TOPIC: INPUT DEVICES and OUTPUT DEVICES

CLASS: YEAR 10
The syllabus says that you should be able to:
a. iden fy the following input devices:
o keyboards,
o numeric keypads,
o poin ng devices (including mouse, touch pad and tracker ball),
o remote controls,
o joys cks,
o touch screens,
o graphics tablet,
o magne c stripe readers,
o chip readers,
o PIN pads,
o digital cameras,
o video cameras,
o web cams,
o scanners,
o microphones,
o sensors,
o MICR,
o OMR,
o OCR,
o barcode readers,
o light pens;
b. iden fy suitable uses of the input devices sta ng the advantages and disadvantages of
each;
c. iden fy the following output devices:
o monitors (CRT, TFT),
o printers (laser, ink jet and dot matrix),
o plo ers,
o speakers,
o control devices (motors, buzzers, lights, heaters);
 d. iden fy suitable uses of the output devices sta ng the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
Alphanumeric Keyboard
A very common, general purpose, input device that
allows text (abc…), numbers (123…) and symbols (%$@...) to be
entered into a computer.
A keyboard is simply a set of bu ons. Each bu on has a symbol
assigned.
Numeric Keypad
A small keyboard that only has numbers.
Used to enter numeric data into computers
such as those in ATMs.

Most computer keyboards have a numeric

keypad on the right side, and most mobile phones (there are also
computers) have a one for entering phone numbers, etc.
PIN Pad
This is a device with a numeric keypad used to enter a person’s Personal Iden ty
Number (PIN) e.g. when paying with a credit card.
PIN pads are also found on electronic door locks – you enter a PIN to unlock the door.
These devices are used to move an on-screen pointer or cursor (usually an arrow). They are
commonly used with graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
Mouse
A poin ng device found on most PCs. Sensors on the bo om of the
mouse detect when the mouse is moved. Data about this movement is
sent to the computer.

O en used to control the pointer in a GUI.

Touchpad / Trackpad
A poin ng device found on most laptops. Used instead of a mouse
since it takes up less space. The user moves a finger across the touch
pad and this movement data is sent to the computer.

Usually used to control the pointer in a GUI.

Trackball / Tracker Ball
This poin ng device is not moved about like a mouse, instead it has
a large ball that the user spins. Data about which direc on the ball is
spun is passed to the computer.
It can be used to control a GUI pointer.
Tracker balls are o en used by people with limited movement (disabled)
or by the very young since they are easier to use than a mouse.

Touch Screen
A touch screen is an
alterna ve to a separate
poin ng device. With a
touch screen the user
selects items on the screen
by touching the surface.
This makes touch screen systems very intui ve and simple to use.

O en used for informa on terminals in public places e.g. libraries or museums where mice or
keyboards may be stolen or damaged.
Because they are so intui ve to use, and now they are ge ng cheaper to manufacture, touch
screens will probably become the most common hardware interface for our electronic gadgets.

Graphics Tablet
A poin ng device o en used by designers and ar sts to
allow natural hand movements to be input
to graphics applica ons.
A stylus is held like a pen and moved over the
surface of the tablet. Data about the stylus
movements are sent to the computer.
Since it is so like using a pen, it is very easy to
create ‘hand-drawn’ sketches.
Joys ck / Joypad
Used mainly for playing games. The user moves the joys ck
le /right, forward/back and data about these movements are
sent to the computer.
Small joys cks can also be found on some mobile phones.
Light Pen
A light pen is a device used as
a poin ng device or to ‘write’ on
the screen of a computer.
Light pens are rarely used today since
graphics tablets and high-quality touch
screens provide similar func onality.
Scanner
A device that ‘scans’ images, book pages, etc.
Scanning is basically taking a close-up photograph (just very
slowly and with great detail). The scanned image data is
passed to the computer.
The most common type of scanner is the flat-bed scanner
which has a glass plate on which the item to be scanned is
placed. The item is illuminated and an image of it is
captured by a moving scan ‘head’.
Scanned images can be further processed once inside the
computer, e.g. OCR of printed text.
Digital Camera
A device that captures digital photographs.
Most digital cameras do not directly input data into a computer -
they store photographs on memory cards. The photographs can later be transferred to a
computer.
A modern digital camera can capture 10 Megapixels or more per photograph - that’s
10,000,000 coloured dots (pixels) in every photo!
A digital camera in fact contains a small computer that controls camera focus, stores images,
etc.
The camera’s computer runs a very simple opera ng system
(stored on ROM) and usually provides a menu-based GUI for
the user.
Video Camera
A device that captures moving images, or video.
Like a digital camera, most video cameras do not directly input
data into a computer – the captured movies are stored
on video-tape or memory cards and later transferred to a
computer.
However, there are some situa ons where video cameras do feed video data directly into a
computer: television produc on and video-conferencing. In these situa ons the video data is
required in real- me.
Web Cam
This is a very basic video camera used to feed live video into a computer.
The video data from a web cam is low quality compared to a full video camera. However, it is
good enough for web chats (e.g. using a messenger applica on such as MSN Messenger or
Skype).
Usually a web cam is clipped to the top of a monitor, but many laptops now have web cams
built into the edge of the screen.

Microphone
An input device that converts sound into a signal that can be fed
into a computer.
The signal from a microphone is usually analogue so, before it can be processed by a
computer, it must be converted into digital data. An Analogue-to-Digital Convertor (ADC) is
used for this (usually built into the computer’s sound card)
Many headphones now come with microphones to allow them to be used with chat and phone
applica ons

Magne c Strip Reader

Many plas c cards, such as credit cards, have a strip of
material that can be magne sed on the back. Data can be
stored here in the form of magne sed dots.
Usually the data stored on this strip in the same data shown
on the front of the card (e.g. the credit card number, expiry
date and customer name).
The stripe allows this data to be input to a computer
system faster and more accurately than by typing it in.
A magne c strip/stripe reader is used to read the data from the
stripe. This is usually done by ‘swiping’ the card through a slot on the reader.
Smart Card / 'Chip' Reader
Modern credit cards and ID cards don’t use a magne c strip. Instead
they have a ny ‘chip’ of computer memory embedded inside them.
(These cards are o en referred to as smart cards.)
Data can be stored in this memory and read back using a ‘chip’ reader.
A card is inserted into the reader where metal contacts connect to
the metal pads on the front face of the card. The reader can
then access the memory chip and the data stored on it.
Smart cards can store much more data than magne c strip cards, e.g.
an ID smart card would store not only the owner’s name and card
number, but might also have a digital image of the person.
Satellite TV decoders use smart cards to store which channels a user
has paid for. The data is encrypted so that it is not easy to alter (you
can’t add new channels without paying!)
Many types of card use this system: id cards, phone cards, credit