Dr.

Meenu Verma
Assistant Professor
The Graduate School College for Women, Jamshedpur
B.Ed. Semester 1
Paper EPC I: Critical Understanding of ICT

Computer - Input Devices

Following are some of the important input devices which are used in a computer −

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Joy Stick
• Light pen
• Track Ball
• Scanner
• Graphic Tablet
• Microphone
• Magnetic Ink Card Reader(MICR)
• Optical Character Reader(OCR)
• Bar Code Reader
• Optical Mark Reader(OMR)

Keyboard
Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which helps to input data
to the computer. The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although
there are some additional keys provided for performing additional functions.

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Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now keyboards with 104 keys
or 108 keys are also available for Windows and Internet.
The keys on the keyboard are as follows −

S.No Keys & Description

Typing Keys
1
These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digit keys (09) which generally
give the same layout as that of typewriters.

Numeric Keypad

2 It is used to enter the numeric data or cursor movement. Generally, it consists

of a set of 17 keys that are laid out in the same configuration used by most
adding machines and calculators.

Function Keys

3 The twelve function keys are present on the keyboard which are arranged in
a row at the top of the keyboard. Each function key has a unique meaning and
is used for some specific purpose.

Control keys

4 These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes four directional
arrow keys. Control keys also include Home, End, Insert, Delete, Page Up,
Page Down, Control(Ctrl), Alternate(Alt), Escape(Esc).

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 Special Purpose Keys
5 Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as Enter, Shift, Caps
Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab, and Print Screen.

Mouse
Mouse is the most popular pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device
having a small palm size box with a round ball at its base, which senses the movement
of the mouse and sends corresponding signals to the CPU when the mouse buttons are
pressed.
Generally, it has two buttons called the left and the right button and a wheel is present
between the buttons. A mouse can be used to control the position of the cursor on the
screen, but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.

Advantages

• Easy to use
• Not very expensive
• Moves the cursor faster than the arrow keys of the keyboard.

Joystick
Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move the cursor position on a monitor
screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends. The lower
spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick can be moved in all four directions.

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The function of the joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer
Aided Designing (CAD) and playing computer games.

Light Pen
Light pen is a pointing device similar to a pen. It is used to select a displayed menu item
or draw pictures on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system
placed in a small tube.

When the tip of a light pen is moved over the monitor screen and the pen button is
pressed, its photocell sensing element detects the screen location and sends the
corresponding signal to the CPU.

Track Ball
Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or laptop computer, instead
of a mouse. This is a ball which is half inserted and by moving fingers on the ball, the
pointer can be moved.

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Since the whole device is not moved, a track ball requires less space than a mouse. A
track ball comes in various shapes like a ball, a button, or a square.

Scanner
Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used when
some information is available on paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disk of the
computer for further manipulation.

Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted into a digital form
that can be stored on the disk. These images can be edited before they are printed.

Digitizer

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Digitizer is an input device which converts analog information into digital form. Digitizer
can convert a signal from the television or camera into a series of numbers that could be
stored in a computer. They can be used by the computer to create a picture of whatever
the camera had been pointed at.

Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet as it converts graphics and pictorial
data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer is used for fine works of drawing and
image manipulation applications.

Microphone
Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in a digital form.

The microphone is used for various applications such as adding sound to a multimedia
presentation or for mixing music.

Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

MICR input device is generally used in banks as there are large number of cheques to
be processed every day. The bank's code number and cheque number are printed on

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the cheques with a special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that
are machine readable.

This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The main
advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.

Optical Character Reader (OCR)

OCR is an input device used to read a printed text.

OCR scans the text optically, character by character, converts them into a machine
readable code, and stores the text on the system memory.

Bar Code Readers

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Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in the form of light
and dark lines). Bar coded data is generally used in labelling goods, numbering the
books, etc. It may be a handheld scanner or may be embedded in a stationary scanner.

Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value, which
is then fed to the computer that the bar code reader is connected to.

Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to recognize the type of mark made by
pen or pencil. It is used where one out of a few alternatives is to be selected and marked.

It is specially used for checking the answer sheets of examinations having multiple
choice questions.

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