Cod Sec Syll

Chapter 3 Hardware: Input Devices

In this lecture we are going to learn about Module: Hardware (Input Devices) that is Keyboard, Mouse, Electronic Pen, Trackball, Touch Screen, Touch Pad, Digitizer, Scanner, and Microphone/Sound Card. Input Devices Input Devices are those devices that provide input to the computer. Examples of input devices are keyboard, light pen, graphics tablet, bar code reader, mouse, scanner, digital camera, electronic keyboard (music), microphone, touch screen monitor, etc. Lets discuss some of the input devices Keyboard It is the most common input device. A keyboard consists of the standard typewriter layout (the QWERTY keyboard) plus some additional keys. These include modifier keys, function keys, cursor movement keys and a numeric keypad. Keys of keyboards are operated by pressure applied by the fingers, as in typewriters. Function Keys

Cursor Move Modifier Keys

The long periods of keyboard use can cause injuries; this is why ergonomic keyboards are introduced. Nowadays, keyboards are called ergonomic keyboards. Image of an ergonomic keyboard style can be seen on the screen.

Mouse Mouse is a pointing device. Computers featuring graphical user interface (GUI) often requires the use of a mouse or any other pointing device. There are different kinds of mouse available; their basic method of operation involves moving the mouse over a flat surface causes a corresponding movement in a small pointer on the screen. Menu selections in GUI based environments are made by clicking one of the buttons on the mouse; it is also used in drawing packages.

Electronic Pen An electronic pen also called a light pen is a pointing device that is used to control applications by pointing to items on the screen. They are also used for applications involving graphics, such as drawing packages, since images can be drawn directly on to the screen. Trackball A trackball is an input device used to move the cursor. It is a ball which is rotated by the fingertips or palm of the hand. Trackball may be on the keyboard, or plug into the computer separately. A trackball moves the cursor in the direction the ball is moved.

Touch screen A touch screen is a transparent, pressure -sensitive covering that is attached to the screen of the monitor, which responds to the touch of a finger or any other pointer. When a number of choices are displayed on the screen as pictures or icons, the user touches the icon that represents their choice, and the computer displays information about that choice. For example; as most of the ATMs (automated teller machines) use touch screen.

Touch pad Touch pad is related to touch screen, but it works differently. It also uses pressure-sensitive material to record data where the pad is touched. Many applications at home, such as microwave ovens, air -conditioners contains touch pads for programming time or temperature.

Digitizer A digitizer is a table or tablet which has the capability of digitally recording the relative position of a cursor which is moved over the area or line that you want to digitize or record. Digitizers are often used in the mechanical and architectural fields for drawing. Scanner A scanner is an input device that transfers information from a piece of paper into a computer. To perform this, scanner sends a beam of light to the page and then measures the amount of light reflected back. Each color reflects a different amount of light, which is sent to computer.

Types of Scanners Drum Scanner - A drum scanner provides high -quality scans. They are also very large. They are more expensive and the most advanced. This scanner works with a rotating drum that scans the object with an intricate array of sensors. Flatbed Scanner - This is smaller scanner that fits on the top of a desk. The document to be scanned is placed on top of a sheet of glass inside the

scanner and then the lid is shut. A small scanning sensor, like a digital camera, moves back and forth inside the scanner, taking pictures of the document and compiling them into a large picture of the entire document that appears on the computer screen. Flatbed scanners produce medium quality images. Hand Scanner The Hand Scanner is for manual scanning. Hand Scanners look similar to mouse. They are moved back and forth across the document to scan a document. Hand Scanners aren t used much, except for scanning barcodes at stores. Photo Scanner - Although photos can be scanned by the other types of scanners, but the photo scanner is made just for photographs. Photo Scanners are great for converting film photographs into digital pictures.

Digital Camera A digital camera is type of camera that stores photographed images electronically instead of storing on traditional film. Images are held in the cameras memory or stored on disk until they are transferred to a personal computer. Once an image is transferred to a personal computer, it can be manipulated using specialized software.

Microphone/sound card A sound card is used to capture sound, speech and music from a variety of sources. Sound can be captured at a very good quality. Examples of using the facilities of a sound card include: * A microphone that is used to record speech (that is, input is given by speaking into a microphone), and then translates the speech into a form that the computer can process; for example translation of speech into word processing document. * Using of a voice recognition software that allows a user to dictate text

directly into a word-processing document.