Peripheral Devices?

Peripheral Devices?

Peripheral devices are connected to the computer externally. These devices are used for performing some specific functions.

Peripheral devices are as follows:

A. Input Devices

B. Output Devices

C. Other Peripherals

        A.  INPUT DEVICES:

Input devices accept data and instructions from the user.

Following are the examples of various input devices, which are connected to the computer for this purpose.

1. Keyboard

2. Mouse

3. Light Pen

4. Optical/magnetic Scanner

5. Touch Screen

6. Microphone for voice as input

7. Track Ball

1. Keyboard:

A keyboard is the most common input device. Several kinds of keyboards are available, but they resemble each other with minor variations. The keyboard in most common use is the QWERTY board.

Generally standard keyboard has 104 keys. In these keyboards, the cursor control keys are duplicated to allow easier use of the numeric pad.

2. Mouse:

A mouse is an electro-mechanical, hand-held device. It is used as a pointer. It can perform functions like selecting menu commands, moving icons, resizing windows, starting programs, and choosing options. The most common mouse uses an internal, magnetically coated ball, to detect the movement of the mouse across a flat surface, usually a desktop. Now a day’s Optical or laser mouse is used to detect the movement. All windows based applications today are designed to work with a mouse. A mouse is used to replace hard -to-remember key combinations with easier "Point and Click" actions. However, it cannot substitute all keyboard operations.

It can be alternative for commands based operations.

3. Light pen:

An input device utilizes a light-sensitive detector to select objects on a display screen.

A light pen is similar to a mouse, except that with a light pen you can move the pointer and select objects on the display screen by directly pointing to the objects with the pen.

4. Optical Scanners:

These devices are used for automatic data collection. The devices of this category completely eliminate manual input of data. For example, the bar-code reader is actually just a special type of image scanner. An image scanner translates printed images into an electronic format that can be stored in a computer’s memory, and with the right kind of software, one can alter a stored image. Another example of scanner is optical character recognition (OCR) device, used by banks to convert the scanned image of a typed or printed page into text that can be edited on the computer.

5 Touch Screen

Touch panel displays and pads are now being offered as alternatives to keyboard. Here the input can be given through the computer screen, that accepts the input through monitor; users touch electronic buttons displayed on the screen or they may use light pen.

6. Microphone:

Microphone is an input device, which takes voice as input. The voice communication is more error-prone than information through keyboard. There are two types of microphones available:

1. Desktop Microphone

2. Hand held Microphone

7. Track Ball:

Trackball, a pointing device, is a mouse lying on its back.

To move the pointer, you rotate the ball with your thumb, your fingers, or the palm of your hand. There are usually one to three buttons next to the ball, which you use just like mouse buttons. The advantage of trackballs over mouse is that the trackball is stationary so it does not require much space to use it. In addition, you can place a trackball on any type of surface, including your lap. For both these reasons, trackballs are popular pointing devices for portable computers.

       B. OUTPUT DEVICES:

Output devices return processed data that is information, back to the user. Some of the commonly used output devices are:

1. Monitor (Visual Display Unit)

2. Printers

3. Plotter

4. Speakers

1 Monitor

Out of all the output devices, monitor is perhaps the most important output device because people interact with this device most intensively than others. Computer information is displayed, visually with a video adapter card and monitor. Information processed within the CPU, that needs to be visually displayed, is sent to video adapter. The video adapter converts information from the format used, in the same manner as a television displays information sent to it by a cable service.

Two basic types of monitors are used with microcomputers, which are as follows:

1. CRT

2. LCD

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT): CRT or Cathode Ray Tube Monitor is the typical monitor that you see on a desktop computer. It looks a lot like a television screen, and works the same way. This type uses a large vacuum tube, called cathode ray tube (CRT).

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD): This type of monitors is also known as flat panel monitor. Most of these employ liquid crystal displays (LCD's) to render images. These days LCD monitor are very popular. When people talk about the capabilities of various monitors, one critical statistic is the resolution of the monitor. Most monitors have a resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels. High-end monitors can have resolutions of 1024 x 768 pixels or even 1280 x 1024 pixels. Thus monitors are available either in low resolution or in high resolution.

2. Printer:

After a document is created on the computer, it can be sent to a printer for a hard copy (printout). Some printers offer special features such as colored and large page formats. Some of the most commonly used printers are:

1. Laser Printer

2. Ink Jet Printer

3. Dot Matrix Printer

4. Line Printer

Laser Printer: A laser printer produces high quality print that one normally finds in publishing. It is extremely fast and quiet. Moreover, the operation of a laser printer is easy with automatic paper loading and no smudging or messing up of ink ribbons. The fastest laser printer can print up to 200 pages per minute in monochrome (black and white) and up to 100 pages per minute in color.

Ink-Jet Printer: An ink-jet printer creates an image directly on paper by spraying ink through as many as 64 tiny nozzles. Although the image it produces is not generally quite as sharp as the output of a laser printer, the quality of ink-jet images is still high. In general, ink-jet printer offers an excellent middle ground between dot matrix and laser printer. Like laser printer, an ink-jet printer is quiet and convenient, but not particularly fast.

Typically, an ink-jet printer is more expensive than a dot-matrix printer, but costs only half as much as a laser printer.

Dot Matrix Printer: The dot matrix printer was very popular at one point of time. It is a very versatile and inexpensive output device. In dot matrix printer the print head physically "hits" the paper through the ribbon and produces text (or images) by combinations of dots; hence the name dot matrix printer. Its speed is measured in characters per second (CPS). Although it is less expensive, it is louder, slower and produces lower print quality.

Line Printer: A line printer is generally used with large computer systems to produce text based data processing reports. Line printers are high-speed printers with speeds ranging anywhere from 100 to about 3800 lines per minute.

In the past, print quality on line printers was not high. Developments in technology are improving the print quality on line printers. These are in the cost range of lacks of Rupees.

3. Plotter:

A plotter is a special kind of output device that, like a printer, produces images on paper, but does so in a different way. Plotters are designed to produce large drawings or images, such as construction plans for buildings or blueprints for mechanical objects. A plotter can be connected to the port normally used by a printer.

An array of different colored pens in a clip rack and a robotic arm is part of plotter. The instructions that a plotter receives from a computer consist of a color, and beginning and ending coordinates for a line. With that information, the plotter picks up the appropriate pen through its arm, positions it at the beginning coordinates drops the pen down to the surface of the paper and draws to the ending coordinates. Plotters draw curves by creating a sequence of very short straight lines.

Plotters usually come in two designs:

1. Flat Bed: Plotters of small size to be kept on table with restriction of paper size.

2. Drum: These plotters are of big size using rolls of paper of unlimited length.

4. Speaker:

Speakers are another type of output device, which allow you to listen to voice like music, and conversation with people.