OVERVIEW OF COMPUTER: INPUT DEVICES, PART-2

Introduction
Today, we are going to discuss three different types of input devices, which are scanners, readers
and light pen. These devices supplement the other conventional devices like keyboard and
mouse. Also, these devices when combined with the software are used in variety of applications
providing ease of use to the end user.

Scanner

Let us start with the scanner device. Scanners, also called optical scanner, captures the image
placed over a piece of paper and converts it in digital form. You can say that it is a revised form
of a photo copier . A photo copier produce another type of image but scanner scans that piece of
paper and converts it into digital form which can be displayed on PC monitor. The image
converted in digital form is then transferred to PC and is stored as a file. The image file so
generated can be inserted in other documents, emailed to someone, resized, printed or displayed
on the screen. Using a sophisticated software line Optical Character Recognizer (OCR) software,
the text information of various fonts and sizes can also be extracted.

Scanners are available in variety of configurations. Few notable and popular examples are 1.
Flatbed scanner 2. Sheetfed scanner 3. Handheld scanner. The flatbed scanners have a space for
keeping paper on a glass top. That means the size of the scanner is exactly the size of paper that
has to be scanned. The scanning mechanism moves under the glass top to cover the paper and
capture the image. The pages are scanned one after the another by manually keeping every page
on glass top. Because of this manual feeding of paper, the speed of scanning is slow and does not
suffice for business purpose. Because in the business applications you need high speed scanning
and if the paper is fed manually one after the other because of slow speed it cannot be used
commercial applications like entrance exam results and other purpose . Therefore, scanners
designed for high volume processing come with automatic document feeders. These automatic
document feeders pick up paper from a stack of papers and feeds into paper automatically
resulting in high speed of scanning.

The Sheetfed scanners are compact in size small enough to accommodate scanning mechanism.
The paper is inserted from one side similar to a fax machine. This scanner is good for scanning
paper documents. However, if a page of a book is to be scanned or it the paper is thicker than the
standard size, Sheetfed scanners cannot be used.

The third category of scanners is handheld scanner. The handheld scanners are useful for
capturing short pages, labels, visiting cards, newspaper documents. These days, using the
sophisticated software of OCR, the handheld scanners extracts text from scanned image. The text
may be of different fonts and sizes. Some scanners also support multiple languages and extract
text in different languages from the scanned image.

Another variant of scanners is three dimensional scanners. The applications like multimedia and
medical require 3-D scanner for scanning objects or a person. A variant of 3-D scanner is a body
scanner, which is used in cloth shops. These scanners scan the whole body and take the size and
dimension of various parts of the body. Based on the dimensions of the parts of the body, a
customized computer printout is given the customer listing the brands and sizes, that he/she may
find fitting best based on body measurements. With this customer can search the cloth in the
market and find that which cloth will fit to his body .

The scanners are also classified on their quality and resolution. The quality of scanned images is
measured in dots per inches. The resolution to be used with image is specified at the time of
scanning. That means with the same scanner you can scan with different resolutions .The
scanned image can be saved at lower resolution to save disk space .Higher the resolution bigger
will be the file . Lower the resolution the file size will be less .The general scanning resolution is
3200x6400 dpi and 4800x9600 dpi. The higher resolution is needed only for print purpose. For
display purpose, 96 dpi is considered enough.

Reader
A variety of readers are available to read different type of codes. What I mean by a code is not a
code written in text form like a b c d . A barcode represents data with bars of varying width. To
read the data encoded in the barcode, light from the laser inside the barcode reader is reflected
from the light spaces on the bar code(the dark bars absorb the light). The barcode based on
absorption detects the presence of numbers and characters on the barcode because different
barcodes are available with different sizes between the barcodes which represents different
numbers and characters. That means a typical barcode represents a sequence of combinations of
characters and numbers. The associated data detected is sent to the attached to the PC or a
mobile. Three standards exist in barcode. 1. Universal product code (UPC) to identify products,
shipped package in supermarkets. 2.code 39 code can interpret both letters and numbers and used
to identify items other food items. 3. Post net code is used by US postal service to detect ZIP or
postal code.

RFID Readers

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. Like Barcode, RFID tags are attached on the
items to be tracked. The RFID tags are read by RFID Reader using Radio waves instead of by
light Frequency. This is an advantage over barcodes, because radio waves do not require line of
sight. The RFID tags can be read from a distance of up to 15 feet using radio waves. Also, radio
waves can pass through the materials like cardboard and plastic. These characteristics enable
RFID tags to be fitted inside the product or a book and then still detected by a RFID reader from
outside. Some credit cards are also fitted with RFID tags. These credit cards only be waved for
authentication, not physical insertion. These credit cards also provide ease of use while
collecting toll charges on highways, where user need not give physically handover the card for
authentication to the person .

Optical Mark Readers (OMRs)

Optical Mark Readers are capable of detecting marks made by the user on a sheet of paper.
These marks are typically used to write options in an entrance test conducted based on objective
type questions. In an entrance test where there are objective type questions the students are given
response sheet . In the response sheet already there are boxes specifying a b c d and the student is
asked to mark one of the options whichever he finds correct a b c d , he can put a mark and when
this response sheet mark by the student goes under a optical mark reader the optical mark reader
using a software is capable of detecting where there are marks . Typically, the users have to
select one option out of four or five options available in the form of 4-5 circles. They use a pencil
to fill one of the small circles or other shapes on the form to indicate their selections. The Optical
Marks Readers are used to extract the marks made by the user using pencil. These marks
identified by the user are then interpreted using a software.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Devices

Optical Character Recognition Devices are capable of identifying character printed on paper with
specified fonts and sizes. These readers shine light on the characters and convert the reflections
into electronic pattern that the machine can recognize. Modern OCRs are capable of recognizing
characters on a paper in multi lingual different fonts and sizes mixed in a single document. That
means with the help of OCR we can extract a newspaper document and convert it into a word
document containing characters and it can be added and can be reused for different purposes .

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) Readers

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) is a technology primarily used in the banking
industry, where it is used to process bulk of cheques received for transfer of money from one
account to another. Every bank is assigned a unique MICR code, which is inscribed on cheques
with magnetic ink by a special machine. The cheque is issued by one person to another for the
transfer of money. The recipient of the cheque deposits the cheque into his/her bank account/
branch. The cheque needs to be sent to the branch of the person, who has issued the cheque for
deduction of amount written on cheque. Earlier, the cheques were sent physically from one bank
to another. But these days, MICR technology enables to perform this process electronically. At
banks, reader/sorter machines, magnetically read and identify the MICR encoded bank and sort
the cheques. Images of the cheques are captured and classified/sorted based on MICR codes. The
electronic copy of these cheques is then sent to the appropriate banks for processing. Using this
MICR technology transfer of cheques from one bank to another typically takes an hour or two ,
not more than that which earlier using manual process it used to take 1-2 days for local cheque
and 10-15 days for outstation cheques .

Biometric readers

Biometrics is the study of identifying individuals based on measurable biological characteristics.

Biometric readers are used to input biometric data about a person into a computer system so that
individual can be identified based on a particular unique physiological characteristics (such as
finger print, hand geometry, face or iris of the eye) or personal trait such as voice or signature.
These bio-metric readers allow only authorized users to access the information, or the desktop.
The biometric readers are available as standalone devices with a capability to connect to the
desktop using a USB port. Also, these devices are in-built into the desktop, hand held devices so
that only authorized users can access these devices.

Light Pen
So far, we have discussed various types of scanners, and readers. Next, important input device is
the light pen, or an electronic pen. A electronic pen is a pointing device that can be used instead
of a mouse to select objects. These devices can also be used to draw or write electronically on
screen. The synonyms for the electronic pen are stylus or digital pen. These pens are wireless and
look similar to a ball pen. These pens are used to input handwritten text, sketches, and
manipulate objects in handheld or tablet PCs. Combined with the software, this handwritten text
is stored as a typed text as if directly typed through a keyboard. Again using a software
application, the capabilities of a light pen can be further extended to capture, store and later
compare the signature of a person. These light pens with the capability of signature analysis are
also called signature capturing devices. These devices are generally used to authorize credit card
purchases done at restaurants, retail stores and other service stores.