Hardware – any physical device or equipment used in or with a computer system (anything

you can see and touch).

External hardware

 External hardware devices (peripherals) – any hardware device that is located outside
the computer.
 Input device – a piece of hardware device which is used to enter information to a
computer for processing.
 Examples: keyboard, mouse, trackpad (or touchpad), touchscreen, joystick,
microphone, light pen, webcam, speech input, etc.

 Output device – a piece of hardware device that receives information from a

computer.
 Examples: monitor, printer, scanner, speaker, display screen (tablet, smartphone …),
projector, head phone, etc.
Internal hardware

 Internal hardware devices (or internal hardware components) – any piece of hardware
device that is located inside the computer.
 Examples: CPU, hard disk drive, ROM, RAM, etc.

Computer Software Basics

Computer software

 Software – a set of instructions or programs that tells a computer what to do or how to

perform a specific task (computer software runs on hardware).
 Main types of software – systems software and application software.

Application software

 Application software – a computer program that provides users with tools to

accomplish a specific task.
  Examples of application software: word processing, spreadsheets, presentation,
database management, Internet browsers, email programs, media players, accounting,
pronunciation, translation, desktop publishing, enterprise, etc.

System Software

System software – it is designed to run a computer’s hardware and application software, and
make the computer system available for use. It serves as the interface between hardware,
application software, and the user.

 Main functions of system software – allocating system resources, managing storage

space, storing and retrieval of files, providing security, etc.
 Main types of systems software – operating system, device driver, utility software,
programming software, etc.

Operating system (OS) – a software that controls and coordinates the computer hardware
devices and runs other software and applications on a computer. It is the main part of system
software and a computer will not function without it.

 Main functions of an operating system – booting the computer, managing system

resources (CPU, memory, storage devices, printer, etc.), managing files, handling
input and output, executing and providing services for application software, etc.
 Examples of operating system: Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, Android OS, macOS,
Linux, etc.

Device driver – a software program that is designed to control a particular hardware device
that is attached to a computer.

 The main purpose of device driver – it acts as a translator between the hardware
device and operating systems or applications that use it
  It instructs computer on how to communicate with the device by translating the
operating system’s instructions into a language that a device can understand in order
to perform the necessary task.
 Examples of device driver: printer driver, display driver, USB driver, sound
card driver, motherboard driver, ROM driver, etc.

Utility software – a type of system software that helps set up, analyze, configure, strengthen,
maintain a computer and performs a very specific task (e.g. antivirus software, backup
software, memory tester, screen saver, etc.)

what is an input and output (IO) device?

An input/output (I/O) device is any hardware used by a human operator or other
systems to communicate with a computer. As the name suggests, input/output
devices are capable of sending data (output) to a computer and receiving data from
a computer (input).

Input devices allow users to interact with a computer by providing data or

commands. Some common input devices include keyboards, mice, microphones,
webcams, and scanners.

Output devices allow users to see, hear, or otherwise perceive the results of the
computer's processing. Some common output devices include monitors, printers,
speakers, and headphones.

I/O devices are essential for the operation of any computer system. They allow users
to interact with the computer and provide the computer with the data it needs to
function.

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Input Devices
This part of the computer encapsulates devices with the help of which the user feeds
data to the computer. It creates an interface between the user and the computer. The
input devices transform the information into a form acceptable to the computer.

An input device in a computer is any piece of hardware that sends data to the
computer, allowing you to interact with and control it. The data may be in the form
of text, commands, images, audio, or video.

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Output Devices
This part of the computer encapsulates devices with the help of which the user
receives the information from the computer. Output devices transform the output
from the computer into a form understandable by the users.

An output device is any piece of hardware that receives data from the computer.
Usually, this data is used to display information to the user in some form.

Through this article Input and Output Devices, we shall review the various input and
output devices which can be attached to a computer, along with their functions.

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Input Devices of Computer

A piece of hardware/equipment that enables the user to enter data into a computer
is called an input device. Some of the Commonly used input units used in a
computer system are as follows:
 1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. JoyStick
4. Light pen
5. Track Ball
6. Scanner
7. Graphic Tablet
8. Microphone
9. Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)
10. Optical Character Reader (OCR)
11. Barcode Reader
12. Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

Keyboard

The keyboard is the most basic and very commonly used input device which helps to
input data to the computer. The layout of the buttons in a normally used keyboard is
similar to the traditional typewriter, but there are a few additional keys provided by
different manufacturers for performing additional functions.

Normally available keyboards in the market were of two sizes 84 keys and 101/102
keys, but now keyboards with 104 keys or 108 keys are also possible for Windows
and Internet.

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Mouse

It is the most commonly used pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control

device and the earlier versions of it were built over a small palm-size box with a
round ball at its base, which tracks the movement of the mouse and feeds digital
signals to the CPU when the mouse buttons are pressed. Currently, the mouse has a
sensor at the bottom to detect cursor position.

Basic versions if it has two buttons called the left and the right-click button and a
wheel is present between the buttons to provide a scroll function. The movement of
the mouse on a flat surface is used to control the position of the cursor on the
display, but it cannot be used to feed text into the system directly.

Advantages

1. Easy to use
2. Not very expensive
3. The cursor movement is faster than the arrow keys of the keyboard.

Joystick

Just like a mouse, a Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to travel the
cursor position on a display. It is a perpendicular stick having a spherical ball at both
lower and upper ends. The spherical ball connected at the circuit having sensors
moves in a socket. The joystick controller can be traversed in all directions.

The functionality of the joystick is just like a mouse. Its applications are generally in
Computer-Aided Designing (CAD) and playing computer games.

Light Pen

Just like a pen, a light pen is a digital pointing device. This device is used to select an
item displayed in the menu or to draw anything on the display. It contains a
photocell and an optical sensor placed in a small tube at the tip.

When the light pen tip is traveled on the display, its photocell sensing element
calculates the screen location and sends the digital signal to the CPU.

Track Ball

The trackball is another type of input device similar to the mouse. It is most helpful
with a notebook or laptop computer, instead of a mouse. It consists of a ball on the
top which is half inserted and connected to the sensors. By moving fingers on the
ball, the cursor can be moved.
Because the whole device is not moved to move the cursor, a trackball requires less
space as compared to the mouse. This device comes in different shapes like a ball, a
square, or a button.

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Scanner

A scanner is another input device, which works very much like a photocopy machine.
It can be used when some information on paper is to be transferred to the hard disk
of the computer in digital format for further manipulation.

The scanner captures high-resolution images from the source which are then
converted into a digital format that can be saved on the disk and shared digitally.
These digital images can be edited before they are printed.

Digitizer

A digitizer is also an input device that is used to convert analog information into
digital form. Using a digitizer, the signal from the television or camera can be
transformed into a series of numbers that could be saved in a computer hard drive.
They can be helpful with the computer to create a picture of whatever the camera
has been pointed at.

Digitizer is also called Tablet or Graphics Tablet because it transforms graphics and
pictorial data into binary inputs to the system. A special kind of graphic tablet as a
digitizer is used for fine works of drawing and image-related applications.

Microphone

A microphone or mic is a very common input device used to input sound that is then
stored in a digital form. Nowadays microphones are used in almost every industry
and devices related to sound recording or transmission.

The microphone is used for different applications like adding sound to a multimedia
presentation or for mixing music, voice calling and recording, video conferencing,
and more.

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Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)

The MICR input device is commonly seen in banks as there are a huge amount of
cheques to be processed every day. The important details like the bank’s code
number and cheque number are printed on the cheques with specially designed ink
based on the particles of magnetic material that is readable by the sensors of the
machine.

This method of reading is recognized as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR).

The main benefits of using MICR are that it is comparatively fast and less prone to
errors.

Optical Character Reader (OCR)

It is an input device that is used to read a printed text similar to the scanner, but the
method of reading and the type of output generated is different. The format to be
fed to the OCR is predefined and can’t be used as an ordinary scanner.

OCR, unlike a scanner, scans the text optically, character by character, converts them
into a machine-readable digital code instead of creating high-resolution images, and
stores the text on the system memory.

Bar Code Readers

Bar Code Reader is an input device used to read special format barcoded data (data
in the form of light and dark lines). Barcoded data is commonly used to create price
tags, in labeling goods, numbering the books, etc. It can be a handheld scanner or
can be embedded in a stationary scanner on the tabletop.

A flash of light from the device strikes the surface of the object and reflects the
sensors present behind the source of light to collect the input. Bar Code Reader can
only scan a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value, which is then
transferred to the computer that the bar code reader is connected to.

Optical Mark Readers (OMR)

OMR is a special type of input machine. This sort of optical scanner is used to identify
the type of mark made by pen or pencil. It is used where one out of a predefined
alternative is to be selected and marked.

The format to be fed to the OMR is predefined and can’t be used as an ordinary
scanner.

It is specially used for automation of the answer sheet analysis of examinations

having multiple-choice questions.

Webcam

A Webcam is a camera that is combined with a computer. Unlike a digital camera,

they cannot function independently and should be connected to the
computer/laptop for operation. It functions as an input device that can take pictures
and is mostly used for video streaming and video conferencing or chatting.

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Biometric Devices

Biometrics relates to a method in which a person is identified through his/her

biological features such as fingerprints, facial structure, eye cornea, etc. It is done by
using biometric devices, which can be of different types based on their scanning
features and abilities, such as Face Scanner, Hand Scanner, Fingerprint Scanner,
Retina or Iris Scanner, Voice Scanner, etc.

Output Devices
A piece of hardware/equipment that presents the result of the entered input, once it
is processed, is called an output device. Several output devices display output in
various ways such as images, text, hard copies, and audio/video.

Some of the Commonly used input units used in a computer system are as follows:

1. Monitor/Display Screen
2. Printer
3. Speakers/Headphones
4. Projector
5. Plotter
6. Braille Reader
Monitors

Monitors or Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the primary output devices of a computer
system. It generates images from tiny dots, termed pixels that are arranged in a well-
defined rectangular form. The depth and sharpness of the image depend upon the
number and size of the pixels.

Printers

A printer is a very commonly practiced output device, which is used to print

information on paper. There are two types of printers:

1. Impact Printers
2. Non-Impact Printers

Projector

A projector is an optical output device that can take images produced by a computer
and project or present them onto a screen or surface called a projector. In the older
version of projectors, images were created by shining the light through a small
transparent lens on the projector; however, the new version of projectors uses laser
technology for the same. Projectors are most commonly used in offices, classrooms,
auditoriums, theatres to watch presentations, videos, or pictures generated from a
computer or laptop.

Speakers

Computer speakers are the most popular output devices used with a computer to
listen to sound. These speakers receive audio as input either in analog or digital form
and generate sound as an output. With the advancement of technology, speakers are
now available with wireless and BlueTooth facilities as well.

Headphones

The headphones or earphones or headsets are hardware output tools that are either
plugged into the computer or can be wireless. They offer the same function as a
speaker, the only difference is the frequency of sound. With speakers, the sound can
be detected over a larger distance while utilizing headphones, the sound is only
audible to the individual using them. Headphones are available in multiple shapes
and sizes.
Plotters

A plotter is a computer output device that is primarily used to produce high-quality

drawings, designs, and graphics. It is different from other printers as it uses one or
more pens or markers to draw continuous lines on paper or other suitable materials,
rather than using dots or pixels to create images.

Braille reader

A Braille reader is a computer output device designed for individuals with visual
impairments, specifically those who read Braille. It enables them to access digital
information by converting text into Braille characters that can be read by touch.

Difference between Input and Output Devices

Criteria Input Devices Output Devices

Function Input devices are used to provide data and Output devices are used to extract or retrieve data
control signals to an information processing from the computer, usually after some processing.
system like a computer.

Data Flow Data flows from the device to the Data flows from the computer to the device.
computer.

Types Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Microphone, Monitor, Printer, Speakers, Headphones, Projector, etc.
Webcam, etc.

Use Example A keyboard is used to input text into a A printer is used to output text or images from a
computer. computer onto paper.

Interaction They allow users to input data into the They allow the computer to present the result of this
computer for processing. processing to the user.

Processing They usually do not need to process data They usually process data to some extent before
Requirement themselves; they simply capture user input presenting it; for example, a printer processes text and
and send it to the computer. graphics data to produce physical prints.

User Input devices require active user Some output devices can operate without continuous
Involvement involvement; without user input, they do user involvement; for example, a printer can complete
not generally send data to the computer. a print job while the user does other tasks.
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