Input devices of Computer

Computer Input Devices: The input device is the hardware device that connects to the computer
system. The user can give the instructions to the computer with the help of these input devices. Input
devices can convert the data or instruction into the machine-readable form and sent it to the processor
for further processing.

Here we have discussed some essential input devices which are given below:

• Keyboard

The keyboard is the typewriter-style device which can use the alphanumeric keys or buttons for the
input given by the user to the computer system. There are various types of keyboard available
nowadays, which are designed with the focus on the specific features according to the user’s need.

Figure: keyboard and its keys.

The keyboard includes different types of sections such as control keys, function keys, LED indicators,
wrist pad, arrow keys, and keypad. Mostly the keyboards are similar to each other, but maybe one or
more sections are missing. The Smartphone and tablet keyboard do not come with the physical
existence of the keyboard.

• Point and draw device (mouse)

The computer mouse is the input device with standard features. Today we are using various types of the
mouse such as a cordless or wireless mouse, optical and laser mouse, etc. The mouse is the handheld
pointing device that can detect two-dimensional motions related to the surface.

This motion is translated into the movement of a pointer on display. The first mouse controlling
computer system was developed in 1968. Generally, the mouse used the ball rolling on the surface to
detect motion, but the modern mouse has optical sensors that have no moving parts.
 Figure: Diagram of the computer mouse
or draw device.

The computer mouse has one or more buttons to execute the operations such as the selection of the
menu item on display. Some system allows the user to use two or more computer mouse at once as the
input devices.

• Joystick

The joystick is a pointing input device with the stick that pivots on the base and reports its angle or
direction to the device. The movement of the rod controls the cursor or pointer on the screen. The C.B.
Mirick developed the first joystick at the U.S. Naval research laboratory.

There are various types of joystick exist, such as displacement joysticks, finger-operated joysticks, hand-
operated, isometric joystick, etc. The joystick is also known as the control column, which is the primary
control device in many civilian and military aircraft. It is used to control the machines such as cranes,
trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles, etc.

The joysticks are also used to control the video games and have one or more pushbuttons whose state
can read by the computer. The main advantage of the joystick is that it provides fast interactions, which
are needed in the game applications.

• Trackball

The trackball is a pointing device which consists of the ball in the middle held by socket with sensors to
detect the rotation of the ball. The trackball is the computer cursor control device. The trackball is
similar to upside-down mouse with the ball that sticks out. The user can roll the ball by the thumb,
fingers, or the palm to move the cursor. The trackball currently made by only three major companies:
Logitech, A4Tech, and Kensington. It has the same capability as click buttons on the mouse. The
trackball does not require much space. The trackballs are physically more extensive as compared to the
computer mouse.
 Fig: picture of the trackball

The trackball allowed continuous and fast scrolling and did not require repositioning. It needs less work
surface to perform the function. These are a little more expensive. The selection of trackball is not as
broad as other input devices. Trackball requires minimal cleaning as compared to other input devices.
The precision control is more in the case of trackball.

• Light Pen

The light pen is the computer input device which is used in conjunction with the computer’s cathode ray
tube display. It allows the user to point the displayed objects or draw on the screen with the greater
positional accuracy. The first light pen was developed around 1955 as part of the Whirlwind project at
MIT.

The light pen detects changes in brightness of neighboring screen pixels. The CRT scans the whole screen
one pixel at a time. The computer can keep track of the familiar time of scanning at different locations
on the screen via beam and the pen’s position from the latest timestamp. The light pens were common
on the graphic terminals during the 1960s.

The light pen is used to select or modify the text or data on the CRT monitor screen. This device was
used in the early form of manipulating and highlighted data on the screen. Some graphic cards are also
included the connection for the light pen. It can be used as the stroke input device. The light pen is
mainly used to manipulate and highlight the data or information.
 Fig: the picture of the Light Pen
and its parts.

The light pen consists of the photocell and an optical system placed in the small tube. When the tip of
the light pen is move over the monitor screen, and the user presses the pen button, then the photocell
sensing element detects the screen location and sends the corresponding signals to the CPU.

• Data Scanning Device (Image Scanner)

The Image Scanner is the digital input device, which is used to scan the images, printed text, objects and
then convert them into digital form. The Image Scanners are used in various domestic and industrial
applications like design, reverse engineering, gaming, and testing.

Fig: Image Scanner

The image scanner was developed in 1957 by the team of Russell kirsch at the U.S. National Bureau.
When the document is placed inside the data scanning device, then the image scanned first.

Fig: Block diagram of Scanner

Scanners can read red-green-blue color from the color array. The depth of these colors measured based
on array characteristics. The image resolution measured in pixels per inch.
 • OCR (Optical Character Reader)

The optical character reader or optical character recognition is the mechanical or electronic conversion
of images, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. The OCR is widely used in the form of
information entry from printed paper data records to the digital file. The optical character reader is the
research field in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and computer vision. It is used in different
areas such as invoices, bank statements, digital receipts, business cards, mail, print outs of static data.
The technique used in optical character recognition is the standard method of digitizing printed text.
We can electronically edit, search, store more compactly, display online, and use in machine processes
such as cognitive computing, machine translation, text to speech, key data, and text mining.

The early versions of optical character reader needed to be trained with the images of each character.
Those old versions of OCR can work only on one font at a time. Now, the advanced OCR systems are
capable of producing a high degree of recognition accuracy for every type of font.

Fig: The Optical character recognition.

These advanced systems support the variety of digital image file format inputs. The OCR systems can
produce formatted output that output contains approximates the original page include the image,
columns and other non-textual components.

• Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

The optical mark reader or optical mark recognition can capture the human marked data from any
document forms such as surveys and tests. There are various traditional optical mark reader devices
which can work with the scanner device that shines a beam of light onto the form paper.
 Fig: The
Optical Mark Reader.

The OMR can handle hundreds or thousands of physical documents per hour, and the accuracy of
Optical Mark Reader is up to 99%. It is mostly used in offices, academics and research departments
where a large number of hand-filled documents or forms must be processed.

• MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition)

The Magnetic Ink character recognition code is known as MICR code in short. This input device is used in
the character recognition technology. It can encode the characters which are mentioned at the bottom
of cheques and other vouchers.

The Magnetic Ink character recognition allows the user to scan and read the information directly from
the data collection of the device.
 Fig: The Magnetic Ink
Character Recognition.

• Bar Code Reader

The Bar Code Reader is the optical Scanner which can read the printed barcodes and decode the data
contained in the Bar code and send that data to the computer.

Fig: The Barcode reader.

These bar code readers consist of the light source, the lens, and light sensors for the translation. Every
barcode reader contains decoder circuitry which can analyze the barcodes image data that the sensors
provide data and send to the Scanner’s output port.

Fig: The Barcode Reader.

• Microphone

The Microphone is generally known as the mic or mike, and it is the input device. The Microphone can
convert the sound into electrical signals. These microphones are used in many applications such as
telephones, public address systems for the concerts in hall, live and recorded audio, sound recording,
megaphones, radio, and television broadcasting.