EXPERIMENT-2

OBJECT: What are input devices? Explain different types input devices.

INPUT DEVICE: Input device enables the user to send data, information, or control signals to a computer. The
Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer receives the input and processes it to produce the
output. Some input devices are listed.

 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Joy Stick
 Light pen
 Track Ball
 Scanner
 Graphic Tablet or Digitizer
 Microphone
 Magnetic Ink Card Reader(MICR)
 Optical Character Reader(OCR)
 Bar Code Reader
 Optical Mark Reader(OMR), etc.

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

S.No Keys & Description

Typing Keys
1
These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digit keys (09) which generally give the same layout
as that of typewriters.

Numeric Keypad
2
It is used to enter the numeric data or cursor movement. Generally, it consists of a set of 17 keys
that are laid out in the same configuration used by most adding machines and calculators.

Function Keys
3
The twelve function keys are present on the keyboard which are arranged in a row at the top of
the keyboard. Each function key has a unique meaning and is used for some specific purpose.

Control keys
4 These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes four directional arrow keys. Control
keys also include Home, End, Insert, Delete, Page Up, Page Down, Control(Ctrl), Alternate(Alt),
Escape(Esc).

Special Purpose Keys

5
Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as Enter, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock,
Space bar, Tab, and Print Screen.
MOUSE:
Mouse is the most popular pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control
device having a small palm size box with a round ball at its base, which senses the
movement of the mouse and sends corresponding signals to the CPU when the
mouse buttons are pressed.
Generally, it has two buttons called the left and the right button and a wheel is
present between the buttons. A mouse can be used to control the position of the
cursor on the 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 the keyboard.

JOYSTICK:

 Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move the 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. The
joystick can be moved in all four directions.
 The function of the joystick 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 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 the tip of a light pen is moved over the monitor screen and the pen
button is pressed, its photocell sensing element detects the screen
location and sends the corresponding signal to the CPU.

TRACK BALL:

 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 the ball, the pointer can be moved.
 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, or a
square.

SCANNER:

 Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy machine.

It is used when some information is available on paper and it is to be
transferred to the hard disk of the computer for further manipulation.
 Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted into
a digital form that can be stored on the disk. These images can be edited
before they are printed.
DIGITIZER:

 Digitizer is an input device which converts analog information into digital form.
Digitizer can convert a signal from the television or 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.
 Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet as it converts graphics and
pictorial data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer is used for fine
works of drawing and image manipulation applications.

MICROPHONE:

 Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in a digital

form.
 The microphone is used for various applications such as adding sound to a
multimedia presentation or for mixing music.

MAGNETIC INK CARD READER (MICR):

 MICR input device is generally used in banks as there are 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.
 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):

 OCR is an input device used to read a printed text.
 OCR scans the text optically, character by character, converts them into a
machine readable code, and stores the text on the system memory.

BAR CODE READERS:

 Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in the form
of light and dark lines). Bar coded data is generally used in labelling goods,
numbering the books, etc. It may be a handheld scanner or may be embedded
in a stationary scanner.
 Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image, converts it into an alphanumeric
value, which is then fed to the computer that the bar code reader is connected
to.

OPTICAL MARK READER (OMR):

 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.