MODULE 4

INPUT DEVICES
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.

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.

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.
Different types of input devices are,
 Data entry device- Keyboard
 Pointing devices—mouse, trackball, joystick
 Pick devices—light pen, touch screen
 Audio input—speech recognition device-micro phone
 Video input—digital camera
 Scanner—hand-held scanner, flat-bed scanner
 Optical Scanner—OCR, OMR, MICR, barcode reader

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 .

Description
The design of a keyboard is similar to a standard typewriter. The modern keyboards are
QWERTY keyboard (Q, W, E, R, T, Y are the sequence of keys in top row of letters).
QWERTY is a keyboard design for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order
of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard.

Standard keyboard contains 101 keys which are arranged in the same order as a typewriter.
The keyboard has five sections
(1) Typing keys (1, 2, 3…, A, B, C…),
(2) Numeric keypad (numeric keys on right side),
(3) Function keys (F1, F2…. on top side),
(4) Control keys (cursor keys, ctrl,alt.…), and
(5) Special-purpose keys (Enter, shift, spacebar…).
Some keyboards have 110 keys, where the extra keys are designed to work with the Windows
operating system.
Working
When a key is pressed, keyboard interacts with a keyboard controller and keyboard buffer.
The keyboard controller stores the code of pressed key in keyboard buffer and informs the
computer software that an action has happened on the keyboard. The computer software
checks and reads the keyboard buffer and passes the code of pressed character to the system
software. Due to a time gap between pressing of a key on keyboard and reading by the system
software, keyboard buffer is designed to store many keystrokes together.
Pointing Devices
Pointing devices are used for providing the input to computer by moving the device to point
to a location on computer monitor. The input data is not typed; instead, the data is entered by
moving the pointing device. The cursor on the computer monitor moves with the moving
pointing device. Operations like move, click and drag can be performed using the pointing
devices. Mouse, trackball, joystick are some of the common pointing devices.

Mouse
Features
It is the most common pointing input device. The data is entered by pointing the mouse to a
location on the computer screen. The mouse may also be used to position the cursor on
screen, move an object by dragging, or select an object by clicking.. The cursor can be
positioned at any location on the screen by moving the mouse. It provides an easy way to
select and choose commands from menus, dialog boxes, icons, etc.
Description
Mouse is a small hand-held device having two or three buttons on its upper side. In addition
to the buttons, mouse also has a small wheel between the buttons.
A mouse is shown in the Figure .

The wheel of the mouse is used for the up and down movement, for example, scrolling a
long document.
A mouse is classified as physical mouse or optical mouse.
Physical Mouse has a rubber ball on the bottom side that protrudes when the mouse is
moved. It requires a smooth, dust free surface, such as a mouse pad, on which it is rolled.
Optical Mouse uses a Light Emitting Diode (LED) and a sensor to detect the movement of
mouse. Optical mouse requires an opaque flat surface underneath it. Optical mouse was
introduced by Microsoft in 1999. Optical mouse is better than physical mouse as there is no
moving part that can cause wear and tear, and dirt cannot get inside it

Working
In a physical mouse, rollers and sensors are used to sense the direction and rate of movement
of mouse. When the ball of mouse moves, the rollers sense the horizontal and vertical
movement and sensors sense the speed of movement. This information is passed to computer
via the mouse chord.
When an optical mouse is moved, a beam of light is reflected from its underside. These
pulses of light determine the direction and rate of movement. This information is sent to
computer via the mouse chord.

Using the mouse

The mouse can be used in five different ways, as follows—
1. Pointing points to a location or object on the computer screen. Moving the mouse by
hand moves the cursor on computer screen. The cursor moves in the direction in
which the mouse moves.
2. Left Click or Click means pressing the left button of mouse and releasing it. Clicking
is used to select a button, command or icon on the screen.
3. Right Click involves pressing the right button on mouse and releasing it. Right click
displays a menu that contains options like cut, copy, paste, font, paragraph, etc. for the
item on which the mouse is pointing.
4. Double Click means pressing the left button of mouse twice successively, without
moving the mouse, and then releasing the mouse. It is used to start a program or open
a folder.
5. Drag and Drop drags an object and drops it at another location. Drag means pointing
mouse to an object on screen, pressing the left button of mouse, keeping it pressed
and moving the mouse to point to a new location. The object gets dragged to the new
location along with the mouse. When the left button of mouse is released, the object
gets dropped at the new location. Drag and drop is used for moving folders, files and
icons to new locations on the screen.
Trackball
Features
Trackball is a device that is a different version of the mouse but has the functionality of
mouse. It is easy to use and takes less space than a mouse. Trackballs come in various sizes—
small and big.
A trackball is shown in Figure:

Description Trackball looks like an upside-down mouse. Instead of moving the whole device
to move the cursor on computer screen. Trackball requires the ball to be rotated manually
with a finger. The trackball device remains stationary. The cursor on the computer screen
moves in the direction in which the ball is moved. The buttons on trackball are used in the
same way as mouse buttons. Working Trackball works in the same way as a physical mouse.

Joystick
Features
Joystick is a device which is commonly used for playing video games. Joystick is mainly
used to control the speed of the cursor and is thus popular in games involving speed like
racing and flying games. The direction of push of the stick and the amount of deflection
determines the change in position and the change in speed, respectively.
Description
It is a stick with its base attached to a flexible rubber sheath inside a plastic cover. The plastic
cover contains the circuit that detects the movement of stick and sends the information to
computer. The position of the stick movement is given by the x and y coordinates of the stick.

Pick Devices
Pick devices are used for providing input to the computer by pointing to a location on the
computer monitor. The input data is not typed, the data is entered by pointing the pick device
directly on the computer screen. Light pen and touch screen are some common pick devices.

Light Pen
Features
It is a light sensitive pen-like input device and is used to select objects directly on the
computer screen. It is used for making drawing, graphics and for menu selection. Figures and
drawings can be made by moving the pen on computer screen.
Description and Working
The pen contains a photocell in a small tube. When the pen is moved on the screen, light from
the screen at the location of pen causes the photocell to respond. The electric response is
transmitted to the computer that can identify the position on screen at which the light pen is
pointing

Touch Screen
Features
It is an input device that accepts input when the user places a fingertip on the computer
screen. The computer selects the option from the menu of screen to which the finger points.
Touch screen are generally used in applications like Automated Teller Machine (ATM),
public information computers like hospitals, airline reservation, railway reservation,
supermarkets, etc.

Description
Touch screen consists of a clear glass panel that is placed over the view area of computer
screen. In addition to the glass panel with sensors, it has a device driver, and a controller that
translates the information captured by the glass panel sensors to a form that the computer can
understand.
Working
Touch screens have an infrared beam that criss-cross the surface of screen. When a fingertip
is touched on the screen, the beam is broken, and the location is recorded. The recorded
location is sent to the computer via the controller of touch screen, in a form that the computer
can understand.

Data Scanning Devices (Optical Input Devices)

Data Scanning Devices (Optical input devices) allow computers to use light as a source of
input. Scanner is an example of optical input device. Other common data scanning devices
are magnetic ink character reader used for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR),
optical mark reader used for Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), optical character reader for
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Barcode Reader.
Scanner
Scanner is an input device that accepts paper document as an input. Scanner is used to input
data directly into the computer from the source document without copying and typing the
data. The input data to be scanned can be a picture, a text or a mark on a paper. It is an optical
input device and uses light as an input source to convert an image into an electronic form that
can be stored on the computer.
Hand-held scanner and flat-bed scanner are the two common types of image scanners.
Hand-held Scanners are portable and are placed over the document to be scanned. They
consist of light emitting diodes. The scanned documents are converted and stored as an image
in the computer memory. Hand-held scanners have to be moved at a constant speed over the
document to be scanned, to get good quality scans. They are preferably used for low volume
of documents, small pictures or photos. They are difficult to use if there is a need to scan a
full page document. Some of the documents that are primarily scanned using hand-held
scanners are price tags, label and ISBN number on books.

Flat-bed Scanners provide high quality scan in a single pass. It is a box shaped machine
similar to a photocopy machine and has a glass top and a lid that covers the glass. The
document to be scanned is placed on the glass top, which activates the light beam beneath the
glass top and starts the scan from left to right. They are largely used to scan full page
documents.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

OCR is a technique for the scanning of a printed page, translating it, and then using the OCR
software to recognize the image. OCR uses optical character reader for recognition. The
optical character reader stores the scanned image as bitmap image which is a grid of dots.
Thus, you cannot edit the text that has been scanned. To edit the scanned text, you need OCR
software. The OCR software translates the array of dots into text that the computer can
interpret as words and letters. To recognize the words and letters of text, the OCR software
compares the pattern on the scanned image with the patterns stored inside the computer.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

MICR is used in banks to process large volumes of cheques. It is used for recognizing the
magnetic encoding numbers printed at the bottom of a cheque. The numbers on the cheque
are human readable, and are printed using an ink which contains iron particles. These
numbers are magnetized. MICR uses magnetic ink character reader for character recognition.
When a cheque is passed through Magnetic Ink Character Reader, the magnetic field causes
the read head to recognize the characters or numbers of cheque. The readers are generally
used in banks to process the cheques. The numbers in the bottom of the cheque include the
bank number, branch number and cheque number. The reading speed of MICR is faster than
OCR.

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)

OMR is used to detect marks on a paper. The marks are recognized by their darkness. OMR
uses an optical mark reader to read the marks. The OMR reader scans the forms, detects the
mark that is positioned correctly on the paper and is darker than the surrounding paper, and
passes this information to the computer for processing by application software. For this, it
uses a beam of light that is reflected on the paper with marks, to capture presence and
absence of marks. The optical mark reader detects the presence of mark by measuring the
reflected light. The pattern of marks is interpreted and stored in the computer.
OMR is widely used to read answers of objective type tests, where the student marks an
answer by darkening a particular circle using a pencil. OMR is also used to read forms,
questionnaires, order forms, etc.
Barcode Reader
Barcodes are adjacent vertical lines of different width that are machine readable. Goods
available at supermarkets, books, etc. use barcode for identification. Barcodes are read using
reflective light by barcode readers. This information is input to the computer which interprets
the code using the spacing and thickness of bars. Hand-held barcode readers are generally
used in departmental stores to read the labels, and in libraries to read labels on books.
Barcode readers are fast and accurate. They enable faster service to the customer and are also
used to determine the items being sold, number of each item sold or to retrieve the price of
item

Voice Recognition Device (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.
Microphone
Audio input devices like a microphone is used to input a person’s voice into the computer. A
sound translates analog audio signals from microphone into digital codes that the computer
can store and process.
Translating spoken words into text is also known as speech recognition or voice recognition.
The audio input along with the software for voice recognition is called the speech recognition
system or voice recognition system.

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
orvideo. The output could be on a paper or as audio, video. Output devices are classified as
follows—
Hard Copy Devices
  Printer
 Plotter
Soft Copy Devices
 Monitor
 Visual Display Terminal

Hard Copy Devices

The output obtained in a tangible form on a paper or any surface is called hard copy output.
The hard copy can be stored permanently and is portable. The hard copy output can be read
or used without a computer. The devices that generate hard copy output are called hard copy
devices. Printer, plotter are common hard copy output devices.
Printer
A printer prints the output information from the computer onto a paper. Printers are generally
used to print textual information, but nowadays printers also print graphical information. The
print quality (sharpness and clarity of print) of the printer is determined by the resolution of
the printer. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi). Printers with a high resolution
(more dpi) provide better quality output.
Printers which are used with computers are classified as
1. Character Printer
2. Line Printer
3. Page printer
A character printer prints one character of the text at a time.
A line printer prints one line of the text at a time.
A page printer prints one page of text at a time.
According to this consideration, printers are classified into 2 broad categories.
1. Impact printer
2. Non-impact printer.

Impact Printer
As the name suggests, it uses an impact to create an image on the output media. Impact
printers use the typewriter approach of physically striking a typeface against the paper and
inked ribbon. Impact printers can print a character or an entire line at a time. Impact printers
are low-cost printers useful for bulk printing.
Dot matrix printers, daisy wheel printers and drum printers are examples of impact printers.
Non-Impact Printer
They use thermal, chemical, laser beam or inkjet technology for printing a text. A non-impact
printer is faster than an impact printer. The disadvantage of non-impact printer is that, they
can produce a single copy of the text where as an impact printer can produce multiple copies
of the text.
Dot Matrix Printers
Dot matrix printers are character printers which can print one character at a time. The speed
of dot matrix printer lies between 200 and 600 characters per second (cps) . Dot matrix
printers can print alphanumeric characters, special characters, charts and graphs. They can
print only in black and white. Some dot matrix printers can print in both directions - left to
right and right to left.
A dot matrix printer has a print head which can move horizontally across the paper. The print
head contains an array of pins which can be activated independently on each other and strikes
against the inked ribbon to form a pattern of dots on the paper. To print a character, the
printer activates the appropriate set of pins.
Since dot matrix printers produce printed output as a pattern of dots, they can print any
shapes or characters. As they are impact printers, they can produce multiple copies by using
carbon paper.
Dot matrix printers are commonly used for printing in applications like payroll and
accounting.
Advantages
 Cheap in terms of both initial cost and cost of operations.
Disadvantages
 Very noisy in nature
 Produce only single colour output
 Slow printers

Daisy Wheel Printers

This is also a type of impact printer which can print one character at a time. The print head
of the printer is like a daisy flower with the pointing arms appearing like the petals of the
flower, hence the name.
The daisy wheel disk is made of plastic or metal on which characters are arranged along the
outer edge. To print a character, the printer rotates the disk until the desired letter is facing
the
paper. When the hammer strikes the disk forcing the character to hit on the inked ribbon
leaving
an impression on the paper. They produce letter quality document which is better than a
document printed by a dot matrix printer. The speed of daisy wheel printers is about 100 cps.
These printers are slow, can only print text (not graphics), and are costly in comparison to dot
matrix printers. Daisy wheel printers are used where high quality printing is needed and no
graphics is needed.

Drum printers
These printers are line printers which can print one line at a time.It consists of a solid
cylindrical
drum with characters arranged on its surfacein the form of circular band. Each band consists
of
all the printing characters supported by the printer. The drum printer has a set of hammers
mounted infront of the drum in a way that the ink ribbon and paper can be placed between the
hammer and drum.
The total number of hammers are equal to the number of bands on the drum. The drum
rotates at high speed and the characters at a point is printed by activating the appropriate
hammer. The drum of this printer is very expensive. Drum printers can print only pre defined
set of characters. Due to this reason the drum printers do not have the ability to print any
shape in different sizes, graphs etc.
Drum printers are impact printers. It can produce multiple copies by using carbon paper.

Inkjet Printer
An inkjet printer uses dot matrix approach to print text and graphics. Most inkjet printers use
multiple jets vertically aligned on a cartridge, which moves horizontally across a page. The
ink cadridges contain a group of tiny heaters. When a heater is activated, a drop of ink is
exploded on to the paper.
The print head contains an ink cadridge which is made up of a number of ink filled firing
chambers, each attached to a nozzle thinner than a human hair. When an electric current is
passed through a resistor, the resistor heats a thin layer of ink at the bottom of the chamber.
The bottom ink layer of the chamber is heated up to 900 degree Fahrenheit for a fraction of a
second. This causes the ink to boil and form a droplet at the tip of the nozzle. The pressure of
the vapour bubble forces the droplet to move to the paper. When the resistor cools down, the
bubble collapses. This results in a suction which pulls fresh ink from the reservoir into the
firingchamber. A color inkjet printer has four cadridges- one each for cyan(blue-green),
yellow, magenta and black.

Laser Printer

Laser printers are page printers. An entire page is processed at a time. They use laser beam to
produce an image of the page containing text or graphics.
The laser printing process consists of the following steps
1. The data required to be printed is transferred from the computer to the laser printer.
This is usually via an ethernet cable or wirelessly if the printer has wireless
capabilities.
2. The printer then has to reach the required temperature via the heating of the corona
wire. This wire once heated, passes an electrical static charge to the drum unit.
 3. The drum unit, now positively charged, is ready to receive the laser beam and begin
the data transfer process directly onto the drum.
4. Once the laser is activated, the beam reflects off a moving mirror unit which directs
the beam directly onto the drum unit.
5. In the areas where the beam hits the drum, the charge is changed from negative to
positive. The negatively charged areas now represent where toner particles will adhere
to the drum and be directly transferred onto the paper.
6. The ink roller now begins to coat the drum with toner. Toner is comprised of
microscopic ink particles which, now positively charged, adhere to the negatively
charged areas on the drum unit.
7. A positively charged sheet of paper is now passed close to the drum, attracting the
negatively charged toner particles onto the page.
8. The paper, now containing the inked content, is passed into the fuser unit where the
rollers fuse the toner particles to the paper.
9. The page is then passed through to the other side of the copier.
Laser printer components
Power supply
Requiring a high voltage in order to charge the drum, the power supply works to convert AC
current into higher voltages needed for the transfer process.
Photosensitive drum
The role of the drum unit is to attract positively charged toner particles onto its surface. In
order to achieve this, laser printers usually use a corona wire which carries a high voltage.
Once the drum is adequately charged, the laser beam is guided onto the surface of the drum
via mirrors which precisely scans the images onto the surface of the drum.
Toner cartridges
Laser printers use microscopic ink particles in a powdered form known as toner. Once heated
by the fuser unit, the toner melts allowing it to be fused to the paper fibres under pressure.
Like inkjet cartridges, toner is most commonly used in the CMYK colours. Combined, these
colours can recreate any colour palette.
Corona wires
The primary corona wire is responsible for positively charging the drum unit in order for the
drum unit to be able to draw the toner particles onto its surface.
The transfer corona wire is given a negative charge in order to negatively charge the paper
and draw the toner particles from the surface of the drum onto the sheet.
Both of these wires require high voltages in order to create adequate charge, this is supplied
by the high voltage power supply.
Fuser unit
The fuser unit comprises of two heated rollers used to physically fuse the toner particles onto
the paper. Using high levels of heat and pressure, the powdered toner particles are melted and
form a strong bond with the fabric of the paper.
Waste Toner Bottle
The waste toner bottle is used to collect excess toner from the photosensitive drum that is
unused during the printing process. Excess toner is deposited in a reservoir and once full, the
waste toner bottle must be replaced.

Soft Copy Devices

The output obtained in an intangible form on a visual display, audio unit or video unit is
called soft copy output. The soft copy output requires a computer to be read or used. The
devices that generate soft copy output are called soft copy devices. Visual output devices like
computer monitor, visual display terminal are common soft copy output devices.
Monitor
Monitor is a common output device. The monitor is provided along with the computer, to
view the displayed output. A monitor is of two kinds - monochrome display monitor and
color display monitor. A monochrome display monitor uses only one color to display text and
color display monitor can display 256 colors at one time.
An image on the monitor is created by a configuration of dots, also known as pixels. The
clarity of image on the computer screen depends on three factors—
1. Resolution of Screen—the number of pixels in horizontal and vertical direction. More
the number of pixels, the sharper is the image.
2. Dot Pitch—the diagonal distance between two colored pixels on a display screen
3. Refresh Rate—the number of times per second the pixels are recharged so that their glow
remains bright.
Monitors may be
1. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors that look like a television

and Non CRT displays like

2. TFT(Thin Film Transistor)
3. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors that have a high resolution
4. LED (Light Emitting Diode)
5. Plasma
CRT Displays
The CRT is a display screen which produces images in the form of the video signal. The
basic operation of a CRT can be represented as shown below:
A CRT terminal consists of a CRT display unit, a keyboard, CRt controller, CRT refresh
RAM.
A CRT display unit is the commonly used output device. It displays the data or information
received from the computer. It can display alphanumeric characters and graphs. The CRT
screen is similar to a TV screen. The CRT is a vacuum tube. An electron beam is produced by
the electron gun located at the back portion of the tube. The electron beam is directed towards
the front of the CRT screen. A coating of phosphor material is made on the inner surface of
the screen. The phosphor emits light when it is struck by electron beam. The colour of the
emitted light depends on the phosphor substance used.
A CRT display may be either monochrome or coloured. Monochrome displays are available
in green, blue, orange, yellow etc.
To produce colour display, three phosphors- red, blue and green are used.
Raster Scan
Characters or graphics displayed on a CRT are formed of a number of dot points. The dot
points are arranged on horizontal scan lines on the screen. In the raster scan method, the
electron beam is first directed at the top left-hand corner of the screen and then it is moved
along the first horizontal scan line. The beam illuminates the selected dots along the first
horizontal scan line, which are needed to produce characters or graphics. When the beam
reaches right end of the first scan line, it is turned off and retraced rapidly left side to the
starting point of the second scan line. Now it moves along the second scan line and
illuminates the required dots on it. This process is repeated and all the scan lines of the screen
are illuminated to display images, characters or graphics on the screen. In this method the
beam is scanned over the entire screen.
Random Scan Method (Vector scan method)
In vector scan method, deflecting plates are used to deflect the beam right or left, up or down.
The beam can be directed to any point on the screen directly. This technique illuminates the
selected dots on the screen directly. Straight lines can be drawn connecting any two points on
the screen. By applying the proper analog voltage to horizontal and vertical deflecting plates,
the electron beam can be directed to any desired spot. The vector scan method is suitable for
displaying graphics consisting of straight lines.
Non CRT Displays
Non CRT displays include LED, LCD and plasma displays.
Thin Film Transistor(TFT)
A thin-film transistor (TFT) is a type of field-effect transistor that is usually used in a liquid
crystal display (LCD). This type of display features a TFT for each individual pixel. These
TFTs act as individual switches that allow the pixels to change state rapidly, making them
turn on and off much more quickly. Because these TFTs are arranged in a matrix, they are
called "active-matrix" TFT.
Thin-film transistors are built by layering the thin films of an active semiconductor, as well as
a dielectric layer and some metallic contacts on a glass substrate. Glass is used because it is
nonconductive with excellent optical clarity. it is also nonreactive to the chemicals used in
semiconductor processing.
Thin-film transistors are primarily used in LCD displays, which is why glass is used as the
substrate.
LCD(Liquid Crystal Display)
A liquid crystal display or LCD is a combination of two states of matter, the solid and the
liquid. LCD uses a liquid crystal to produce a visible image. Liquid crystal displays are
super-thin technology display screens that are generally used in laptop computer screens,
TVs, cell phones, and portable video games. LCD’s technologies allow displays to be much
thinner when compared to a cathode ray tube (CRT) technology.
Here a liquid crystalline material is sandwiched between two glass or plastic plates. The front
plate is transparent and the back plate is reflecting. There is a coating of thin film on the front
plate. The coating is transparent and conducting. Its sections are in the shape of desired
characters. An electrically conductive film is put on the back plate.
A voltage is applied between a segment and the back plate to create an electric field in the
region under the segment. The electric field makes a change in the transmission of light to the
region under the segment.
Commonly available LCD’s are
1. Dynamic scattering type
2. Field Effect Type
In dynamic scattering type, the molecules are aligned in one direction under the segment
where the field is present. The crystalline molecules reflect more light in this condition and
this produces light characters on dark background.
In field effect type, molecules are polarized to absorb light where electric field is present.
This produces dark characters on silver grey background. LCD’s do not emit their own light.
Therefore a light source is to be used.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

LED is a PN junction diode, that emits light when a certain potential is provided to the
diode. LED is the short form for Light Emitting Diode It is a specially doped diode and made
up of a special type of semiconductors. When the light emits in the forward biased, then it is
called a light-emitting diode.
Three types of LED Displays are available
7-segment Display.
The 7-segment display consists of seven LEDs arranged in a rectangular fashion. Each of the
seven LEDs is called a segment because when illuminated the segment forms part of a
numerical digit (both Decimal and Hex) to be displayed. An additional 8th LED is sometimes
used within the same package thus allowing the indication of a decimal point when two or
more 7-segment displays are connected together to display numbers greater than ten.

9-segment Display
A 9-segment display is a type of display based on nine segments that can be turned on or off
according to the graphic pattern to be produced. It is an extension of the more
common seven-segment display, having an additional two diagonal or vertical. It provides an
efficient method of displaying alphanumeric characters.

14-segment Display

A 14-segment display is a type of display based on 14 segments that can be turned on or off
to produce letters and numerals. It is an expansion of the more common seven-segment
display, having an additional four diagonal and two vertical segments with the middle
horizontal segment broken in half A decimal point or comma may be present as an additional
segment.

Plasma Display
A plasma display is a computer video display in which each pixel on the screen is illuminated
by a tiny bit of plasma or charged gas. Plasma displays are thinner than cathode ray tube
( CRT ) displays and brighter than liquid crystal displays ( LCD ). Plasma displays are
sometimes marketed as "thin-panel" displays and can be used to display either analog video
signals or display modes digital computer input.
In addition to the advantage of slimness, a plasma display is flat rather than slightly curved as
a CRT display is and therefore free of distortion on the edges of the screen. Unlike many
LCD displays, a plasma display offers a very wide viewing angle. Plasma displays come in
conventional PC displays sizes and also in sizes up to 60 inches for home theatre and high
definition television .