Input-Output Devices

• In computer terminology, a device can be referred to

as a unit of hardware, which is capable of providing
input to the computer or receiving output, or both.
• Input devices are used to enter the data and
instructions into the computer system before any
processing can be performed.
• Output devices are used for the conversion of
machine-readable information into human-readable
form. The output devices display the processed
information by converting them into graphical,
alphanumeric, or audio-visual form.
 TYPES OF INPUT DEVICES
• Computer accepts input in two ways, either
manually or directly. In case of manual data entry,
the user enters the data into computer by hand,
for example, by using keyboard and mouse.
• A user can also enter data directly by transferring
information automatically from a source
document (like from a cheque using MICR) into
the computer. The user does not need to enter
information manually. Direct data entry is
accomplished by using special direct data entry
devices like a barcode reader.
 1. Keyboard
• The layout of a keyboard comes in various styles, such as
QWERTY, AZERTY and DVORAK. QWERTY is the most
common layout in English language computer
keyboards. It takes its name from the first six letters
shown on the keyboard's top row of letters. Similarly,
French language keyboards use A and Z in place of Q
and W and are known as AZERTY keyboards.
• A keyboard is the most common data entry device.
Using a keyboard, the user can type text and commands.
The keyboard is designed to resemble a regular
typewriter with a few additional keys. Data is entered
into the computer by simply pressing The number of
keys on a typical keyboard varies from 84 to 104.
 How does the keyboard work?
• keyboard microprocessor that monitors the state of each switch
and initiates a specific response to a change in state.
• When the user presses a key, it causes a change in the amount of
current flowing through the circuit associated specifically with
that key.
• The keyboard microprocessor detects this change in current flow.
By doing this, the processor can tell when a key has been pressed
and when it is being released.
• Keyboard circuit carries a signal to the microprocessor, the
processor generates the associative code, known as scan code, of
the key and sends it to the operating system.
• A copy of this code is also stored in the keyboard's memory. When
the operating system reads the scan code, it informs the same to
the keyboard and the scan code stored in keyboard's memory is
then erased.
 2. Pointing Devices
• A pointing device is used to communicate with
the computer by pointing to locations on the
monitor screen. Such devices do not require
keying of characters; instead the user can
move a cursor on the screen and perform
move, click, or drag operations.
 Pointing Device - Mouse
• A Mouse is a small handheld pointing device with a rubber
ball embedded at its lower side and buttons on the top.
Usually, a mouse contains two or three buttons, which can
be used to input commands or information. It may be
classified as a mechanical mouse or an optical mouse, based
on the technology it uses.
• A mechanical mouse uses a rubber ball at the bottom
surface, which rotates as the mouse is moved along a flat
surface, to move the cursor. It is the most common and least
expensive pointing device.
• An optical mouse uses a light beam instead of a rotating ball
to detect movement across a specially patterned mouse
pad. As the user rolls the mouse on a flat surface, the cursor
on the screen also moves in the direction of the mouse's
movement.
 Pointing Device -Light Pen
• A light pen (sometimes called mouse pen) is a hand-
held electro-optical pointing device which a when
touched to or aimed closely at a connected computer
monitor, will allow the computer to determine where
on that screen the pen is aimed. It facilitates drawing
images and selects objects on the display screen by
directly pointing to the objects.
• It is a pen-like device, which is connected to the
machine by a cable. Although named light pen, it
actually does not emit light but its light-sensitive
diode would sense the light coming from the screen.
 Pointing Device-Trackpad
• Trackpad (also referred to as touchpad) is a
stationary pointing device that works by sensing
the movement of fingers across a small sensitive
surface (1.5 or 2 inches) and translating them into
the pointer movement on the screen.
• It is generally used in laptops but can also be
connected to a PC through a cord. It is also
equipped in personal digital assistants (PDAs) and
media players such as the iPod.
• Typically, a trackpad also consists of two or three
buttons which work as mouse buttons.
 Pointing Device-Touch Screen
• A touch screen is a special kind of input device
that allows the direct selection of a menu item
or the desired icon with the touch of finger.
Essentially, it registers the input when a finger
or other object is touched to the screen.
• However, it is not suitable for input of large
amounts of data. Typically, it is used in
information-providing systems like hospitals,
airlines and railway reservation counters,
amusement parks, and so on.
 3. Speech Recognition
• Speech recognition is one of the most
interactive systems to communicate with the
computer. The user can simply instruct the
computer, with the help of a microphone
(along with a speech recognition software), to
perform a task . It is the technology by which
sounds, words or phrases spoken by humans
are converted into digital signals, and these
signals are transformed into computer-
generated text or commands.
 4. Webcam
• A webcam (short form of web camera) is a
portable video camera, which captures live
video or images that may be viewed in real
time over a network or the Internet. It is just a
small digital camera that is either built in your
computer (in most laptops) or can be
connected through a USB port. It is normally
placed on top of the PC monitor or laptop to
capture images of the user while he/she is
working on the computer.
 5. Scanners
• There are a number of situations when some
information (picture or text) is available on
paper and is needed on the computer for
further manipulation.
• A scanner is an input device that converts a
document into an electronic format that can
be stored on the disk. The electronic image
can be edited, manipulated, combined and
printed by using the image editing software.
• Scanners are also called optical scanners as
they use a light beam to scan the input data.
• Note that most scanners come with a utility program
that allow them to communicate with the computer
and save the scanned images as a graphic files on the
computer. Moreover, they can store images in both
greyscale and colour mode.
• Hand-held Scanner: A hand-held scanner consists of
LEDs, which are placed over the document to be
scanned. This scanner performs the scanning of the
document very slowly from the top to the bottom
with its light on. In this process, all the documents are
converted and then stored as images. While working,
the scanner is dragged very steadily and carefully
over the document at a constant speed without
stopping or jerking in order to obtain best results.
• Flatbed Scanner: A flatbed scanner looks similar
to a photocopier machine. It consists of a box
containing a glass plate on its top and a lid that
covers the glass plate. This glass plate is used for
placing the document to be scanned. The light
beam is placed below the glass plate and when it
is activated, it moves horizontally from left to
right. After scanning one line, the light beam
moves in order to scan the next line and the
procedure is repeated until all the lines are
scanned. Scanning an A4 size document takes
about 20 seconds.
 6. Optical Character Recognition
• If the document to be scanned contains text, you
need an optical character recognition
(OCR) software. This is because when the scanner
scans a document, the scanned document is
stored as a bitmap in the computer's memory. The
OCR software translates the bitmap image of text
to the ASCII codes that the computer can interpret
as letters, numbers and special characters.
• All OCR systems include a scanner for reading text
and sophisticated software for converting the text
into machine-readable form.
 7. Optical Mark Recognition
• Optical mark recognition (OMR) is the process of detecting the
presence of intended marked responses. A mark registers
significantly less light than the surrounding paper. Optical mark
reading is done by a special device known as optical mark
reader. In order to be detected by the OMR reader, a mark has
to be positioned correctly on the paper and should be
significantly darker than the surrounding paper.
• The OMR technology enables a high-speed reading of large
quantities of data and transferring this data to a computer
without using a keyboard. Generally, this technology is used to
read answer sheets (objective type tests). In this method, special
printed forms/documents are printed with boxes, which can be
marked with a dark pencil or ink. These forms are then passed
under a light source and the presence of dark ink is transformed
into electric pulses, which are transmitted to the computer.
 8. Magnetic-ink Character Recognition
• You must have seen special magnetic encoding
using characters printed on the bottom of a
cheque. The characters are printed using
special ink, which contains iron particles that
can be magnetized. To recognize these
magnetic ink characters, a Magnetic ink
character reader (MICR) is used. It reads the
characters by examining their shapes in a
matrix form and the information is then
passed on to the computer.
• The banking industry prefers MICR to OCR as
MICR gives extra security against forgeries such
as colour copies of payroll cheques or hand-
altered characters on a cheque. If a document
has been forged, say a counterfeit check
produced using a colour photocopying machine,
the magnetic-ink line will either not respond to
magnetic fields, or will produce an incorrect
code when scanned using a device designed to
recover the information in the magnetic
characters. The reading speed of the MICR is
also higher. This method is very efficient and
time saving for data processing.
 9. Bar Code Reader
• Bar code is a machine-readable code in the
form of a pattern of parallel vertical lines of
varying widths. It is commonly used for labelling
goods that are available in super markets and
numbering books in libraries. This code is
sensed and read by a bar code reader using
reflective light . The information recorded in the
bar code reader is then fed into the computer,
which recognizes the information from the
thickness and spacing of bars. Bar code readers
are either hand-held or fixed-mount.
 TYPES OF OUTPUT DEVICES
• Output is data that have been processed into
useful information. It can be displayed or viewed
on a monitor, printed on a printer, or listened
through speakers or a headset. Generally, there
are two basic categories of output:
• the output which can be readily understood and
used by humans, and
• which is stored on secondary storage devices so
that the data can be used as input for further
processing.
 Hard Copy
• The physical form of output is known as hard
copy. In general, it refers to the recorded
information copied from a computer onto
paper or some other durable surface such as
microfilm. Hard copy output is permanent and
a relatively stable form of output. This type of
output is also highly portable. Paper is one of
the most widely used hard copy output media.
The principal examples are printouts, whether
text or graphics from printers.
 Soft Copy
• The electronic version of an output, which usually resides
in computer memory and/or on disk, is known as soft
copy. Unlike hard copy, soft copy is not a permanent form
of output. It is transient and is usually displayed on the
screen. This kind of output is not tangible, that is, it cannot
be touched. Soft copy output includes audio and visual
form of output, which is generated using a computer. In
addition, textual or graphical information displayed on a
computer monitor is also a soft copy form of output.
• Printers, plotters and microfilms are the most commonly
used hard copy output devices while monitors, voice
response systems, projectors, electronic whiteboards, and
headphones and headsets are some commonly used soft
copy output devices.
 1. Printers
• A printer prints information and data from the
computer onto paper.
• The quality of a printer is determined by the clarity of a
print it can produce, that is, its resolution. Resolution is
used to describe the sharpness and clarity of an image.
The higher the resolution, the better the image.
• For printers, the resolution is measured in dpi (dots per
inch). The more the dpi, the better will be the quality
of image. The dots are so small and close together that
they project the image as a solid one. If a printer has a
resolution of 600 dpi, it means that the printer is
capable of printing 360,000 dots per square inch.
• Printers are divided into two basic categories:
impact printers and non-impact printers.
• As their names specify, impact printers work
by physically striking a head or needle against
an ink ribbon to make a mark on the paper.
This includes dot matrix printers, daisy wheel
printers and drum printers.
• In contrast, ink-jet and laser printers are non-
impact printers. They use techniques other
than physically striking the page to transfer ink
onto the page.
 2. Monitor
• The monitor is the most frequently used output device
for producing soft-copy output. A computer monitor is
a TV-like display attached to the computer on which
the output can be displayed and viewed. The
computer monitor can either be a monochrome
display or a colour display.
• A monochrome screen uses only one colour (usually
white, green, amber or black) to display text on
contrasting background.
• Colour screens commonly display 256 colours at one
time from a selection of over 256,000 choices.
Monitors are available in various sizes like 14, 15, 17,
19 and 21 inches.
• The size of the display is described based on
two parameters: aspect ratio and screen size.
• Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of the
display screen to the height, that is, the ratio
of vertical points to the horizontal points
necessary to produce equal-length lines in
both directions on the screen. Generally,
computer displays have an aspect ratio of 4:3.
• Like televisions, screen sizes are normally
measured diagonally (in inches), the distance
from one corner to the opposite corner.
• The screen clarity depends on three basic qualities:
• Resolution: It refers to the number of pixels in the horizontal and
vertical directions on the screen. In medium-resolution graphics, pixels
are large, whereas in high-resolution graphics, pixels are small. The
more dots, or pixels, available to create the image, the sharper it will
be.
• Dot Pitch: It is the measurement of the diagonal distance between two
like-coloured (red, green or blue) pixels on a display screen. It is
measured in millimetres and common dot pitches are .51 mm, .31 mm,
Pixel .28 mm, .27 mm, .26 mm and .25 mm. Dot Pitch smaller the dot
pitch, the sharper will be the image when displayed on the monitor.
• Refresh Rate: It is the number of times per second the pixels are
recharged so that their glow remains bright. Normally, screen pixels are
made from phosphor. An electron beam strikes the phosphor and
causes it to emit light, resulting in the display of the image. However, it
needs to be Refreshed periodically because the phosphors hold their
glow for just a fraction of a second. The Refresh rate for a monitor is
measured in Hertz (Hz) and varies from 60 to 75 Hz. A Refresh rate of
60 Hz means image is redrawn 60 times a second.
 3. Projector
• Screen image projector is an output device,
which is used to project information from a
computer on to a large screen, so that it can
be simultaneously viewed by a large group of
people. Projection display is commonly used
for classrooms training or conference room or
for multimedia presentations with a large
audience. Like monitors, projectors provide a
temporary, soft copy output.
 4. Electronic Whiteboard
• Electronic whiteboard is an interactive
presentation device that works electronically
to display digital images, drawings and text in
different colours. The whiteboard is generally
mounted on the wall and is connected to a
computer (through USB, serial port or wireless
technology like Bluetooth) and projector. The
projector projects the computer's desktop on
the whiteboard and user can interact with it
using electromagnetic pens, fingers or other
pointing devices.
 5. Headphone and Headset
• Headphone is an audio device equipped with a pair of
speakers attached to a headstrap worn by the users.
Headphones are used with almost all electronic devices
such as portable computers, CD/DVD players, mp3 players,
iPod, etc. They comprise high-quality speakers, are light in
weight and very comfortable to wear. They can be easily
connected to a computer via a mini stereo plug.
• The headphones allow the users to listen only; however,
some applications like live chats, videoconferencing and
telecalling services demand the user to also speak at the
same time. For such applications, a headset is used instead
of a headphone. A headset is a combination of one or two
speakers and a headphone .Headset microphone with both
the speaker and the microphone attached to a headstrap.