INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES

INPUT DEVICES:
 A components or peripherals devices that feed data or instruction into a computer for
display, processing, storage, or output refers as input devices.
 Input devices convert the user’s actions and analog data into digital electronic signals
that can be processed by a computer.
 Digital data does not require any conversion and is input direct into a computer.
TYPES OF INPUT DEVICES:
 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Microphone
 Scanner
 Touch Panel
 MICR( Magnetic Ink Character Reader)
 OBR (Optical Bar Code Reader)
 OMR (Optical Mark Recognition)
Keyboard:
 It is the most common and very popular input device.
 It has various 84 keys or 101/102 keys or 108 keys. (101 standard)
 It has additional keys provided for performing additional functions.
 When the user press any key, it first goes to keyboard controller which is processor
and has ROM, controller identifies which key is pressed and send to appropriate signal
to computer.
Types of keys in keyboard
Sl No Keys Description
1 Typing Keys These key include letters keys (A-Z) and digit keys (0-9), which
generally gives same layout as that of typewriters.
2 Numeric It is used to enter numeric data or cursor movement. Generally, it
Keypad consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid out in the same
configuration used by most adding machines and calculators.
3 Function keys 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 unique meaning and is used for specific purpose.
4 Control keys These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes four
directional arrow keys. Control keys also include Home, End,
Insert, Delete, Page Up and Page Down, Control (Ctrl), Alternate
(Alt), Escape (Esc)
5 Special Keyboard also contains some special keys such as Enter, Shift,
Purpose Keys Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space Bar, Tab, and Print Screen.
Microphone:
 Microphone is an input device to input sound that is converted into digital form and
stored at memory.
 The microphone is used for various applications like adding sound to a multimedia
presentation, for mixing music, telephone calls using PC, record our own voice and
distribute.
 To use microphone PC should have a sound card. It is a hardware used to translate
analog signals obtained from microphone into a digital form so computer store it in the
memory.
Scanner:
 It is an input device that can electronically capture the text or images such as
photographs, drawings, artwork and map etc.
 It takes the input in graphical form and convert it into 0’s and 1’s digital form then it
can be stored in the computer.
Touch Pad:
 It is stationary pointing device such as mouse.
 Touch sensitive surface may be just 1.5 to 2.5 inches rectangular or square in shape.
 It consist of a soft surface which is sensitive to finger movement or pressure.
Mouse:
 It is handheld pointing device.
 It is used to control the movement of the pointer on the screen.
 It is used to make selection from the screen by pointing to the item.
 It is connect to the computer using the cables.
OBR:
 It stands for Optical Barcode Reader.
 It consists of a series of parallel adjacent vertical bars are known as barcode.
 It can capture the information of a product which is in the form of barcode.
OMR:
 The process of capturing human marked data from various paper documents such as
test, exams and various surveys using optical device is called Optical Mark
Recognition.
MICR:
 It is stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.
 MICR uses magnetically chargeable ink to print the numbers and special characters on
the bottom of the cheque or other financial transaction documents.
 It provides a secure, high-speed method of scanning and processing information.
 The main advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.
OUTPUT DEVICES:
Output devices accept the data from computer (CPU) and convert the data into a form that
can be understood by the people. In other words, the device that are used to convert machine
readable information (0s and 1s) into human readable form.
Types of Output devices:
 Monitors
 CRT
 LCD
 LED
 Plasma
 Printer
 Impact
 Non-Impact
Softcopy and Hardcopy output:
 Softcopy
The electronic version of an output such as a document or a file which is stored on a
computer disk such as pen drive, DVD or hard disk are referred as softcopy.
 Hardcopy
 The physical form of output is called hardcopy.
 It is tangible and no skill is required to see the output.
 Searching the content is difficult on it.
 It is permanent in nature and it is more stable form of output.
 The devices which are used to create the hardcopy out are called hardcopy devices.
 Difficult to duplicate and distribute.
Monitors:
Monitors, commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the main output device of a
computer. It forms images from tiny dots, called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular
form. The sharpness of the image depends upon the number of pixels.
Emissive Vs. Non-Emissive:
Emissive Display: It is a device that convert electrical energy into light.
Example of emissive display are plasma panels, light emitting diodes (LED).
Non-Emissive (Transmissive) Display:
It uses optical effects to convert sunlight or light from some other source into graphics
pattern,
Example of Non-Emissive Display is Liquid Crystal Display (LCD).
Characteristics of Monitors:
a) Size: Screen size are measured in diagonal inches, the distance from one computer to
another opposite corner diagonally.
b) Resolution: The resolution of a monitor indicates how much density of the pixels are
packed. A pixel is a single point in a graphic image. The quality of a display monitor largely
depends on its resolution.

c) Dot Pitch: A measurement that indicates the vertical distance between each pixel on a
display screen. It is measured in millimeter. The dot pitch is one of the principle
characteristics that determine the quality of display monitors.
d) Refresh Rate: Display monitors must be refresh many times per second. The refresh rate
determines how many times per second the screen is to be red drawn. It is measured in Hertz.
The faster the refresh, the less the monitor flickers.
CRT Monitors:
CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube and is a TV like display attached to the computer on
which the output is displayed.
How it works:
A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) is a special type of a vacuum tube in which images are produced
when an electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface that create a visible spot and form
the collection of those spot form an image.

Advantages:
 They produce more colors.
 The cathode ray tube monitors have lower price than the LCD display or Plasma
display.
Disadvantages:
 Bulky Size
 CRT emit electromagnetic and x-ray band radiation filed which make negative impact
on human cell.
  It takes high voltage around 150 Watt.
Plasma Displays:
 A Plasma display is thin-panel in which each pixel on the screen is illuminated by a
tiny bit of plasma or charged gas.
 It is slim and flat rather than curved as CRT.
 It is free of distortion on the edges of the screen.
 The plasma display units has a clearer image, brighter viewing angle, better color
quality and higher contrasts ratio than the CRT and LCD display units.

LCD:
 It stands for Liquid Crystal Display
 An LCD monitors is a thin, light computer monitor that displays images through the
use of a liquid crystal display.
 The flat display technology used in laptops, cell phones, calculators, digital cameras,
and flat screen display.
 LCD monitors are much thinner, use less energy, and provide a greater graphics
quality.
 LCD monitors have completely obsolete CRT monitors due to their higher quality,
smaller size and decreasing price.
 LCD panel does not produce the light of their own, it requires external light to produce
a visible image, this light is provided at the back of the glass, which is called the
backlight generally CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps).
LED
 LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a special diode that emits light when an electric
voltage is applied to it.
 An LED is a small light bulb that easily fits into an electrical circuit. These light bulbs
do not get hot and they are illuminated by the constant movements of the electrons
which produce electric voltage.
 It is common electronic component that is being used in device like TV, computer, etc.
They are available in various colors like red, yellow, green etc.
 The actual difference between this and that typical LCD monitors is the backlighting.
The first LCD monitors used CCFI (cold cathode fluorescent lamps) instead of LEDs
to illuminate the screen.
Printer: Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.
Types of Printers
1. Impact Printers
2. Non-impact Printers

Impact Printers:
The impact printers print the characters when it’s head strikes on the ribbon which is then
pressed on the paper.
Characteristics:
 Inexpensive Cost
 Very noisy
 Can use carbon copies to multiple print
 Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
 There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image.
 Quality of graphics will be very poor.
Impact Printers are of two types
1. Character Printers: Character printers are the printers which prints one character at a time.
2. Line Printers: Line printers are the printers which print one line at a time.
Examples: Dot Matrix Printer (DMP), Daisy Wheel
Dot Matrix Printer
 In the market one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix Printer.
 These printers are most popular because of their ease of printing and economical price.
 Each character printed is in form of pattern of dots and head consists of a matrix of
Pins of size (5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which come out to form a character that is why it is
called Dot Matrix Printer.

Daisy Wheel
 Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of Daisy
(flower name) that is why it is called Daisy Wheel Printer.
 These printers are generally used for word-processing in offices which require a few
letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.
Advantages
 More reliable than DMP
 Better Quality
 The fonts of character can be easily changed

Disadvantages
 Slower than DMP
 Noisy
 More expensive than DMP

Non-Impact Printer
 It use ink sprayed against the paper in the form of character.
 In some machine heat and pressure are used to enable the toner powered in the shape
of character.
 It is faster and quicker than impact printer
 It produce high quality output
 Capable of printing both text and graph.
 Support many fonts and different character size.
Laser Printer
 These are non-impact page printer. They use laser lights to produce the dots needed to
form the characters to be printed on a page.
Advantages
 Very high speed
 Very high quality output
 Give good graphics quality
 Support many font size and different character size
Disadvantages
 Expensive
 Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a single printing.
Inkjet Printers
 Inkjet printers are non-impact printers based on a relatively new technology
 They print characters by spraying small drops of ink onto a paper.
 Inkjet printers produce high quality output with present table features.
 They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of
printing modes available.
 Color printing is also possible.

Advantages
 High quality printing
 More reliable
Disadvantages
 Expensive as cost per page is high
 Slow as compared to laser printer