Jasmin Nicole B.

Cristobal
9-Curie
An interface device (IDF) is a hardware component or system of
components that allows a human being to interact with a computer, a telephone
system, or other electronic information system. The term is often encountered in
the mobile communication industry where designers are challenged to build the
proper combination of portability, capability, and ease of use into the interface
device. The overall set of characteristics provided by an interface device is often
referred to as the user interface (and, for computers - at least, in more academic
discussions - the human-computer interface or HCI ). Today's desktop and notebook
computers have what has come to be called a graphical user interface ( GUI ) to
distinguish it from earlier, more limited interfaces such as the command line
interface ( CLI ).

An interface device generally must include some form or forms of output

interface, such as a display screen or audio signals, and some form or forms of input
interface, such as buttons to push, a keyboard, a voice receiver, or a handwriting
tablet. Harmonia, a company that makes a program for developing Web pages that
can be formatted on the fly for different kinds of interface devices, defines six
generic classes of interface devices that characterize today's technology:

The personal computer (desktop or notebook, abundant

memory and external storage, keyboard, large display)

Handheld (much smaller, still has a keyboard)

Palm (smaller still, can fit in some pockets, handwriting is primary

input interface, display very small and usually landscape rather than
portrait)

Smart Phone (digital cellular phone with little or no computing,

accepts Wireless Markup Language-coded pages from Web servers)

Smart Pager (also known as a two-way

pager , has the ability to respond by pressing
buttons or by using a tiny keyboard)
 Standard Telephone (voice and key input
interface, no computer capability)

Hybrid (often a combined phone and handheld computer)

If you are creating content for a human receiver, you need at least a general
understanding of the type or types of interface devices that the your audience may
be using. The Extensible Markup Language ( XML ) is designed to allow Web or other
content to be created independently of the type of interface device that may be
used. An individual style sheet designed for specific interface device types can be
created using the Extensible Stylesheet Language ( XSL ). Then, when a user
requests a page, that user's interface device type can be recognized and the
appropriate style sheet used to format the page that is sent. Harmonia has
developed a User Interface Markup Language (UIML) that facilitates this process.

Interfacing Devices

Interfacing can be defined as transferring data between microcontrollers and

interfacing peripherals such as sensors, keypads, microprocessors, analog to digital
converters or ADC, LCD displays, motors, external memories, even with other
microcontrollers, some other interfacing peripheral devices and so on or input
devices and output devices. These devices that are interfacing with 8051
microcontroller are used for performing special tasks or functions are called as
interfacing devices.
Interfacing is a technique that has been developed and being used to solve many
composite problems in circuit designing with appropriate features, reliability,
availability, cost, power consumption, size, weight, and so on. To facilitate multiple
features with simple circuits, microcontroller is interfaced with devices such as ADC,
keypad, LCD display and so on.
Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)

A to D converter is an electronic integrated circuit used for

converting the analog signals into a digital or binary form.
Generally, analog to digital converters takes an input
voltage from 0 to 10V, -5V to +5V, etc. and thereby
converts this analog input into digital output. Most of the
environmental parameters such as temperature, sound,
pressure, light, etc. are measurable in analog form only. If
we consider a temperature monitoring system, then
obtaining, examining and handling temperature data from
the temperature sensors is unable with the digital
measuring system. Therefore, this system requires an intermediate device for
converting the temperature from analog to digital data, such that for
communicating with the digital system containing microcontrollers and
microprocessors.

ADC Interfacing with 8051 Microcontroller

SCADA for remote industrial plant is a practical

application in which,analog to digital converter or
ADC interfacing with 8051 microcontroller is used.
To continuously monitor the multiple operations of
the remote industrial plant, supervisory control
and data acquisition (SCADA) is the best
technology for achieving control over various
operations of industry remotely, thus increases
efficiency and saves lot of manpower.

In this project temperature sensors are interfaced

with microcontroller that is connected to a PC. Temperature sensorsconnected are
interfaced to microcontroller with the help of analog to digital converter. As, the
signal generated from sensors is analog, so these analog signals are converted into
digital and then fed to the microcontroller. For serial communication RS232 is a
standard. RS232 interface is used for obtaining communication between the
computer and circuit such to transfer data between circuit and computer.

If the temperature exceeds the preset

value, then microcontroller activates
relay that will turn off the heaters
and an AV alarm will be
generated if the system fails. Here the
heaters are represented with lamps for
demonstration purpose.

Keypad or Keyboard

In general keypads or keyboards are used as input devices

for computers. But, among various types of interfacing
devices, keypad is also one type of frequently used
interfacing peripheral devices. In general, keypad or
keyboard consists of rows and columns, are called as matrix
keypads (m rows*n columns keypads). These are interfaced
with microcontroller for entering values or names whenever
it is required for the circuit.
 Application of Keypad as Interfacing
Device

Security system with a user changeable

password is a practical application in which
keypad is used as one of the interfacing
devices. Password based door lock system is
used for security to house or organization or
office or company. In this system, opening or
closing the door can be operated only by
entering the right password. For entering
password,keyboard interfacing or keypad
interfacing with 8051 microcontroller is used.

Thus,the system will avoid the unauthorized persons

to operate the door. Even, if any unauthorized
attempt made to operate the door can be altered
with an alarm system, here indicated by the lamp. In
this project we can improve the security of the
system by using many interfacing devices can be
used such as keypad, relay, EEPROM, GSM modem.

The Keypad is used for entering the password, authorized person can change the
password using an external interfacing peripheral devices such as EEPROM. And
further microcontroller interfacing GSM modem can be used for sending an alert
SMS to authorized person regarding unauthorized attempt if any, made to operate
the door with the wrong password.

LCD Display

An LCD display or liquid crystal display is

one of the most frequently used interfacing
devices that consist of liquid crystals. It can
be considered as a combination of solid and
liquid (directly liquid is not used, but in fact
water liquid crystals are used). These LCD
displays utilizes liquid crystals for
producing visible images. LCD displays are
display screen super thin technology that is
being used in cell phones, televisions, portable video games, laptops, computer
monitors, portable video games.

Application of LCD Interfacing with Microcontroller

The RFID based attendance

system is a practical
application of LCD display
interfacing with 8051
microcontroller. This system is
a modern way of taking
students attendance in the
classroom and it will avoid
conventional time consuming
manual attendance system.
In this project, every student
data is stored in a card that is
used as identification for taking attendance of students. If a student places his/her
card in front of the RFID card reader, then this data is read and verified by
comparing it with previously stored data of the 8051 microcontroller. Based on the
verification of data matching, it displays a message on the LCD display. LCD
displays interfaced with microcontroller that is used for displaying a confirmation
message, whether the student is present or absent.

If students attendance information is

required, then by pressing the status
button that is interfaced to the
microcontroller attendance can be
retrieved. Thus, this system saves a lot
of time as the data is stored in the
database. By interfacing the GSM system
with this project, it can be used to send
SMS alerts to the parents of the students
regarding the attendance.