picture pattern. It draws the picture by knocking out electrons from the
storage grid producing a positive charged pattern.
FLOOD GUN:

It is used to maintain the picture display wire grid just behind the screen.

DISADVANTAGES

• Picture erasing is not easy incase of DVST as storage charge removal is very difficult.

• It is not capable of being used in dynamic graphic applications.

• It might lead to degraded picture quality as background glow accumulated.

• On DVST only a single level of intensity can be displayed and only green phosphorus
tube are available.

TYPES OF FLAT PANEL DISPLAY

FLAT PANEL
DISPLAYS

EMISSIVE

PLASMA
LED PANELS
PANELS

PLASMA PANELS

WHAT IS PLASMA?

Plasma is often called as forth state of matter other

three being solid,liquid,gas.
 Plasma is a distinct state of matter
containing number of charged
particle.

CONSTRUCTION

• Plasma panels are two edge-

sealed layers of glass
separated by a thin layer of
neon based gas.

• There are horizontal

conductors on one glass layer and vertical on the other glass layer.

WORKING

• When the voltage is applied on the intersection of horizontal and vertical pair of
conduction the gas at the intersection become ionized and emit a spot light.

• All the conductor may have sustaining voltage applied to them that keeps the spot
eliminated for several thousand times a second.

• LED stands for light emitting diodes which are basically used in calculators, retail
counters, large digital watches etc.

• The first LED’s that were used deep red in color but other colors are also available now.

• It is a type of emissive device.

• In this a matrix of diodes is arranged to form pixel positions in the display.

• The picture definition is stored in the frame buffer.

• As in scan lines refreshing of a CRT, information is read from the refresh buffer and
converted to voltage levels that are applied to the diodes to produce light patterns on
the display.

• The screen used in computer devices is the LCD screen. The LCD screen produces images
by aligning molecular crystals.

• The LCD screen consists of twisted crystals. These crystals are present in twisted form
like a spring and they untwist at varying angles when varying voltages are applied.
 • These crystals are packed in two screens. The front screen is transparent and back
screen is reflective.

• The back screen reflects light towards the front screen. The light gets deviated by these
molecules.

• This backed and deviated light produces images on front layer.

ADVANTAGES OF LCD

• Light weight.

• Smaller foot print on desk leaving, freeing up work area on the user desk.

• Flicker free screen.

• More usable display area than on comparably sized CRTs.

• Low frequency radiation is practically eliminated.

• Easy adjustment storage and movement.

• Efficient energy and they do not generate heat.

• Good for basic web surfing.

• Potentially less eyestrain due to reduced screen glare.

DISADVANTAGES OF LCD

• Fragile screen may result in both screen and back light lamp damage if touched. Thus
not recommended in environments where it may be handled roughly

• Contrast ratio causes darkness to not be displayed true. Darkest area may be viewed
as dark grey rather than black

• Designed only for optimum resolution, can’t adjust images

• The color accuracy of an LCD monitor does not match that of a CRT monitors.

• These are more expensive than CRTs.

PRINTERS

• A printer is an output device that produces text and graphics on a physical medium such
as paper.

• Printed information is often called hard copy because the information exists physically
and is a more permanent form of output than that presented on a VDU (Monitor).
Printers can be grouped into - impact and non-impact printers-

IMPACT PRINTERS

An impact printer forms characters and graphics on a piece of paper by striking a

mechanism against an ink ribbon that physically contacts the paper.

NON- IMPACT PRINTERS

• A non-impact printer forms characters and graphics on a piece of paper without

actually striking the paper.

SPEED OF PRINTER

The printing speed of a printer is usually expressed in pages per minute (ppm).

RESOLUTION

Printer resolution is often expressed in dpi (dots per inch). The larger the number, the higher the
resolution.

ADVANTAGES OF PRINTERS

1. Information produced is permanent.

DISADVANTAGES OF PRINTERS

1. The time to get the printout is slow, when compared with display devices.

2. Paper is wasted for obtaining the output.

3. Printers are generally noisier than display devices.

How it works: The print head travels from side to side across the paper and is made up
of numerous pins which are pushed out to form the shape of each
character

The pins hit an ink ribbon against the paper so the characters are printed
out.

The paper is usually continuous with holes down each side and
perforations so the pages can be easily separated by tearing.

Because the pins make an impact against the paper the characters can be
printed through several layers of self-carbonating paper to produce
duplicate copies.
Speed: Vary from 50 to over 500cps.

Suitable uses:  Limited to situations where duplicate copies are needed and the
quality is not too important.

 Typical uses might be in warehouses where duplicate copies of

orders need to produce quickly and cheaply.

Disadvantages  The printing quality is low - these printers produce low to

medium quality black and white printing and can only print low
resolution graphics.

 Because of the impact of the pins against the paper, these

printers can be quite noisy.

Advantages:  The purchase cost is low and the running costs are very low.

 They can print fairly quickly, particularly if you remember that

multiple copies are being printed in one print run.

 They are robust and can operate in harsh environments.

 If several sheets of self-carbonating paper are placed into the

printer then the impact will produce duplicate copies.

DAISY WHEEL PRINTER

• In this, the print head is like a wheel and the characters embossed at the corner of
these arms. It resembles to the petals of daisy flower so it is called a Daisy Wheel
Printer.

• A motor spins the wheel at a very fast speed. Daisy Wheel Printer are Serial Impact
Printers.

• The output is same as letter quality printing.

SPEED

• These printer have very slow speed of order of 30

to 80 characters per second.

ADVANTAGES

• The final copy looks like it has been typed on high

quality typewriter.

• Can print letter quality characters.

• Printing can be performed in either direction, paper can be fed down or up and it has
only few moving parts.

DISADVANTAGES

• Printing speed is very slow.

• Cannot print graphics.

• They are very noisy.

• Must need to change the ribbon frequently.

INK-JET PINTER

• An ink-jet printer is a non-impact printer that forms characters and graphics by spraying
tiny drops of liquid ink onto a piece of paper. Ink-jet printers can produce letter-quality
text and graphics in both black-and-white and colors.

• Some ink-jet printers can print photo-quality images on any type of paper. Printer
resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi). The speed of an ink-jet printer is measured
in pages per minute (ppm).

HOW IT WORKS:

• The print head contains tiny nozzles through which different colored inks can be sprayed
onto the paper to form the characters or the graphic images.

• The ink is forced out by heat or by tiny piezoelectric crystals which change shape when
an electric current is applied across them.
SUITABLE USES:

• A popular choice for home use where small

amounts of printing are done and photographic
quality color printing is needed.

SPEED:

The speed over 150 ppm.

ADVANTAGES OF INK-JET PRINTER

• Inkjet printers are generally quiet.

• Inkjet printers can produce high quality color output.

• These printers are relatively inexpensive

DISADVANTAGES OF INK-JET PRINTER

• Specialized papers are required to produce high quality color output.

• The printing speed is slow compared to a laser printer.

• The ink cartridges and specialized papers are expensive.

• The ink may smear when printed on ordinary paper.

LINE PRINTER

How it works: These print individual pages and work in a similar way to photocopiers.

 A drum is charged to match the image and powdered ink

(toner) sticks to the surface. The toner is then transferred to
the paper and fixed by heat and pressure.

 A school or business printer would have a typical speed of 10 to

20 pages per minute (ppm).

 10 to 20 ppm.
Speed:

Suitable uses:  Common wherever fast, high quality printing is required.

Disadvantages:  Non-color laser printers are more expensive than ink-jet

printers (but the difference is narrowing).

 Color laser printers are considerably more expensive. (but their

speed and high quality output means they are becoming more
popular).

Advantages:  They are quiet and fast and produce high quality printouts.

 Running cost are low because although toner cartridges are

expensive to replace, they last a long time.

DRUM PRINTER
This is an impact line printer. It basically consist of a
drum which is divided into number of tracks. The
total tracks are equal to size of printer that is for the
paper width of 132 characters, a drum will have 132
tracks.

• A character set is embossed on the track.

The drum in the drum printer is made to
rotate at a very fast speed.

• Paper is sandwiched between paper and

hammer.

SPEED

• Between 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

ADVANTAGES

• Much quieter.

DISADVANTAGES

• You cannot do multiple forms.

CHAIN PRINTER
These are impact printers because the actual contact is made by chain on one side and

hammer on the other side of ribbon.

WORKING OF CHAIN PRINTERS

• These are called as chain printer because the chains are used for printing the output.

the chain is basically a kind of tape wound on two spools with a character set repeated,

three or four times.

• A character set may have 48,64 or 96 characters embossed on it.

SPEED

400 to 3000 lines per minute.

ADVANTAGES

• It adds flexibility.

• Better printing performance.

• Permits simplified type-changing

process.

DISADVANTAGES

• These make a huge amount of

noise.

• They can only print one type and

size of font and cannot print
images.

PLOTTER
How it works:  A drum plotter prints by moving a pen sideways over the surface
of a sheet of paper.

 One high precision motor moves the pen from side to side.

 Another high precision motor moves the paper backwards and

forwards.

 An electromagnet lifts and drops different colored ink pens onto

the paper to draw lines.

Suitable uses:  Plotters are restricted to line drawing and can only create a solid
region of color by drawing a number of close, regular lines.

 Plotters are often used in science and engineering applications for

drawing building plans, printed circuit boards and machine parts.

Advantages:  They are accurate and can produce far larger printouts than
standard printers.

SPEAKERS
 • These transducers convert an alternating
electrical current into sound.

SUITABLE USES

• They can output music as well as the spoken

word.

• Useful for blind users where text or figures

can be spoken by the computer.

• A speaker and computer-synthesized voice

can be used by automated systems to read
information such as telephone numbers or
traffic updates.

ADVANTAGES

• Cheap and widely available.

• Capable of producing very high quality sound.

DISADVANTAGES

• They are an analogue device so the digital sound signal has to be converted, usually by
a sound card.

PROJECTOR

WORKING OF LCD PROJECTOR

 • The video projector contains LCD
panels. At the center of projector
is a halogen bulb which is
surrounded by panels.

• The panels produce light. As the

halogen bulb heats up the crystal
melts and allow more light to
pass through. Hence the
intensity of halogen bulb brings
about the difference in tones.

• Higher the temperature of bulb,

lighter the tone and vice-versa.

• Images travel to the tube present inside the projector from DVD player or satellite box.

• These images in turn bounds on a screen that is coated with phosphorous. Every
fragment of light hitting the screen is termed as Pixel.

• On hitting the screen, the pixel breaks down into its color components i.e., red, blue, or
green.

• The heat produced by halogen, bulb is controlled by voltage that flows into LCD video
projector.

ADVANTAGES OF LCD PROJECTORS

• Enable a lot of people to be able to see something even from a distance.

• They also produce sharper images.

• They also have an edge in light efficiency.

• They generate largest possible image size.

• They can be used to throw smaller images a great option also. So it can serve as an
inexpensive.

• Low cost.

• Space saving.
 • Easy to install.

DISADVANTAGES OF LCD PROJECTORS

• Image quality may not be as good as projected.

• Dark room often required.

• Maintenance required.

• Installation can be more involved.

• Separate audio system required.

• The pixels on the chip can burn out. When one pixel burns out, you wont be able to
repair it. You will have to replace the whole chip.