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Input Devices: Keyboard

Input devices allow users to interact with computers by providing data and control signals. Common input devices include keyboards for text input, mice and trackballs for pointing and navigation, microphones for audio input, and scanners, digitalizers, and optical readers for converting physical documents and images into digital formats that can be read by computers. Without input devices, computers would only be able to display information and not allow interaction.

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65 views4 pages

Input Devices: Keyboard

Input devices allow users to interact with computers by providing data and control signals. Common input devices include keyboards for text input, mice and trackballs for pointing and navigation, microphones for audio input, and scanners, digitalizers, and optical readers for converting physical documents and images into digital formats that can be read by computers. Without input devices, computers would only be able to display information and not allow interaction.

Uploaded by

Galab Pokharel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Input devices

Any peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment) used to provide data and control signals to
a computer. Allows the user to put data into the computer. Without any input devices, a computer would
only be a display device and not allow users to interact with it.

Following are few of the important input devices which are used in a computer:

Keyboard

Mouse

Joy Stick

Light pen

Track Ball

Scanner

Graphic Tablet

Microphone

Magnetic Ink Card ReaderMICR

Optical Character ReaderOCR

Bar Code Reader

Optical Mark ReaderOMR

Keyboard
Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which helps in inputting data to the computer. The
layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are some additional keys provided for
performing additional functions.
Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now keyboards with 104 keys or 108 keys are also
available for Windows and Internet.
The keys on the keyboard are as follows:

Sr.No

Keys

Description

Typing Keys

These keys include the letter keys A Z and digit keys 0 9


which generally give same layout as that of typewriters.

Numeric Keypad

It is used to enter numeric data or cursor movement. Generally,


it consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid out in the same
configuration used by most adding machines and calculators.

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 some specific purpose.

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, Page Down, ControlCtrl, AlternateAlt,
EscapeEsc.

Special Purpose
Keys

Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as


Enter, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab, and Print
Screen.

Mouse
Mouse is most popular pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device having a small palm size box
with a round ball at its base which senses the movement of mouse and sends corresponding signals to CPU
when the mouse buttons are pressed.
Generally it has two buttons called left and right button and a wheel is present between the buttons. Mouse
can be used to control the position of cursor on screen, but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.

Advantages

Easy to use

Not very expensive

Moves the cursor faster than the arrow keys of keyboard.

Joystick
Joystick is also a pointing device which is used to move cursor position on a monitor screen. It is a stick having a
spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends. The lower spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick can be
moved in all four directions.
The function of joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer Aided Designing CAD and
playing computer games.

Light Pen
Light pen is a pointing device which is similar to a pen. It is used to select a displayed menu item or draw pictures
on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system placed in a small tube. When the tip of a
light pen is moved over the monitor screen and pen button is pressed, its photocell sensing element detects the
screen location and sends the corresponding signal to the CPU.

Track Ball
Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or laptop computer, instead of a mouse. This is a
ball which is half inserted and by moving fingers on ball, pointer can be moved. Since the whole device is not
moved, a track ball requires less space than a mouse. A track ball comes in various shapes like a ball, a button
and a square.

Scanner
Scanner is an input device which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used when some information is
available on a paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disc of the computer for further manipulation. Scanner
captures images from the source which are then converted into the digital form that can be stored on the disc.
These images can be edited before they are printed.

Digitizer
Digitizer is an input device which converts analog information into digital form. Digitizer can convert a signal from
the television or camera into a series of numbers that could be stored in a computer. They can be used by the
computer to create a picture of whatever the camera had been pointed at. Digitizer is also known as Tablet or
Graphics Tablet because it converts graphics and pictorial data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer is
used for doing fine works of drawing and image manipulation applications

Microphone
Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in digital form. The microphone is used for various
applications like adding sound to a multimedia presentation or for mixing music.

Magnetic Ink Card ReaderMICR


MICR input device is generally used in banks because of a large number of cheques to be processed every day.
The bank's code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques with a special type of ink that contains
particles of magnetic material that are machine readable.This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character
Recognition MICR. The main advantages of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.

Optical Character ReaderOCR


OCR is an input device used to read a printed text. OCR scans text optically character by character, converts them
into a machine readable code and stores the text on the system memory.

Bar Code Readers


Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data datainformoflightanddarklines. Bar coded data is
generally used in labelling goods, numbering the books etc. It may be a hand held scanner or may be embedded
in a stationary scanner. Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric value which
is then fed to the computer to which bar code reader is connected

Optical Mark ReaderOMR


OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to recognize the type of mark made by pen or pencil. It is used
where one out of a few alternatives is to be selected and marked. It is specially used for checking the answer
sheets of examinations having multiple choice questions.

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