Lecture 2

INPUT & OUTPUT

Input:
Data that is sent to a computer for processing is considered input. Input or user input is most
often sent to the computer using an input device.
Output:
Any information that has been processed by and sent out from a computer or similar device is
considered output.
Data processing:
The process of converting data into meaningful information is called data processing. Different
operations are performed on data to convert data into information.

INPUT DEVICES & OUTPUT DEVICES:

Input Devices:
The devices, tools and components that are used to enter the data into the computer are
called input devices.e.g. Mouse, keyboard, scanner etc.
A device which accepts instructions and data from the user and communicates these to the
computer. The input unit has direct access to the central processing unit.
Examples of Input Devices: 1. Keyboard 2.Mouse 3.Scanner 4. Joystick

box. Computer. The input unit has direct access to the central processing unit.
Some Input Devices: 1. Keyboard 2. Mouse 3. Scanner 4. Joystick, 5. Mike 6. Scanner

6 Pins Male 4 Pins Male 6 Pins Male 4 Pins Male USB WIRELESS
Connector Connector Connector Connector MOUSE AND KEYBOARD
Ps2 Mouse USB Mouse Ps2 Keyboard Usb Keyboard

The various types of input devices most commonly used are:

Keyboard
The keyboard is one of the most commonly used input device. The computer
keyboard is similar to a typewriter keyboard. The keyboard has keys made up of
letters, numbers, symbols and special function keys.
Question: - Why Keys of keyboards are not in sequence?

Advantages of the keyboard:

 It is very easy to use a keyboard
 It offers a number of facilities
 Editing or changing the input data is very easy with the help of the
keyboard
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 It is relatively Inexpensive

Mouse
The mouse is a pointing device. The mouse is used to control and manipulate
cursor movement on the monitor. The mouse usually has three or four buttons on it and a
roller ball which signals the movements made by the mouse on a flat surface. These
movements are transferred to the system. The mouse is rolled on a flat surface by the
user. It can be used independently, but normally it is used in conjunction with the
keyboard to improve the efficiency of the input operation. The mouse can be used to
select data. Also the mouse makes it possible to move fast from one par of the screen to
the other.

The various types of mouse in use are

 Mechanical mouse
 Optical mouse
 Opt mechanical mouse

Light Pen
The light pen is a picking dev ice. The light pen contains a photocell placed in a small
tube. This photo- cell detects the presence of light on the CRT (monitor). The tip of the
pen is moved on the surface of the screen to write or sketch data. The light pen is
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especially useful in Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications.

Joy Stick
The position and speed with which the joystick is moved is converted into digital
signals by the use of a lever. These signals are then sent to the computer system. This in
turn controls the movement of the cursor on the screen. The joystick is mainly used in
video games applications.
Track Ball
The track ball uses a hard sphere to control cursor movement. The bail can be rotated in any
direction by hand and this is translated into a digital signal to control the cursor movement on
the screen.

Touch screen:
A touch panel is a transparent plate which is fitted over the CRT. Input is registered when a
finger or any other object comes in contact with the plate.
There are two types of touch panels:
 Optical touch panels
 Electric touch panels

Punch Card, a Keyboard and Mouse

Track Ball, Touch Screen and Light Pen

Digitizer:
A digitizer converts a graphical or pictorial data into digital form which can be directly entered and stored
in a computer. A digitizer is also called as a graphics tablet.
There are two types of digitizers
 Image scan digitizer and flatbed digitizer
In the image scan digitizer, the entire image is scanned and reproduced
automatically. Therefore, the image scan digitizers are more powerful as compared to
flatbed digitizers. Flatbed digitizers are mainly used in simple drawings, graphs etc.
whereas image scan digitizers are used for photographs and pictures.
Scanner:
Scanner is able to directly enter text and images into the computer memory.
Therefore, the duplication work of entering data is eliminated and this also results in
increased accuracy. The speed of data entry also increases. There are two types of
scanners:

1. Optical Scanners
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2. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition devices

a) Optical Scanner:
The optical scanner uses a light source and sensor for reading the information on the
paper. It can read characters, pictures, graphics from the paper. The common types of
optical scanners are:

1. The Optical Mark Reader (OMR): This is capable of reading pre specified
marks made by pencils or pens with the help of light. Light is focused on the page
that is to be scanned. The reflected light pattern is detected by the device. These
types of scanners are normally used where the data is preprinted for applications.
eg. answer papers of the objective tests where the answers are marked with pencils or
preprinted forms.

2. Optical character recognition (OCR)

 Converts scanned text into editable text

 Each letter is scanned

 Letters are compared to known letters

 Best match is entered into document

 Rarely 100% accurate

Bar Code Reader

Bar code reader is a device which reads bar coded data. Data which is coded in the form
of light or dark lines (bars) is a bar code. Bar code readers are normally used in
applications like labeling of products in retail shops, super markets etc. A laser beam
scanner is used to read the bar code.
The most commonly used bar code is the Universal Product Code (UPC). In this code
the bars are coded as 10 digits. The first five digits define the manufacturer or supplier, and
the remaining five digits denote the actual product of the manufacturer.

b) Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR):

A special type of input device, this mainly finds application in banking areas. A
magnetic ink is used to encode the characters to be read. This ink contains iron
oxide particles. When a cheque is presented in the bank, the amount is encoded by
the bank employee in the lower right corner and the cheque is then processed with
MICR. Special character sets like E13B and CMC7 are used by these devices to encode
data. The E13B has four special character and the digits 0-9. The CMC7 has five special
characters, digits 0-9, and all alphabets.
The advantages of using MICR are that they speed up data entry, and even
roughly handled cheque can be processed relatively easily. However, among the
limitations are that special type of magnetic ink is required for. encoding characters
and only a limited number of digits and characters are available for encoding.

Voice Recognition Systems:

This system allows the user to talk with the computer. The Voice Recognition
System consists of a microphone or telephone into which the operator speaks. The
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speech is converted into electrical signals. The signal is input as the voice of the
operator. This is matched with an already entered pre-stored pattern of words called
vocabulary. When the closest match is found the word is recognized. Since each
operator may have a different style of speaking, all Voice Recognition systems are
highly operator dependent. Also a separate vocabulary for each operator is required to
be maintained. The advantages of the Voice Recognition systems are that they reduce
the cost of data entry. Also the operator can move freely while talking into the computer.

Output Devices:
The devices through which the processed information comes to the outside world is called
output devices.e.g. Monitor, printer, plotters etc.
The Job of an output unit is just reverse of that of an input unit. It supplies information and
result of computation to the outside world. Examples of output Devices: i. Monitor ii. Printer iii.
Plotter 2
HARDCOPY AND SOFTCOPY:
A soft copy (sometimes spelled "softcopy")
is an electronic copy of some type of data, such as a file viewed on a computer's display or
transmitted as an e-mail attachment. Such material, when printed, is referred to as a hard copy
Softcopy:

 it is an output copy of document stored in memory and can be seen on screen.

 It can modified easily.

 It need an electronic media for display.

 It is intangible.

 It is a digital version.

 It can be transmitted electrically.

Hardcopy:

 It is printed on paper.

 It can't be modified easily.

 It doesn't need an electronic media for display.

 It is tangible.

 It is physical version.

 It can transmit physical