Q)What is the working principle of dot matrix , laser and inkjet printer?

Ans: Dot Matrix Printer: A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter. However, unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies. Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid, either directly or through small levers (pawls). Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate (often made of an artificial jewel such as sapphire or ruby[1]) pierced with holes to serve as guides for the pins. The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and when running the printer generally prints one line of text at a time. Most dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making equipment on their print heads; others have a few interleaved rows in order to improve dot density.

Fig: DOT MATRIX PRINTER

LASER PRINTER: There are typically seven steps involved in the laser printing process: 1) Raster image processing 2)Charging 3)Exposing 4)Developing 5)Transferring 6)Fusing 7)Cleaning Laser printers use electrophotography, or an electrophotostatic process, to form images on paper. The basis of the principles involved here is the science of atoms oppositely-charged atoms are attracted to each other, so opposite static electricity fields cling together. Its hard to imagine that this has anything to do with printing, but in actuality, this is precisely what makes laser printers work. Each horizontal strip of dots across the page is known as a raster line or scan line. Creating the image to be printed is done by a Raster image processor (RIP), typically built into the laser printer. The source material may be encoded in any number of special page description languages. The RIP uses the page description language to generate a bitmap of the final page in the raster memory. Inside the laser printer is a drum, or photoreceptor. Its made of highly photoconductive material that reacts to light, and is electrically charged by the corona wire. As the drum turns, a laser beam shines on it, discharging specific areas. This pattern of discharged areas is ultimately what determines the images thatll be printed. The next step is to coat this pattern with a fine black powder called toner. The toner has been given a positive charge, which allows it to stick just to the pattern, and not the rest of the area. The pattern of toner is then attracted magnetically onto the paper, which is passing the drum on a belt. Then the paper is discharged, which releases it from the drum. Now that the image or pattern is on the paper, we have to make sure it stays there. Thats done by heated rollers, called the fuser, which melt the toner particles right into the paper. The paper is then pushed into the output tray, and you have your printed page.

fig: laser printer Inkjet printers: Inkjet printers literally spray liquid ink through a miniature nozzle similar to your garden hose nozzle. These printers are very quiet and are moderately priced. And the print quality rivals that of a laser printer. Heres how they do that. The printhead contains 4 cartridges of different colored ink: cyan (blue), magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). It moves along a bar from one side of the paper to the other, writing as it goes. The formatting information and data sent to it activates the chambers of the ink cartridges. When the designated nozzle is selected, an electrical pulse flows through thin resistors in the ink chambers that form the character to be printed. The resistor is heated and used to heat a thin layer of ink in each selected chamber, causing the ink to boil or expand to form a bubble of vapor. This expansion causes pressure on the ink, which pushes it through the nozzle onto the paper. Your page is printed.

. Fig: Inkjet Printer

Q)What is the working principle of Mouse, Keyboard, Scanner and Digital camera?

Optical Mouse: These optical mouses have an inbulit optical sensor. The optical sensor reads the movements of the optical mouse (moved by the user) with the help of the light rays which comes out from the bottom. ( The area in which a light glows). When the user moves the optical mouse, the LED (Light Emitting Diode) present inside the mouse emits the light according the minute movements. These movements are send to the camera as light rays. The camera captures the difference in light rays as images. When the camera captures the images, each and every pictures and compared to one another with the digital technology. With the comparison, the speed of the mouse and the direction of the movement of the mouse are rapidly calculated. According to the calculation, the pointer moves on the screen.

Fig: Optical mouse

Keyboard: The working of a computer keyboard can be compared to a miniature computer. Inside the keyboard, there are metallic plate, circuit board (key matrix) and processor, which are responsible for transferring information from the keyboard to the computer. Depending upon the working principle, there are two main types of keys, namely, capacitive and hard-contact. Let's discuss in brief about the functioning of capacitive and hard contact key. Capacitive Key On the underside of a capacitive key, a metal plunger is fixed, which helps in activating the circuit flow. When a capacitive key is pressed, the metal plunger applies a gentle

pressure to the circuit board. The pressure is identified by the computer and the circuit flow is initiated, resulting in the transfer of information from the circuit to the currently installed software. Hard Contact Key A hard contact key is attached with a metallic plate that helps in connecting the circuit board. When the hard contact key is pressed, it pushes a metallic plate, which in turn touches the metallic portion of the circuit plate. This overall process of completing a circuit results in a circuit flow, allowing the transfer of the message to the central processing unit (CPU), which is further transmitted to the software. In both the key types, the circuit signals the processor to read and/or identify the character that has been pressed. For example, in a hard contact key, the processor reads that pressing 'shift' and 'a' keys at the same time corresponds to 'A'. Hence accordingly, the letter, sign or symbol is displayed on the screen. Releasing the pressed key breaks the circuit flow, after which the key retains its original position. The communication between a computer keyboard and main computer is bi-directional, meaning that message or information can be sent within each other.

Fig: keyboard

DIGITAL CAMERA: The principle of digital camera is similar to a traditional film-based camera. Theres a viewfinder to aim it, a lens to focus the image onto a light-sensitive device, some means by which several images can be stored and removed for later use, and the whole lot is fitted into a box. In a conventional camera, light-sensitive film captures images and is used to store them after chemical development. Digital photography uses a combination of advanced image sensor technology and memory storage, which allows images to be

captured in a digital format that is available instantly with no need for a development process.

Although the principle may be the same as a film camera, the inner workings of a digital camera are quite different, the imaging being performed either by a charge coupled device (CCD) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors. Each sensor element converts light into a voltage proportional to the brightness which is passed into an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) which translates the fluctuations of the CCD into discrete binary code. The digital output of the ADC is sent to a digital signal processor (DSP) which adjusts contrast and detail, and compresses the image before sending it to the storage medium. The brighter the light, the higher the voltage and the brighter the resulting computer pixel. The more elements, the higher the resolution, and the greater the detail that can be captured. This entire process is very environment-friendly. The CCD or CMOS sensors are fixed in place and it can go on taking photos for the lifetime of the camera. Theres no need to wind film between two spools either, which helps minimize the number of moving parts.

Scanner: Scanner is an optical electronic device for scanning transparent and/or reflective originals. Optical scanners are the most widespread type of computers, which can be seen in homes as well as on a professional workplace. If you look at scanner with the cover opened, you will see a bright lamp installed under the glass. It is called lightning lamp. The lamp and a system of mirrors are set on a carriage which is moved by a stepping motor. On each step of the motor, the light from the lamp reflects from the document and gets into the light-sensitive matrix. The matrix transforms the light of varying intensity into electric signals. Then the analog signal is transformed into digital and transmitted to the computer for further processing. On each step of the carriage, the scanner processes one strip of the original several pixels wide. Pixels are relative units of measurement equal to the size of an elemental fragment of a bitmapped image.

Fig: Scanner