IT SKILLS LAB 1

KNB N 151
ILLUSTRATING THE ROLE OF I/O
DEVICES IN A COMPUTER SYSTEM

 INPUT DEVICES

 An input device is a piece of hardware used to
provide data to a computer used for interaction and
control. It allows input of raw data to the computer
for processing
 Examples of input devices
include keyboards, mouse, scanners, digital
camera, joysticks, and microphones.
 KEYBOARD

 one of the primary input devices used to input data and
commands.
 It has function keys, control keys, arrow keys, keypad
and the keyboard itself with the letters, numbers and
commands.
 Keyboards are connected to the computer through USB
or Bluetooth.
 A laptop keyboard is more compact than a desktop
keyboard to make the laptop smaller and lighter.
 Smartphones and tablets use on-screen keyboard to input
messages and select commands.
ILLUSTRATION OF A
KEYBOARD

 WORKING OF A
KEYBOARD

 A keyboard contains mechanical switches or push
buttons known as keys.
 When one of these are pushed then electric circuit
gets closed.
 Keyboard sends signals to the computer that tells the
number/ symbol/ text to be displayed on the screen.
 Then the result is displayed usually at the place of
the cursor.
 POINTING DEVICES

 These are the input devices that are generally used
for moving a cursor to a particular location to point
an object in the screen.
 With the help of pointing devices we can easily select
the icons, menus, windows etc. on the Graphical
User Interface (GUI).
 Thus, user can easily interact with a computer
system by the means of a pointing device.
 The position of the objects can be changed by just
dragging them from one place to other.
 COMMONLY USED
POINTING DEVICES

 MOUSE
 TRACKBALL
 LIGHT PEN
 JOYSTICK
 TOUCHSCREEN
 MOUSE

 Small hand held pointing device that basically
controls the two dimensional movement of the
cursor on the displayed screen.
 Important part of GUI based Operating System
 Helps in the selecting a portion of the screen and
copying, pasting the text.
 The mouse on moving also moves the pointer
appearing on the display device.
 TYPES OF MOUSES

 MECHANICAL MOUSE
 OPTICAL MOUSE
 WIRED MOUSE
 WIRELESS/ CORDLESS MOUSE
MECHANICAL MOUSE

 Consists of three buttons
 Left, right and scroll
 Inside the plastic coating is a ball rolled over a flat
surface corresponding to which the cursor moves on
the display screen.
 Left button used for selecting icons, folders etc.
 Right button used to display shortcut menu.
 Scroll button helps in moving the cursor up and
down.

 OPTICAL MOUSE

 A pointing device in which the reflected light
determines the movement of cursor on the displayed
screen.
 The upper portion is similar to that of mechanical
mouse.
 Lower portion has LED(LIGHT EMITTING DIODE),
an optical sensor and DSP(DIGITAL SIGNAL
PROCESSOR)

 WIRED MOUSE

 A mouse attached to USB Port using a wire is termed
as wired mouse

 WIRELESS MOUSE

 The types of mouse that don’t have wire attached to
it are termed as wireless/ cordless mouse.

 JOYSTICK

 A pointing device that usually consists of one or
more buttons and a stick that controls the movement
on the screen by pointing in all directions.
 Continues to point in a particular direction until and
unless it is brought back to the vertical position.
 The trigger button, used to trigger some kind of
action like firing in game sequences is made
available on joystick.
 Facilitates three types of control: glide, direct and
digital.
 JOYSTICK CONTD…

 The glide and the direct control allows the
movement of the joystick in all the possible
directions i.e left, right, up and bottom.
 The digital control helps in the movement of joystick
in limited directions.
 Earlier joystick could only provide 2 D movements
but now 3D movements are also available.
 Highly used in computer games, CAD systems,
industrial applications etc.
DIAGRAM OF
JOYSTICK

 TRACKBALL

 A pointing device that basically consists of a socket
containing a ball which can be rolled manually to
move the cursor on screen.
 The socket also contains sensors which detect
movement of ball.
 With the help of trackball we can change the
position of the cursor on the screen by simply
rotating the ball with our fingers or thumb.
 On the basis of size they are of two types : small
trackball and large trackball.
TRACKBALL CONTD...

 The small trackballs are normally used in portable
computers.
 Large trackballs are used in desktop based computer
systems which is used for CAD.
 Placed on different surfaces such as desk, mouse pad
and even user’s hand.
 Finds its use as a game controller in games like
centipede, Golden tee and Marble madness.
DIAGRAM OF
TRACKBALL

 SCANNERS

 Also known as DATA SCANNING DEVICES
 Input devices that allow data entry from source
documents directly.
 Eliminate the need for manual entry of data by
human beings thus improving data accuracy and
timeliness of the data processed.
 Automatic entry of the data with their use improves
data accuracy and increases timeliness of the
information processed.
 CONTD…

 Demand high quality of source documents because
of direct data entry.
 Commonly used types of Scanners are as follows:
1. IMAGE SCANNER
 Flatbed scanner
 Hand Held scanner
2. DRUM SCANNER
3. SLIDE SCANNER
 IMAGE SCANNER

 Translates paper documents into an electronic
format for input to a computer.
 The input documents may be typed text, pictures,
graphics or even handwritten material.
 This input device is very useful in preserving paper
documents in electronic form because a copy of a
document stored in a computer in this manner does
not deteriorate in quality with age, and can be
displayed or printed whenever required.
 FLATBED SCANNNER

 Like a copier machine consisting of a box having a glass
plate on its top and a lid that covers the glass plate
 To scan the document , a user has to place it upside down
on the glass plate.
 A light beam below the glass plate moves horizontally
from one end to another when activated.
 After scanning one line the light beam moves up a little
and scans the next line.
 The process repeats until the beam finishes scanning the
entire document.
 It takes about 20 seconds to scan a document of
21cmx28cm size.
 HANDHELD SCANNER

 A user can hold a hand held scanner in hand conveniently.
 It has a set of light emitting diodes encased in a small case.
 To scan a document , a user drags it slowly over the document
from one end to the other end with its light on.
 The user must drag the scanner steadily and carefully for
correct conversion of the document into its equivalent bit map.
 Those applications use hand held scanners in which high
accuracy is not critical.
 Users also use them when they have to scan low volume
documents.
 They are much cheaper than flatbed scanners.
 DRUM SCANNER

 Generally consists of a large drum which is used for scanning
the documents.
 The resolution image of these scanners is very high due to
which they are very expensive.
 The main disadvantage of these scanners is that they are slow
in speed.
 These scanners are suitable for scanning negatives.
 The aperture, which is the opening space through which light
can pass and scan the document is easily controlled by the
drum scanners.
 In addition drum scanners also control the sample area which is
the area of the individual pixel scanned by drum scanner.
 SLIDE SCANNERS

 Used for scanning slides as well as film negatives
 The slides are created on a transparent base using
photochemical solution
 The film negatives are the inversion of the positive images.
 In order to scan the slide, it is put into the tray, which is meant
for scanning the objects.
 These scanners are also known as film scanners as they can
easily scan the original image of the film.
 In the slides taken with the scanner, the dark areas appear light
and light areas appear dark.
 Can efficiently scan negatives and black and white film.
 With the help of these we can very easily scan the photos and
send them to friends via e-mail and the internet.
BAR CODE READER

BAR CODE READER
CONTD…

 OUTPUT DEVICES

 An output device is an electromechanical device that
accepts data from a computer and translates them
into a form suitable for use by outside world.
 Examples include:
1. Monitors
2. Printers
3. Plotters
4. Screen Image Projector
5. Voice response systems
Output Devices generate computer
outputs that are of two types:

 SOFT COPY OUTPUT: A soft copy output is
temporary in nature because it does not appear on a
paper or some material that a user can carry for
showing to others . Examples include contents
displayed on a terminal screen etc.
 HARD COPY OUTPUT: A hard copy output is
permanent in nature because it appears on a paper or
some material that a user can carry for showing to
others. Example includes output produced on a
paper by printers or plotters.
 MONITOR/VDU(VISUAL
DISPLAY UNIT)

 Display monitors are the most commonly used soft copy
output devices .
 Earlier the display monitors were capable of displaying
the characters only in a single font and in a single color.
 The display screens which are available today support
many fonts and colors.
 On the basis of technology used, display monitors may be
classified into three categories:
1. CRT MONITOR
2. LCD MONITOR
3. TFT MONITOR
 CRT MONITOR

 Known as Cathode ray tube monitor.
 A CRT monitor contains an empty glass tube with a
phosphor coated fluorescent screen and a source of
electrons known as electron gun.
 This glass tube containing screen and electron gun is
known as a CRT.
 When the CRT gets heated due to the current flowing
through it, the electron gun present inside CRT emits a
beam of electrons, which hits the screen comprising small
dots known as pixels.
 The striking of electron beam on the phosphor coated
pixels results in emission of light.
 CRT CONTD…

 The intensity of light emitted at a certain point varies at a
certain point varies with the force with which the electron
beam strikes the screen.
 The electron beam scans across the screen due to the
deflection caused to it by the electromagnetic coils present
in the glass tube.
 This scanning of screen by electron beam produces an
image on the screen and the variation in the intensity of
emitted light enables the human eyes to see the image
thus produced.
 Advantages: High contrast ratio, color depth, changing
resolution without affecting the clarity.
 Disadvantages: Bulky, occupies lot of space, lot of power
and produces a large amount of heat.
CRT MONITOR

 LCD MONITOR

 Known as Liquid Crystal Display monitor.
 Uses liquid crystals technology to display images.
 Liquid crystals are actually the molecules of liquid filled in the
LCD.
 These molecules easily flow in different directions and have the
capability to bend a beam of light.
 As the light falls on the molecules, they bend the light and
direct them towards the polarizing filter.
 The polarizing filter absorbs the light making the polarizer
appear dark for the display of images.
 Small in size and light in weight and occupies less space.
 Power consumption is also less.
 Disadvantage includes that it has a fixed resolution and images
become blurred when resolution is changed.
 Also it has a weak color quality.
LCD MONITOR

 TFT MONITOR

 Known as Thin Film Transistor Monitor.
 Similar to LCD monitor except for one difference that it uses
thin film transistor technology along with liquid crystal
technology to improve the quality of image.
 For each pixel on the screen a small transistor switch as well
as a capacitor is used and each pixel is controlled separately.
 A row scan driver turns on the transistor switch to charge the
capacitors of all the pixels in a particular row.
 The transistor is switched off as soon as the capacitors gets
charged.
 When the transistor is switched off, the capacitor maintains
the same voltage of the pixels till the transistor is switched on
again by the row scan driver.
TFT MONITOR

 PRINTERS

 Printers are the most popular hard copy output
devices used today.
 Different types of printers are described as follows:
1. Dot Matrix Printers
2. Inkjet Printers
3. Drum Printers
4. Chain/Band Printers
5. Laser Printers
 DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

 Character printers that print one character at a time.
 Form characters and all kinds of images as patterns of dots.
 It has a print head that moves horizontally(left to right and
right to left) across the paper.
 The print head contains an array of pins.
 The printer can activate each pin independent of others to
extend and strike against an inked ribbon to form a dot on the
paper.
 To print a character, the printer activates the appropriate set
of pins as the print head moves horizontally.
 For faster printing, many dot matrix printers print both ways-
while the print head moves from left to right and while it
moves from right to left on return.
 Such method is called bi-directional printing.
DOT MATRIX CONTD..

 Since dot matrix printers produce printed outputs as patterns of dots, they
can print any shape of character that a program can describe.
 They therefore can print many special characters, different sizes of print,
and graphics such as charts and graphs.
 Dot Matrix printers are impact printers because they print by hammering
pins on an inked ribbon to leave impressions on a paper.
 Due to impact printing, dot matrix printers are noisy as compared to non
impact printers.
 They are slow, having printing speeds in the range of 30 to 600 characters
per second.
 They are cheap in terms of both initial cost and cost of operation.
 Highly used by individuals and organizations where quality of printing is
not an important factor.
EXAMPLE OF DOT MATRIX
PRINTER

 INKJET PRINTERS

 Inkjet printers are character printers that form characters and
images by spraying small drops of ink on a paper.
 The print head of an inkjet printer contains up to 64 tiny
nozzles.
 The printer can heat up the nozzles selectively in a few
microseconds by an integrated circuit resistor.
 When the resistor heats up, the ink near it vaporizes and ejects
through the nozzle making a dot on the paper placed in front of
the print head.
 To print a character the printer selectively heats the appropriate
set of nozzles as the print head moves horizontally.
 These printers produce higher quality output that dot matrix
printers because they form characters by very tiny ink dots.
 CONTD…

 This allows the printer to print many special
characters, different sizes of print, and graphics such
as charts and graphs.
 These printers are non impact printers because they
print by spraying ink on paper.
 Hence they are quieter in operation, but we cannot
use them for producing multiple copies of a
document in a single printing.
 These printers are both monochrome and color.
 A monochrome inkjet printer uses a single cartridge
with black ink, whereas a color inkjet printer uses
two ink cartridges- black and tri color.
 CONTD…

 The tri-color cartridge contains red, blue, and green colors
in a package that can mix appropriate amount of these
colors with black from the other cartridge to get any
desired color.
 Hence inkjet printers can produce multi colored and
photo quality output.
 These are slower than dot matrix printers with printing
speed ranging from 40 to 300 characters per second.
 Costlier than dot matrix printers.
 Users prefer them for better quality output if speed of
printing is not an important factor.
EXAMPLE OF INKJET
PRINTER

 DRUM PRINTERS

 Drum printers are line printers that print an entire line at time.
 It consists of a solid cylindrical drum with characters
embossed(raised) on its surface in the form of circular bands.
 Each band consists of all printing characters supported by the
printer in its character set.
 The printer has a set of hammers mounted in front of the drum
in a manner that an inked ribbon and paper can be placed
between the hammers and the drum.
 The drum rotates at a high speed.
 To print a character at a desired print position, the printer
activates the appropriate hammer when the character embossed
on the band at the print position passes below it.
 Hence the drum would have to complete one full revolution to
print each line of output.
 Contd…

 This means that the printer does not print all the characters on a
line at exactly the same time, but the time required to print an
entire line is so fast that it appears as if it prints one line at a
time.
 The drum of a drum printer is expensive and we cannot change
it often.
 They do not have the capability to print any shape of
characters, different sizes of prints, and graphics such as charts
and graphs.
 They are impact printers as they print by hammering a paper.
 We can use them for producing multiple copies by using carbon
paper or its equivalent.
 They are noisy in operation due to impact printing and often
cover is used to reduce noise.
 Printing speed is in the range of 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
DIAGRAM OF DRUM
PRINTERS

CHAIN/BAND PRINTERS

 Chain/Band printers are line printers that print one line at a time.
 It consists of a metallic chain/band on which all the characters of
the character set supported by the printers are embossed.
 A standard character set may have 48,64, or 96 characters.
 To enhance printing speed , these printers have several sets of
embossed characters in the character set on the chain/band.
 The printer has a set of hammers mounted in front of the chain/
band in a manner that we can place an inked ribbon and paper
between the hammers and chain/band.
 The chain/band rotates at a high speed.
 To print a character at a desired position, the printer activates the
appropriate hammer when the character embossed on the
chain/band passes below it.
 CONTD…

 Unlike the drum of a drum printer we can change the
chain/band printer easily.
 This allows use of different fonts and different scripts with the
same printer.
 Like drum printers, chain/band printers can print only pre
defined set of characters embossed on the chain/band used
with the printer.
 They do not have the ability to print any shape of characters,
different sizes of print and graphics such as chart and graphs.
 They are impact printers.
 Noisy in operation and often use a cover to reduce noise level.
 Printing speed is in the range of 400 to 3000 lines per minute.
DIAGRAM

LASER PRINTERS

CONTD…
