OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter you will be able to:

 Describe different types of input devices like punched cards, keyboards,
 mouse, digitizers and scanners and output devices like printers, plotters, video
display terminals and microfilms, their broad design, their Features advantages
and disadvantages.
 Explain the definitions of peripheral devices.
 Discuss the common peripheral devices, their physical appearances and the
devices in the Mode of operation of these devices. The student would be able to
use these practical efficiently.

INTRODUCTION

As seen earlier, computer hardware is made up of the physical parts of the computer
system like the electronic ICs, magnetic storage media and the mechanical devices.
The devices whichh are a means of communication between the computer and the
outside world are called as peripheral devices.
Those peripheral devices which supply information i.e. data and progr ms from the
outside world to the computer are the input devices. Those peripheral devices. Which
give information from the computer to the user or store them in secondary storage.
Devices, like floppy disks or tapes for future use are called output devices.
The processors whichh are required to convert the input data into machine. Readable
form and to convert the output generated by the computer into human readable form are
known as input/output (I/O) interfaces. There are two concepts related to the way in
which data is input to the computer:
1. On-line Data Input: Here data is directly transferred to the computer
2. Off-line Data Input Here the data is not immediately transferred to the computer.

Overview
This overview will explore the different types of input and output devices, their
functionalities, and their importance in modern computing.

INPUT DEVICES
The various types of input devices most commonly used are:
2.2.1 Punch Cards:
Data is recorded onto punch cards or punch tapes using standard codes, like the
Hollerith code. The pattern of these holes is interpreted by a card reader device and
converted into machine readable form. A punch card machine is used to transcribe the
data onto the card.

Characteristic of punch card

 They are cheaper they are reliable.
 Disadvantage of punch card

The major drawback of these cards is that they cannot be reused. Also the cards have
to be handled and stored carefully. Even if a single card is misplaced or the
arrangement of the cards gets disturbed it becomes very difficult to rearrange them and
to detect there problem. Punched cards require large storage space since they cannot
be folded.

2.2.2 Keyboard

The keyboard is one of the most commonly used input device. The computer keyboard
is similar to a typewriter keyboard. The keyboard has keys made up of letters, numbers,
symbols and special function keys.

A display screen or monitor (Cathode Ray Tube) is used to display the data entered by
the operator with the keyboard. This monitor can also display the results of processing
as well as messages generated by the computer. A special symbol, called a cursor,
indicates the position on the screen. There are special keys on the keyboard which
allow the cursor to move in up, down, left and right directions. Other special keys on the
keyboard include keys like Tab, Del, Ctrl, Ins, PgUp. PgDn etc..
The keys on the keyboard include:
A-Z: Used to enter alphabets
0-9: Used to enter numbers
Up, Down, Left, Right(Arrow Keyes): To Move the cursor in the specified direction
F1-F12: Special Function Keys
PgUp/PgDn: To move cursor up or down by one page enter: To move cursor to a new
line
Shift: A Special key To Select the other option shown normal character on the same key
Num Lock: Activates the keypad on the right side of the keyboard. In the normal mode
this numeric pad works as per the function written below the number on the key

Advantages of the keyboard:

 It is very easy to use a keyboard
 It offers a number of facilities
 Editing or changing the input data is very easy with the help of the keyboard
 It is relatively Inexpensive

2.2.3 Mouse
The mouse is a pointing device. The mouse is used to control and manipulate cursor
movement on the monitor. The mouse usually has three or four buttons on it and a roller
ball which signals the movements made by the mouse on a flat surface. These
movements are transferred to the system. The mouse is rolled on a flat surface by the
user. It can be used independently, but normally it is used in conjunction with the
keyboard to improve the efficiency of the input operation. The mouse can be used to
select data. Also the mouse makes it possible to move fast from one par of the screen
to the other.

The various types of mouse In use are

 Mechanical mouse
 Optical mouse
 Opt mechanical
2.2.4 Light Pen

The light pen is a picking device. The light pen contains a photocell placed in a small
tube. This photo-cell detects the presence of light on the CRT (monitor). The tip of the
pen is moved on the surface of the screen to write or sketch data. The light pen is.
Especially useful in Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications.

2.2.5 Joy Stick

The position and speed with which the joystick is moved is converted into digital signals
by the use of a lever. These signals are then sent to the computer system. This in tum
controls the movement of the cursor the screen. The joystick is mainly used in video
games applications

2.2.6 Track Ball

The track ball uses hard sphere control The bal cursor movement. The ba can be
rotated ary direction by hand and this is translated signal to control digital cursor
movement on the screen

2.2.7 Touch screen:

A touch panel transparant plate which is fitted registered when a finger or any other
object comes in contact with the plate. There are two types of touch panels: Optical
touch panels CRT. Input is paners

Electric touch panels

2.2.8 Digitizer A digitizer converts a graphical or pictorial data into digital form which can
be directly entered and stored in a computer. A digitizer is also called as a graphics
tablet There are two types of digitizers

Fig 2.6 A Scanner, a Graphics tablet (digitizer)

Image scan digitizer and flat bed digitizer
In the image scan digitizer entire image is scanned and reproduced automatically.
Therefore the image scan digitizers are more powerful as compared to flat bed
digitizers. Flal bed digitizers are mainly used in simple drawings, graphs etc. whereas
image scan digitizers are used for photographs and pictures.

2.2.9 Scanner:

Scanner Therefore is able to directly directly enter the duplication and images the
entering data I siminated and increased accuracy. The speed of data entry also
increases. There scanners puter results in two types of

Optical Scanners

3. Magnetic ink Character Recognition devices

Optical Scanner:

The optical scanner ruses a light source and sensor for reading the information on the
paper. It can read characters, pictures, graphics from the paper. The common types of
Optical scanners are

1. The Optical Mark Reader (OMR): This is capable of reading pre specified
Marks made by pencils or pens with the help of light. Light is focused on the page
That is to be scanned. The reflected light pattern is detected by the device. These
Types of scanners are normally used where the data is preprinted for applications.
Eg. Answer papers of the objective te tests where the answers marked with penals or
Preprinted forms.

2. Optical Character Reader The Optical Character Reader (OCR) can read
Alphabets, characters and numbers printed on paper. These characters can be sither
Handwritten or typed. However special fonts are required to be used while typing. In
Case of handwritten data, the characters have to be of standard predefined size. The
OCR reads each character as a collection of pixels. The e light light which is reflected
from
The page scanned is converted into binary data OCRs are available in various Sizes
and speeds. These mainly used in processing used in processing Where the data
volumes are large Expensive and are.

Bar code reader is a device which reads bar coded data. Data which is coded in the
form of light or dark lines (bars) is a bar code Bar code readers are normally used in
applications like labeling of products in retail shops, super markets etc. A laser beam is
used to read the bar code.
The most commonly used bar code is the Universal Product Code (UPC) In this code
the bars are coded as 10 digits. The first five digits define the manufacturer or supplier,
and the remaining live digits denote the actual product of the manufacturer.
b) Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR):
A special type of input device, this mainly finds application in banking areas. A magnetic
ink is used to encode the characters to be be read read. This ink contains contains tron
iron When oxide particles. When a cheque is presented ed in the bank, the amount is
encoded by the bank employee in the lower right corner and the cheque is then
processed with MICR. Special character sets like E 138 and CMC7 are used by these
devices to encode data. The E138 has four special character and the digits 0-9. The
CMC7 has five special characters, digits 0-9, and all alphabets.
The advantages of using MICR that they speed up data entry, and roughly handled
cheque can be processed relatively easily. However among the Imitations are that
special type of magnetic ink is required for encoding characters and only a limited
number of digits and characters are available for encoding

Voice Recognition Systems:

This system allows the user to talk talk with the computer The Voice Recognition
System consists of a microphone or telephone into which the operator speaks The
speech is converted into electrical signals. The signal is input the voice of the operator.
This is matched with an already entered pre-stored pattern of words called vocabulary.
When the closest match is found the word is recognized. Since each operator may have
a different style of speaking, all Voice Recognition systems are highly operator
dependent. Also a separate vocabulary for each operator is required to be maintained.

Pre test 1
1. Fill in the blank

a) By is an example of a picking device.

b) Is an example of a pointing device.
c) A digitizer is also as

2. Give the full 1 I form of the following.

A) MICR
b) OCR
c. ) OMR

3. Match the following

A.
b. Punch card
c. Bar code
d. Joy stick
e. Floppy Disk
B.
1). Computer games
2) Output devices
3.) Hollerith Code
4) Universal Product Code (UPC)
The advantages of the Voice Recognition systems are that they reduce the cost of data
entry. Also the operator can move freely while talking into the computer

OUTPUT DEVICES

The output device allows the compute to communicate with the outside world by
accepting data from the computer transforming it into user readable form

The various types of output devices are

2.3.1 Printers:
Aprinter produces the output from the computer on the paper it is the most commonly
used output device. The printers produce a hard copy ile a permanent copy of the
results which can be stored and read later. Printers are classified as: Impact Printer b)
Non Impact Printer
Hammer to strike a character against an inked ribbon and the impact of the hammer
causes the image of the character to be printed on paper. Eg. Dot matrix printers, line
printers, daisy wheel printers,
Advantages of impact printers:
a) Impact Printer Impact printens similar to typewriters. They
Their functioning is relatively easy Mulsple copies can be produced at the same time
with the help of carbon paper. Impact printers noisy in operation and are subject to wear
and tear of mechanical parts
Types of impact printers:
 1) Dot Matrix Printers
Dot matrix printer prints each character pattem of dots. The printer has a printer rows
and 9 head with a matrix of pins (needles) Typical heads have a matrix of 7 rov
columns. These pins produce a pattern of dots to form the individual characters
A dot matrix printer, a daisy wheel and a daisy wheel printer
These printers are relatively low in cost and print at speeds of 50-500 characters per
second. The programmer can also define the shape of characters for this printer.
Therefore it is possible to print many special characters. Racters, characters in various
sizes as well as charts and graphs on such printers. Dot matrix printers are very
commonly used computer systems
2) Daisy Wheel Printer:
These printers called as letter quality printers. These printers have a daisy wheel with a
number of petals. A character is embossed on each wheel. Thare is a motor which spins
the wheel at a fast rate. When the desired character is brought to the correct position, a
hammer strikes the petal to produce the output. Thus these printers are impact printers.
The letter quality of these printers is much superior as compared compared to the dot
matrix printers But they are slow and typically print in range of 10-60 characters per
second.
3) Line Printer:
Line printers fast printers pri speed of 200-2500 lines per minute. These printers are
impect printers and normally have 132 print positions per line Different types of
character set are available for different printers. Line printers are normal in applications
where large volumes of data are to be printed.

A Line printer

The two types of line printers are

(1) Drum printers

This consists of a metallic cylinder. On the surface of this drum there are characters in
bands. Each column or band on the drum contains all the characters Opposite to each
band there is a hammer located behind the paper. The drum rotates at a fast rate. E
hammer strikes the paper along with the inked ribbon and produces the output. One line
is printed in each revolution of the printer.

(0) Chain printers

In the chain printers there is one print hammer for each print position on a line. There a
fast moving chain called the print chain. When this chain rotates, the print hammer and
the inked ribbon s the paper against the proper character on the chain.

b) Non Impact Printer

They use thermal, chemical, electrostatic and inkjet technologies for printing as against
the mechanism of impact printens. Eg. Laser printers, DeskJet printers

Ink Jet Printer:

Ink jet printer. Non impact printer. It prints characters by spraying ink from tiny nozzles
onto the paper. A special type of ink which has a high iron content is used. This ink is
charged electrically when it comes out of the nozzle. This ink is absorbed by the paper
and dries instantly. The output of the inik jet printer is of a superior quality. Also it is
possible to obtain colored output. A number of character styles and sizes are available
However, being primer printer possible to prepare carbon copies with this printer.
Laser Printers: These printers are used where a very superior quality output is desired.
The image is created on a photo sensitive drum with a laser beam. The faser is tumed
on and off when it moves back and forward across the drum. It leaves a negative
charge on the drum to which a positively charged black toner powder sticks the ink the
paper. Laser
When the paper rolls by the drum, is transferred Input Devices
Printers have a buffer memory to store entire pages and hence their speed is very fast.
The biggest advantage of these printers involved, therefore they that mechanical
movement noiseless in operation. However there are comparatively expensive
Plotter:
A plotter is an output devics used in applications where printouts of graphs and
drawings
Are requined. Plotters are of two types:
1. Flat bed Le. X-Y plotter This plotter plots on a paper which is fixed on a
rectangular flatbed table. One recording pen moves in the the x s direction
a and one the y direction Color plotting is also possible by using pans of
different colors on to plot on the paper.

2. Drum Plotter: In this plotter the paper on which the output is to be

obtained, is placed over a drum. The drum rotates back and forth to
produce motion. The pen is mounted horizontally across the drum and the
horizontal motion of the pen is achieved with the help of the pen holder.
The cirum and the holder move simultaneously to produce output. Multi
coloured printing is possible by changing the pens The speed of plotters is
very slow. Therefore normally the output is first sent to some Secondary
storage device a magnetic tape and then directed to the plotter

Video Display Terminal

CRT
An electron beam is moved across a phosphor coated screen to produce the image.
The CRT can be monochrome or cofored. This screen normally has 25 lines and 80
characters.

 Flat Panel Display:

The most common flat panel display is the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). This does not
have a picture tube. The other type of display is the gas plasma screen.
The Video Display Terminal:
The most popular output but device device in in direct direk access processing is the
Video Display Terminal These terminals display information instantaneously. The
monitor and the keyboard together called a terminal. The types of terminals are:
Dumb Terminal:
This is a combination of a keyboard and monitor which can send or receive data, but
cannot process the data
Smart Terminal. A smart terminal has an inbuilt microprocessor. It can perform
arithmetic, logic and control functions. They also have some memory capacity: So they
can store the data before sending to the processor. They can also control movement,
cursor
Intelligent Terminal: This type of terminal also has an inbuilt microprocessor which can
be programmed by the user. These terminals also have limited processing capability.
The They can communicate with other terminals and processors

2.3.4 Computer Output Microfilm (COM): This technology is used to record the
computer output
As microscopic filmed images. Information is recorded on a roll of microfilm. A microfilm
recorder displays the information onto a screen. An inbuilt camera then takes pictures of
this information. A micraliim reader is used to view this information COM devices
normally used in application where there are large volumes of data COM devices are
much faster than the normal printers. Also size of these films. Is very small the space
required for storage is very less as compared to printed output However since COM
systems are highly sophisticated they are relatively expensive and mainly used where
there are high volumes of data.

Evaluation Post test 2

Answer in brief.

a. What is a terminal? Name any two types of terminals.

b. What is an impact printer? Name one impact printer.
Reference
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ph.com
Answer Key

Pretest 1
1.
a. Light pen
b. Mouse
c. Graphics tablet
2.
a. Magnetic Ink Ch Character Recognition
b. Optical Character Reader
c. Optical Mark Reader
3.
a. -3
b. -4
c. -1
d. -2

Post test 2
1. A) The monitor and the keyboard together are called a terminale.g. Dumb
Terminal, Smart Terminal
b) Impact printers are printers which a hammer to strike a character against an
inked ribbon, the impact of which causes the image of the character to be printed
on the paper, eg, dot matrix printers