Computer fundamentals

Objectives
❖ Identify the hardware components of
the computer
❖ Describe the purpose of input devices
❖ Explore the different categories of input
devices.
❖ Distinguish between the different types
of input devices
HARDWARE (classifications of computer
hardware)
Input Devices; these are devices
used to get data into the computer
for processing

Central Processing Unit; the

CPU is the brain of the computer
where all processing takes place. It
executes all instructions and
HARDWARE (classifications of computer
hardware) cont’d
Output Devices; these devices display
the results of processed
data to the user in a form that they can
understand.

Storage Devices and Storage Medium;

storage devices are used to write data and
or information to a storage medium. These
 Inputs devices are separated in several
categories
Manual input devices, keyboard, mouse, touchpad,
joystick, touch screen, concept keyboard, document
scanners, graphics tablets, microphones and digital
cameras requires you to enter data by hand.

Automated input devices, barcode readers, OMRs,

OCRs, MICRs, magnetic stripe readers, sensors and
 DISADVANTAGE OF MANUAL AND
AUTOMATIC
A manual input device is
something you operate
yourself, so you could
make a mistake
manually, whereas
automatic input devices
are worked by a
 Categories of input devices based on
their use

keyboard; The most

common input device is the
keyboard. Ordinary computer
keyboards have their keys
arranged in a similar way to
those on a typewriter. A
digital code made up of zeros
(0) and ones (1) are sent to
the computer when each key
is pressed.
The Braille Keyboard; A Braille
keyboard is a specialized input
device that allows the user to type
and enter text or instructions for the
computer in Braille.

Specialized Keyboard; An
overlay keyboard or
concept keyboard is a specialized
The Concept Keyboard; A concept
keyboard is a flat board that contains
a grid of buttons. Each button can be
programmed to do whatever you
want. An overlay sheet with pictures
or symbols is placed on the grid so
that the user can tell what pressing on
different areas will do.
The Left-handed
Keyboard; Left-handed
keyboards place the numeric
keypad on the left-hand side
of the keyboard. This allows
the left-handed user to use
their dominant hand on the
https://youtu.be/8JyascFxcSM
A Virtual/Projection
Keyboard;

A virtual keyboard is a software

component that allows the
input of characters without the
need for physical keys. The
interaction with the virtual
 The mouse
A mouse is an input device
used to manipulate data and
program instructions by
pointing, selecting dragging
and clicking. They move over
a flat surface mirrored by a
pointer on the monitor
 Ball mouse
Under this mouse is a ball
which rolls and turns two
shafts, one for each
direction-left/right and
up/down. The ball can get
dirty and transfer dirt to
the shafts. This can cause
 Optical mouse
this slides over most surfaces as it
does not have a ball. It emits a small
beam of red light that bounces off
the surface into a sensor. It then
sends coordinates to the computer
which moves the pointer on the
monitor screen.
The advantages to this mouse are
underneath. The ball is rolled with
the palm of your hand or fingers.
These are mostly found on laptop
computers.

Pointing stick; these are found on

laptops and looks like a pencil
eraser. It protrudes from the
keyboard between the b, g and h
keys. Pushing on the pointer stick
Touch pad;
This is a pressure and motion
sensitive flat surface of about 5cm
x 5cm over which you move your
fingers to control the
cursor/pointer on the screen. Left
and right click buttons placed
close to the surface allows for
Digitizing tablet (graphics tablet);

To digitize means to convert from

analog form (picture) to digital form
(machine readable, binary). A
digitizing tablet is a board which
can defect the position of a pointing
device such as a stylus or a puck on
its surface. A stylus is a pen-like
Touch screen;

This is a computer that is

sensitive to touch; it allows
the user to press parts of
the screen to activate
different functions without
using a mouse. Touch
This is shaped like a pen in
the form of a light sensitive
wand used in conjunction with
a computer monitor; they
allow you to point and make
selections accurately on a
screen.
Motion sensor gaming
controllers: These devices used
motion sensing to detect position
and track movement allowing the
game player to imitate the player’s
actual movement. E.g. the swinging
of a tennis racket.

Joystick:
Gaming wheel: this device is a
steering wheel which simulates
driving by the turning of the
wheel. Pedals are also used with
the wheel to simulate the
acceleration and braking system
of a car.

Dance pads: this device also

Gaming pad:
This is a gaming device that
allows the user to move an
object on the screen by moving
or pressing buttons or moving
stick. It is held with both hands.

Light gun:
 Scanning devices
This is a device that copies
content from printed text,
handwriting, pictures and
graphs and converts them
to digital form. Scanners
come in hand-held, flatbed,
drum and sheet-fed /feed-in
forms. Scanners work by
works similar to a
photocopier where
Document the
Scanners
picture is placed on a flat
surface and the image
captured.

Drum scanners: these are

normally used by publishing
industries to capture
images with high detail.
Sheet-fed/feed-in scanners: the
sheet that contains the image is
fed through rollers and the picture
is scanned as the paper passes
through.

Optical mark reader: The OMR

detects the position of black marks
on a white paper. It senses the
Magnetic ink character reader (MICR): is an
automated data capture device commonly used in
banks to examine data from cheques. A MICR is similar
to an OCR in that they both read and recognize
characters. The source document used is a cheque,
which is both human readable and machine
readable. Bank checks have the following information
encoded in them

•The cheque numbers

Institutions that use MICR benefit from:
•Increased security because the magnetic ink makes
it difficult to fraudulently change data encoded on
cheques
•Improved speed with which transactions are
completed
•Increased accuracy of transactions as data are read
directly from cheques thereby eliminating data entry
errors.
 Optical character reader (OCR)

Both OCR and OMR are data

capture devices. In fact, an
OCR is really a specialized
OMR. Instead of just reading
marks, it reads the shapes of
the characters (letters,
numbers and special
 Barcode reader (OR BARCODE SCANNER)

This is a specialized optical mark reader that

‘visually’ interprets barcodes. This data
capture device scans barcodes and, with
specialized software, converts them into
machine-readable data.
Barcodes are the black and white stripes
found on many products sold in retail. Barcode
readers are now found in many supermarkets
Advantages
•Faster, accurate service for
customers which improves
efficiency
•Does instant and
continuous stock taking
•Uses less paper

Disadvantage
 Magnetic strip

Magnetic strip is a short

length of magnetic coated
tape printed on the surface
of or sealed into a ticket or
card. The magnetic strip
encodes data such as the
customer’s account
number, account balance,
Advantages
•Easy and cheap to produce
•Stores data for simple transactions
•Reduce the amount of paperwork

Disadvantages
• Data can be forged, altered,
changed or erased by magnetic
fields.
• The strip can be damaged by
 Smart Card

Smart cards have very thin

gold coloured memory strips
sealed into them, that stores
more information than a
magnetic strip card. Data is
stored on an embedded
memory chip and updated on
the card. This chip holds
Advantage
•The chip can store a good deal
of information including
personal information, helping to
confirm the user of the card is
the owner of the card.

Disadvantage
•The chip can potentially be
damaged.
devices that record data
about the physical
environment around
it. Sensors send data to a
computer. They do not
make judgements,
decisions or control
any output devices. There
are many types
of sensors used in a
device measures a unique
physical characteristic of a
person. The most
common biometric
devices are used to input a
person's fingerprint into a
computer. More
sophisticated devices use a
camera to input a
Heat sensor:

Temperature Sensors measure

the amount of heat energy or
even coldness that is generated
by an object or system, allowing
us to “sense” or detect any
physical change to that
temperature producing either an
Weight sensor: A Weight sensor is
known for its accuracy and
consistency in delivering exact weight
values and hence these sensors can
be used in designing a weighing
system

Motion sensor: A motion

sensor (or motion detector) is an
 Voice data entry recognition

This system requires the use of a

microphone. Using a
microphone, the human speech
is coded into a sequence of
electronic signals that the
computer is programmed to
recognize. These signals are
Advantages
•No typing is required
•The system can be used remotely
(via telephone).

Disadvantage
•Recognition of words is still
relatively slow.
•Not suitable for noisy environments
•May need to train system to
 Sound capture
All modern computers
contain a built-in
microphone for sound
capture. A sound card is
required for recording
voice music. Sound cards
digitize information for the
computer to understand.
 MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)

Electronic musical
instruments can have MIDI
ports for input into the
computer. The sound files
are digitized and stored as a
file, can be displayed on
 Voice response unit
A voice response unit (VRU)
accepts the human voice as
machine-readable input and
produces output using synthesized
speech.
This data capture technology is
useful in businesses that have to
handle thousands of customer
 Digital cameras
Digital cameras allow digital photographs
to be entered into the computer. These
include digital cameras, document
cameras and web cameras (webcams).
Whereas all three are capable of capturing
still images and video, the webcam is
optimized for video and the document
camera for still images. Digital cameras
 Remote control

A remote control is used to operate a

machine from a distance. Remote
controls are used with consumer
devices such as televisions and hi-fi
music systems and vehicle locking
systems.
Remote controls have a small
keyboard on them with buttons that
 RFID (radio frequency identification)

Radio-frequency identification
(RFID) uses electromagnetic
fields to automatically identify
and track tags attached to
objects. RFID is a method of
data collection that involves
automatically identifying
objects through low-power radio