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What is an Input Device?
An input device is defined as the inputting tool of the computer. From this, we input the raw data into the computer system for further processing.
Mainly in the computer system, input devices are of two types drawing & pointing devices and scanner input devices.
Drawing and Printing Input Devices
Keyboard
A keyboard resembles a typewriter which contains a set of keys used to input data and control commands to the computer. The most common keyboard has 101 keys with 12 function keys.
Mouse
A mouse is a drawing and pointing device. A mouse has one or more buttons on the top. When a user rolls a mouse across the flat surface, the cursor moves on the screen in the direction of the mouse’s movement.
Touchscreen
This is the easiest way to enter data using the finger touch. A touchscreen allows the users to select an option by pressing a specific part of the screen.
Touchpad
Many laptop computers use a touchpad in front of the keyboard. We move our fingers on the pad to move the cursor on the screen.
Trackballs
It is a pointing device and contains a ball that can be rotated in any direction. The user spins the ball in a different direction to move the cursor on the screen.
Joystick
It is a pointing device that is used to move the cursor position on the screen. A joystick is a stick that has a spherical ball at its lower ends as well as its upper ends. Joysticks are commonly used in playing games.
Scanner Input Devices
Scanner
A scanner is an input device that translates paper documents into an electronic format that can be stored on a computer.
Optical character reader (OCR)
This scanner is equipped with OCR software that converts an image into equivalent ASCII (American standard code for information exchange) that is a scanner first creates the image of documents and then OCR software translates it into ASCII text that the computer can interpret as letters, number, and special characters.
Optical Mark Reader (OMR)
It is an input device that can detect the presence of marks of a pen or pencil made in the boxes of special pre-printed forms. The OMR converts the marks into electrical pulses and transmitted them to the computer for further processing.
It is widely used in objective-type text, and order forms, and contains a small choice of items.
Optical Bar-Code Reader (OBCR)
Data coded in the form of small lines are known as barcodes. Barcode represents alphanumeric data by the combination of adjacent vertical lines by varying their width and space between them.
OBCR is an input device that is used for reading bar-coded data from any item and converting them into electrical pulses for further processing by computer. There are many types of bar-coding systems. The most common bar-coding system is a universal product code (UPC).
Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)
It is similar to OCR. It is used by the banking industry for faster processing of large volumes of cheques handled every day by this industry.
A bank cheque has bank identification codes. The account number and cheque number are preprinted on it by using the character from a special character set. A special containing particle of iron oxide is used for a preprinting character on the cheque.
When a cheque is presented for payments, then the bank uses MICR which helps to get the information of customers. After getting the customer’s information computer will process it accordingly.
