User:Sambrooks

=Input device= An input device is any hardware device that sends data to the computer, without any input devices, a computer would only be a display device and not allow users to interact with it, much like a TV. In the picture to the right, is a Logitechtrackball mouse and an example of an input device. Below is a complete listing of all the different computer input devices that can be used on a computer.

Types of input devices

Tip:  Keep in mind that drives such as a CD-ROM, DVD, and a Floppy diskette drive may be capable of sending the computer information, but they are not input devices. These devices are considered storage devices.
 * Audio conversion device
 * Barcode reader
 * Biometrics (e.g. fingerprint scanner)
 * Business Card Reader
 * Digital camera and Digital Camcorder
 * Finger (with touchscreen)
 * Gamepad, Joystick, Paddle, Steering wheel, and Microsoft Kinect
 * Graphics tablet
 * Keyboard
 * Light gun and light pen scanner
 * Magnetic ink (like the ink found on checks)
 * Magnetic-stripe reader
 * Medical imaging devices (e.g., X-Ray, CAT Scan, and Ultrasound images)
 * Microphone (using voice speech recognition or biometric verification)
 * MIDI keyboard
 * MICR
 * Mouse, touchpad, or other pointing device
 * Optical Mark Reader (OMR)
 * Pen or Stylus
 * Punch card reader
 * Remote
 * Scanner
 * Sonar imaging devices
 * Touch screen
 * Video capture device
 * VR helmet and gloves
 * Webcam

Keyboard
Most common and very popular input device is keyboard. The keyboard helps in inputting the data to the computer.The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are some additional keys provided for performing some additional functions.

Keyboard are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now 104 keys or 108 keys keyboard is also available for Windows and Internet.

The keys are following

Mouse
Mouse is most popular Pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device. It is a small palm size box with a round ball at its base which senses the movement of mouse and sends corresponding signals to CPU on pressing the buttons.

Generally it has two buttons called left and right button and scroll bar is present at the mid. 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.TheJoystic can be moved in all four directions.

The function of joystic 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 light pen's tip 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
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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.

<p style="margin-top:0.8em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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.

<p style="margin-top:0.8em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">Digitizer is an input device which converts analog information into a digital form. Digitizer can convert a signal from the television 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.

<p style="margin-top:0.8em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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 images manipulation applications.

Microphone
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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 Reader(MICR)
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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.

<p style="margin-top:0.8em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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 Reader(OCR)
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in form of light and dark lines). 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.

<p style="margin-top:0.8em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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 Reader(OMR)
<p style="margin-top:0.8em;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:justify;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12px;line-height:normal;">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.