Computer Input and Output Devices
A computer is only valuable when it can interact with the outer environment. When you work with the computer you maintain your data and directions by some devices to the computer. These devices are called Input devices. Similarly, computers after processing provide output by other devices called output devices.
The working of a computer system is based on the mixed usage of both input and output devices. Applying an input device we can give directions to the computer to act and the device reverts to our work through an output device.
Several input/output devices are used with several types of microcomputers. Numerous of these are few complex versions of I/O devices that have been free for larger computer systems. The key difference is that because they are meant for use with microcomputers, they are significantly slower and considerably cheaper.
The most common of all input devices is the keyboard. Several versions of keyboards are available. the input device sends information for processing and an output device would reproduce or display the results of the processing.
The Input unit receives information from various input devices and sends the information to a computer for further processing. An output device is a device that the computer uses to write data.
Additionally, so it’s been said, some devices are both input and output, this would be a Rewritable CD/DVD and many USB devices.
Some of the most common output devices that people are familiar with include monitors, which produce video output; speakers, which produce audio output; and printers, which produce text or graphical output.
The name of a device as either input or output relies on the aspect.
Mice and keyboards take physical actions that the personal user outputs and turn them into input signals. That a computer can understand, the output from those devices is the computer’s input.
The printers and monitors also utilize signals that computers output as input and, then they turn these signals into a design that individual users can understand easily.
From the human user’s viewpoint, the process of learning or understanding these descriptions is receiving output; this type of interaction between computers and humans is examined in the field of human-computer interaction.
Output devices can use different forms and styles, which are utilized to give the output of the processing of data. The output can be in any order i.e. typed, printed, sketched, visible, nonviable, audio, video, and many more. Output devices are those external devices that let a user recover information from a computer
The most typical output devices we use every day are monitor/display/screen, printer, speakers, headphones.
Here are a few other output devices I have encountered over the years
Classroom projector (just like a monitor/display, but projected on a wall or screen)
- LEDs (used as a status output on early computers and modern embedded systems).
- Small LCDs (used as the status output on appliances and other embedded systems).
- Speech synthesizer unit (outputs audible words and phrases not previously recorded).
- Music synthesizer unit (outputs audible music not previously recorded).
- Card punch unit (punches information into cards, which can later be used as input).
- Paper tape punch unit (punches information into a length of paper tape, later used as input).
- Milling machine (controlled by a CPU, outputs physical parts that have been milled from raw materials).
- 3D printer (deposits layers of material to form a 3-dimensional object).
- The industrial robotic arm (where the output is observable physical work).
- Electronic door lock (where the open/closed state of the physical lock is considered output).
- Haptic device (generates forces/sensations that a user can feel…for example, the “force feedback” part of a gaming joystick)
There are many others. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of the wide range of possibilities for input and output devices.
