INPUT & OUTPUT UNIT

By Gamini KhuranaGrade 7A

Input And Output Unit

The computer will be of no use unless it is able to communicate with the outside world. Input/output devices are required for users to communicate with the computer. In simple terms, input devices bring information INTO the computer and output devices bring information OUT of a computer system. These input/output devices are also known as peripherals.

Input device

An input device is any device that provides data to a computer. Since the job of a computer is primarily to process input, computers are pretty useless without input devices. Just imagine how much fun you would have using your computer without a keyboard or mouse. Not very much. Therefore, input devices are a vital part of every computer system.

Manual input devices need to be physically operated. Some of the examples are:-

Manual Input Device

Mouse

Joystick Camera

Keyboard

Keyboard

The basic input device through which you input information into the system is called a computer keyboard . The keyboard can be used to accomplish many tasks . You can use a computer keyboard to type out your documents, access menus, manipulate your system and much more. Computer keyboards come in a wide range of numbers, shapes, and sizes of keys

Mouse

A mouse moves the arrow on the screen and lets you click things that help you get around the computer, without this the computer would be useless. You move it around and the sensor at the bottom lets you control the arrow. Computer mice come in many shapes and sizes but are all designed to fit either the left or right hand. Mice communicate with the computer either wirelessly or wired.

Camera

A camera is a device that is used to transfer an image onto either a sheet of film or a space on a digital hard drive. It does this by collecting light that is reflected off an object and then creating a copy of the image on whatever storage device the particular camera uses.

Joystick

A joystick is an input device commonly used to control video games. It is something like a mouse but it consist of a base and a stick that can be moved in any direction. The stick can be moved slowly or quickly and in different amounts. Some joysticks have sticks that can also be rotated to the left or right. Because of the flexible movements a joystick allows, it can provide much greater control than the keys on a keyboard.

Automatic Input Devices

As well as manual, there are automatic input devices. They require minimal human input – they are like sensors. Here are some examples:-

OMR

MICR

Barcode Reader

OCR

MICR

Other type or input devices include magnetic card reader. The magnetic strip behind the credit card stores details about the card holder. To input that information, The card is swiped through the card reader.

MICR is used to read a specially designed font, printed in magnetic ink, at the bottom of every cheque. An MICR machine can read 300 cheques a minute.

OMR

The OMR (Optical Mark Reader) automatically reads lottery tickets and multiple choice exam papers. It scans and recognizes the selected box. Then as usual the results are sent to a computer for processing.

OCR

Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, is a technology that enables you to convert different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files or images captured by a digital camera into editable and searchable data.

Barcode Reader

Lines of different widths and sizes representing data, that when read will determine what the scanned object is. A perfect example of a barcode reader is a super market barcode scanner that reads and logs the price of a product.

Output unit

Data generated by a computer is referred to as output. This includes data produced at a software level, such as the result of a calculation, or at a physical level, such as a printed document.

Devices that produce physical output from the computer are creatively called output devices. The most commonly used output device is the computer's monitor, which displays data on a screen.

Types Of Output Devices

Some of the examples are:-

Monitor

Printer

SpeakerPlotter

Monitor

Monitors are display devices external to the computer case and connect via a cable to a port on the video card or motherboard. Even though the monitor sits outside the main computer housing, it is an essential part of the complete system.

Monitors come in two major types - LCD or CRT. CRT monitors look much like old-fashioned televisions and are very deep in size. LCD monitors are much thinner, use less energy, and provide a greater graphics quality.

Printer

A computer printer is a computer peripheral device that produces a hard copy from data stored in a computer connected to it. A printer is used to print anything that you want, like pictures or documents or data. They plug in where there is a USB slot, from there you can click print and the document is sent to the port where your document is printed.

Plotter

A plotter is a printer that interprets commands from a computer to make line drawings on paper with one or more automated pens. Unlike a regular printer , the plotter can draw continuous point-to-point lines directly from vector graphics files or commands.

Plotters were the first type of printer that could print with color and render graphics and full-size engineering drawings. As a rule, plotters are much more expensive than printers.

Speaker

Speakers are popular output devices used with computer systems. They receive audio input from the computer's sound card and produce audio output in the form of sound waves. Most computer speakers are active speakers, meaning they have an internal amplifier which allows you to increase the volume, or amplitude, of the sound.

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