Input Devices

An input device is a peripheral device that converts symbols that people understand into bits that computers can process. An input device includes a keyboard, a terminal, a touch screen, a mouse, a scanner, etc.

Keyboards
A keyboard is a device used to encode data by key depression, which enters information into a system. The keyboard converts alphabets and numbers, and other special symbols into electrical signals that processor can understand and process. These signals are sent to the computer's CPU

Mouse
An object used as a pointing and drawing device. The mouse usually has a ball and buttons and is connected to the system unit through serial port. As a mouse is rolled across the flat desktop in any direction, it locates the pointer correspondingly on the screen. Then it issues commands using the selection buttons on the mouse. Many portable microcomputers such as lap-tops use track balls instead of mice.

Scanner
A scanner is a device that reads spatial pattern such as images, graphics and texts, and then generates digital signals of that pattern. Converted digital data may be processed by a computer, stored in a disk, printed by a printer or displayed on a monitor. Scanners are commonly used to capture graphic images that can then be placed in a page or on any document.

Voice Input Devices

Voice input devices are also called speech- recognition devices or voice-recognition systems. This device uses a voice recognition technology that converts a user's speech into a digital code. Spoken words are first digitized and then matched against a dictionary of patterns previously stored in the computer.

Light Pen
A light pen is a light-sensitive pen-like device used by pointing it at the display surface. A user brings the light pen to the desired point on the screen and presses a button, causing it to identify the current location. It is used to select options from a menu or to draw images.

Output device
An output device is any peripheral device that converts machine-readable information into people-readable form such as a monitor, printer, plotter and voice output device.

Monitors: A monitor or a display is an electronic visual display for

computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry and an enclosure. The display device in modern monitors is typically a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) thin panel, while older monitors use a cathode ray tube (CRT) about as deep as the screen size.

Printers : printer is a peripheral which produces a representation of an

electronic document on physical media such as paper or transparency film

Plotters: A device that draws pictures on paper based on commands from a

computer. Plotters differ from printers in that they draw lines using a pen.

Voice Output Device

Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers external to a computer, that disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker.