COMPUTER PERIPHERAL DEVICES

INPUT DEVICES
Peripheral devices, which involve input and output devices, are significant parts of this
standard architecture. The peripheral devices are connected externally to the computer's
system unit through appropriate interfaces and ports.

Description of Input Devices

Input devices are parts of the computer system that enable the users to enter data and the required
control parameters into the computer.
Subsequently, the input data is converted and translated into a computer readable format for
subsequent processing by the central processing unit.

Input devices can be categorized into pointing, scanning, wireless, and cable devices. Pointing
input devices are used to move a cursor on the screen. Examples of these include the mouse,
trackball, and touchpad.

The category of scanning input devices is Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), scanners, Optical
Character Recognition (OCR) devices, barcode readers, among others. These pointing input
devices can sense and read characters directly on papers and other materials. Bar code readers
are often used to scan bar code items in supermarkets and different types of industrial products in
the supply chain line.
Some of the input devices include the keyboard, mouse, touchpad, webcams, microphones,
joysticks, and image scanners.

Computer with Peripheral Devices

Keyboard
The keyboard is the primary and commonly used data entry device for different
computers. Like the old typewriter machines, the keyboard is used to enter data into the
computer by typing the necessary alphanumeric keys. There is a total of 104 numeric,
alphabet, and function keys. The keyboard can be connected to the system unit via cable
or Bluetooth wirelessly.

Essentially, the keyboard typing keys include the following classes

 Upper and lower case alphabet keys from A-Z and a-z, respectively
 Numeric keys from 0 to 9
 Special 12 function keys for specific purposes
 Control (Ctrl) keys
 Cursor and screen control keys are Arrow keys, page up, page down
 Alternate (Alt), Escape (Esc), Home, End, Insert, Delete
 Enter, backspace, num-lock, caps lock, shift, space bar, tab, scroll lock, sleep, print
screen

Description of computer keyboard

Mouse
A mouse is an input pointing device rolled over a smooth surface to control the cursor on the
computer screen through its speed-controlled sensor, and operational clickable buttons on the
left, middle, and right parts. The functions of the buttons can be customized to select and open
files or objects. Figures 30 and 31 show the wired and wireless mice.

Wireless Mouse
Image scanners
The image scanner is an input device that optically scans printed materials, objects, images, and
documents and thereafter converts and stores them in a digital format. The scanned document be
edited for further application.

Light Pen
A light pen is a light-sensitive input device that can be used to point and write or draw directly
on the visual display unit, monitor, and screen. Light pen to detect raster on the screen as it
passes on it with high precision. The light pen functions well like the touchscreen devices, as
shown below.

Light pen Light pen and

IPAD

Output Devices
An output device is any peripheral hardware connected to a computer either wired or wireless to
display, project, or physically reproduce the results of data processed by a computer. It converts
electronic information into a format which can be understood by humans.
What differentiates an input from an output device is that the input device transfers data to the
computer, whereas the output data receives data from the computer. Input device usage is
mandatory to operate the computer. On the other hand, output devices may be optional.
Conventionally, the output devices can be grouped into data, print, visual, and sound hardware.
Thus, various output hardware include visual display unit (monitor or screen), printer, plotter,
headphones, computer speakers, projector, GPS, sound card, video card, braille reader, and
speech generating machine.
The number of pixels determines the resolution of the monitor. The monitor resolution,
smoothness, or picture clarity increases with more pixels. The two types of monitor screens are
cathode ray tube monitors (CRT) and flat-panel screen monitors.
Cathode Ray Tube monitors, which were manufactured using old CRT technology, applied
phosphorescent dots to generate pixels that form displayed images. CRT monitor screens, which
were the same as the old TV CRT technology, were usually large and consumed more power.
The diagram below show LCD and CRT visual display units respectively.
Computer speakers, projector, GPS, sound card, video card, braille reader, and speech generating
machine.

Visual Display Unit

The visual display unit (VDU), popularly known as a monitor or display screen, is the primary
and well-known output device that displays output contents as picture elements (pixels) on the
computer screen. These output contents include text, video, images, etc. The VDU looks much
like a TV screen, and shares similar resolution parameters.

LCD visual display unit

CRT visual display unit

Flat Panel Screen Monitors
Flat-panel screen monitors, which implement a thin panel design instead of CRT technology, are
lighter, thinner, and portable. They use liquid crystals or plasma technology to generate output as
light passes through liquid crystals to form the required pixels.
The three types of Flat Panel screen monitors are Liquid Crystal Devices (LCD) monitors or
Non-emissive displays, Light Emitting Diode (LED) monitors or Emissive displays, and Plasma
monitors. Let us explain these three types of monitor screens.
 Liquid Crystal Devices (LCD) monitors or Non-emissive displays: This type of flat panel
display implements the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. This technology is
also replicated in LCD televisions, aircraft cockpit displays, ship cocktail screens, etc. An
LCD monitor is more energy-efficient and users’ friendly. It is safer to dispose of the
CRT monitors.

 Light Emitting Diode (LED) monitors or Emissive displays:

Although the technologies of LCD and LED are similar. The LED technology of LED is more
advanced than the LCD monitor. The LED monitors are lighter, thinner, and less expensive.
These monitors are more reliable as they have a more broad dimming range of backlighting.

 Plasma monitors:
The picture elements in the plasma screen monitors are illuminated by a tiny bit of charged gas
or plasma similar to a small neon light. These monitors are thinner, brighter, and better in
performance than the Cathode ray tube and liquid crystal display monitors.

Printing Devices
The printing devices are specialized computerized machines that can print information
permanently on materials of different forms. They are usually stand-alone systems connected to
computers via cable, wirelessly or by cloud. Examples of printing devices include printers,
plotters, and 3D printers, among others. This section discusses some printing devices.

Printers
A printer is the second most common type of output device that permanently transfers the
processed data from the computer into a printed format and thereby produces text or images
hardcopy output on paper. Today, different printers can print texts, photos, and graphics objects
in coloured, monochrome, and black and white. Printers used in homes and offices have high
dots per inch (DPI), generating high quality images.

The printers are classified into Impact and Non-Impact printers.

Impact printer
This is an old type of printer that noisily prints characters by striking on the ribbon and thereby
imprint on the paper.
The impact printers can either be the character or line printers.

 Character printers
These printers are capable of printing text, and a single character at a time in the average speed is
up to 300 lines per minute. The different character printers include chain, band, dot matrix, and
daisy wheel printers. The commonly used printers are dot matrix and daisy wheel.

 Line Printers
Line printers can print and display output texts line by line. The two types of line printers are
drum printers and chain printers.
The drum printer has high speed and can print up to 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

Non-Impact printer
The non-impact printers can print without striking the ribbon. These include laser printers and
inkjet printers.

 Laser Printers
Laser printers use a photoelectric drum, powdered ink, and laser light to produce dots to form the
characters for printing. When a print command is given, a laser beam draws the document on a
selenium-coated drum using an electrical charge, providing a clean copy of the image on the
paper. Since ink is not used, they have fewer smearing problems than an inkjet printer. A laser
printer uses the same technology and procedures as a copying machine.
 Inkjet Printers
This printer generates output by spraying ink droplets onto the paper through a small nozzle.
Inkjet printers are the most widely used type of printer. There are expensive and inexpensive
models available in the market. It was the most common type of printer due to limited available
technology in the olden days. The printers are less expensive.

LaserJet Printer

Coloured Epson Printer

Graph Plotter
A plotter output device, which is similar to a printer but usually bigger, can be used to draw large
high quality, images, pictures, and vector graphics.

A plotter is used to generate and draw large drawings, architectural blueprints, engineering
drawings, graphic charts, cadastral maps, and satellite imagery on paper.
Graph Plotter

Computer Speakers
Computer speakers are one of the most common output hardware used with a
computer. The speakers receive audio as input from the computer via a sound card.
The internal amplifiers of the speaker can be used to control or vary the volume or
the amplitude of the sound. The connection of external speakers can be used to
enhance the volume and other in-built parameters of the sounds.