Fundamentals

of Computers
Reema Thareja

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 Chapter 2

Input and Output

Devices

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 Input Devices
An input device is used to feed data and instructions
to the computer.

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 Keyboard
Keyboard
• Main input device for computers
• Most keyboards have between 80 and 110 keys, which include
the following:
✓ Typing keys Numeric keys
✓ Function keys Control keys
Advantage
▪ Easy to use and low-priced
Disadvantages
▪ Cannot be used to draw figures
▪ Moving the cursor to another position is very slow

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 Mouse
Mouse
• A pointing device that helps users to select items on screen by
controlling the movement of pointer
• Can be used to perform the following operations:
✓ Point Click
✓ Drag Scroll
Advantages
▪ Low-priced
▪ Easy to use and can be used to quickly place the cursor
Disadvantages
▪ Needs extra desk space to be placed and moved easily
▪ The ball must be cleaned to remove dust from it

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 Trackball
Trackball
• A pointing device to control the position of the cursor on the
screen
• Usually used in notebook computers, where it is placed on the
keyboard
Advantages
▪ Provides better resolution
▪ Occupies less space
▪ Easier to use as compared to a mouse as its use involves less
hand-and-arm movements
Disadvantage
▪ The trackball chamber is often covered with dust, so it must be
cleaned regularly

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 Touchpad
Touchpad
• A small, flat, rectangular stationary pointing device with a
sensitive surface of 1.5’’–2’’
• Users have to slide their fingertips across the surface of the pad
to point to a specific object on the screen
• The surface translates the motion and position of the user’s
fingers to a relative position on the screen

Advantages
▪ Occupies less space
▪ Easy to use
▪ Built in the keyboard so no need to carry an extra device

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 Handheld
Handheld Devices
Devices
Joystick
• A cursor control device widely used in computer games and
CAD/CAM applications
Stylus
• A pen-shaped device to enter information or write on the touch
screen of a handheld device
Touch screen
• A display screen that can identify the occurrence and position of a
touch inside the display region. The user can touch the screen by
using either a finger or a stylus

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 Optical
OpticalInput
Input Devices
Devices
• Use light as a source of input for detecting or recognizing
different objects such as characters, marks, codes, and images
• Some optical devices are:
➢ Barcode reader
➢ Image scanner

➢ Optical character recognition (OCR) devices

➢ Optical mark readers (OMR)
➢ Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) devices

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 Barcode
Optical Reader
Input Devices
• Works by directing a beam of light across the barcode and
measuring the amount of light reflected back
Advantages
▪ Low-priced, portable, and easy to use
Disadvantages
▪ Must be handled with care
▪ Can interpret information using a limited series of thin and
wide bars. To interpret other unique identifiers, the bar
display area must be widened
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 Image Scanner
• Captures images, printed text, photographs, etc., and converts
them into digital images for editing and display on computers
Advantages
▪ Any document can be scanned and stored in a computer for
further processing
▪ Scanned and stored document will never deteriorate in quality
with time
Disadvantages
▪ Scanned documents are bigger in size as compared to other
equivalent text files
▪ Scanned documents are uneditable

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 Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
• The process of converting printed materials into text or word
processing files that can be easily edited and stored
Advantages
▪ Printed documents can be converted into text files
▪ These files occupy less space and are editable

Disadvantages
▪ Cannot recognize all types of fonts
▪ Documents that are poorly typed or have strikeover cannot be
recognized
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 Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
• The process of electronically extracting data from marked fields,
such as checkboxes and fill-in fields, on printed forms
Advantage
▪ Works at very high speeds. Can read up to 9,000 forms per hour

Disadvantages
▪ Difficult to gather large amount of information
▪ Some data may be missing in the scanned document
▪ A sensitive device, it rejects an OMR sheet if it is folded, torn, or
crushed
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Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)
• Used to verify the legitimacy of paper documents, especially bank
checks
• Consists of magnetic ink printed characters that can be recognized
by high-speed magnetic recognition devices

Advantage
▪ Ease of readability and high security

Disadvantage
▪ Expensive equipment

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 Audio/Video Input Devices
Audio Input Devices
• Used to either capture or create sound
• Enable computers to accept music, speech, or sound effects for
recording and/or editing
• Some examples are microphones and CD players

Video Input Devices

• Used to capture video from the outside world into the computer
• Some examples are digital cameras and web cameras

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 Output Devices
Electromechanical devices that accept digital data from
the computer and convert them into human-
understandable form

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 Softcopy
Soft CopyOutput
Output Devices
Devices
• Produce an electronic version of an output. For example, a file
that is stored on a hard disk, CD, or pen drive and is displayed on
the computer screen
Features :
▪ Output can be viewed only when the computer is on
▪ A user can easily edit soft copy output
▪ It cannot be used by people without a computer
▪ Searching for data in a soft copy is easy and fast
▪ Electronic distribution of material is cheaper, easy, and fast

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 Monitors
Monitors
• Used to display video and graphics information generated by the
computer through the video card
• Similar to television screens but they display information at a
much higher quality
• Come in three variants:
➢ Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor

➢ Liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor

➢ Plasma monitor

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 CRT Monitor
• Specialized vacuum tubes in which images are produced when an
electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface
Advantages
▪ Provide good quality images
▪ Low-priced

Disadvantages
▪ Occupy a large space on the desk
▪ Bigger in size and weight and therefore not easily portable
▪ Power consumption is higher than in other monitors

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 LCD Monitor
• Thin, flat, electronic visual displays that use the light modulating
properties of liquid crystals
• Replacing CRT displays at a fast pace
Advantages
▪ Very compact and lightweight
▪ Consume less power
▪ Little or no flicker of images
▪ Cause less eye fatigue
Disadvantages
▪ More expensive than CRTs
▪ Images are not very clear when tried to view from an angle

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 Plasma Monitor
• Thin and flat monitors widely used in televisions
Advantages
• The technology used in plasma monitors allows producing a very
wide screen
• Very bright images can be formed
• Not heavy and are thus easily portable
Disadvantages
• Very expensive
• High power consumption
• Since the images are phosphor-based, at times, they may suffer
from flicker visions

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 Projectors
Projectors
• A device that takes an image from a digital source and projects it
onto a screen or another surface
• Can be broadly classified into two categories:
✓ LCD projectors use their own light to display the image on the
screen/wall. The room must be first darkened, else the image
formed will be blurred.
✓ Digital light processing (DLP) projectors use a number of mirrors to
reflect light. When using a DLP projector, the room may or may not
be darkened because it displays a clear image in both situations.
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 Hard
HardCopy
Copy Output Devices
Output Devices
• Produce a physical form of output. For example, the content of a
file printed on paper
Features :
▪ A computer is not needed to see the output
▪ Editing and incorporating the edits in the hard copy is difficult
▪ Output can be easily distributed to people who do not have a
computer
▪ Searching for data in a hard copy is a tiring and difficult job
▪ Distribution of a hard copy is not only costly but slower as well

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 Printers
Printers
• A device that takes text and graphics information obtained
from a computer and prints it on a paper

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 Impact Printers
• Print characters by striking an inked ribbon against the paper

Advantages
▪ Enable users to produce carbon copies
▪ Low-priced

Disadvantages
▪ Slow
▪ Poor print quality, especially in the case of graphics
▪ Can be extremely noisy
▪ Can print only using the standard font

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 Dot Matrix Printers
• Print characters as a pattern of dots
• Have a print head (or hammer) that consists of pins representing
the character or image
• The print head prints by striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon
against the paper

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 Daisy Wheel Printers
• The print head is a circular wheel
• To print a character, the wheel is rotated in such a way that the
character to be printed is positioned just in front of the printer
ribbon

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 Band Printers
• Printing mechanism uses a metal loop or band to produce
typed characters
• The set of characters is permanently embossed on the band,
and this set cannot be changed unless the band is replaced

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 Line Printers
• High-speed printers in which one typed line is printed at a
time
• Used in data centers and industrial environments

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 Non-Impact Printers
• Much quieter as their printing heads do not strike the paper
• Offer better print quality, faster printing, and the ability to create
prints that contain sophisticated graphics
• Use either solid or liquid cartridge-based ink, which is either
sprayed, dripped, or electrostatically drawn onto the page
Advantages
▪ Produce prints of good quality
▪ Noiseless, fast
▪ Can print text in different fonts
Disadvantage
▪ Expensive as ink cartridges used by them are costly

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 Inkjet Printers
• The print head has several tiny nozzles, also called jets. As the
paper moves past the print head, the nozzles spray ink onto it,
forming characters and images
• Cartridges have to be changed frequently

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 Laser Printers
• Work at very high speeds and produce high-quality text and
graphics
• A laser beam ‘draws’ the document on a drum which is coated with
a photo-conductive material
• After the drum is charged , it is rolled in a toner (a dry powder type
of ink)
• The toner sticks to the charged image on the drum and transferred
onto a piece of paper

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 Plotters
Plotters
• Used to print vector graphics with high-print quality
• Widely used to draw maps, in scientific applications, and in CAD,
CAM, and CAE
Drum plotters
• Used to draw graphics on paper that is wrapped around a drum
• Usually used with mainframe and minicomputer systems
Flatbed plotters
• The paper is spread on the flat rectangular surface of the plotter,
and the pen is moved over it
• Less expensive, and are used in many small computing systems

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