https://www.displaytechnology.co.

uk/com
ponents/touch-screen-components
Computer Basics ( Input Device and Output Device)

Basic Components of a Computer

Working of Computer
• Computers follow the basic principle of the Input-Process-Output (I-P-O) cycle.
• Input refers to data or instructions given to the computer.
• Output refers to the result given by the computer.
• Process refers to the work done by the computer to obtain the output.

Input Devices
• The input is given to the computer by means of input devices.
• Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Barcode reader, Web cam, and Microphone are some of the
commonly used input devices.
 Keyboard and Mouse Connectors
• The keyboard and mouse are connected to the computer by using PS/2, serial ports or a USB
port.
• The PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports are 6-pin ports.
• To avoid confusion between the two ports, the system case usually has symbols and colour
coding. The green colour port is used for mouse and the purple colour port is used for keyboard.

Keyboard
• A keyboard is used for typing text into the computer.
• A computer keyboard is similar to a typewriter keyboard but has some additional keys.
• The most commonly available computer keyboard has 104 keys.
• Based upon their connection to the motherboard, keyboards are classified into:
– PS/2 keyboard
– USB keyboard
– Wireless keyboard

Mouse
• Mouse is an input device.
• It is used to point at and choose things displayed on the monitor.
• A mouse may have two or three buttons.
• The most commonly used ones have two buttons – left mouse button and right mouse button.
The left button is the most frequently used button.

• Based upon their connection to the motherboard, mouse is classified into:

– PS/2 mouse
– Serial mouse
– USB mouse
– Wireless mouse
• Based on the technology used, mouse can be broadly classified into two categories. They are
namely,
– Mechanical mouse
– Optical mouse

• Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

• Wireless keyboards and mice are powered by small, light weight batteries.
• The media used to connect to the computer can be through Radio Frequency (RF) waves,
Infra Red (IR) signals or through Bluetooth or Industry standard RF.
• Wireless mouse or keyboard using infra red signals for communicating with the computer
need to be in “line of sight” in order to work.
• Wireless mice or keyboard using radio frequencies for communication requires two
components: a radio transmitter and a radio receiver.
• Scanner
• A scanner is a multimedia input device that uses light to read printed information including
text, images and bar codes and transfers it to computer in digital format.
• Scanners can be categorised as:
– Flatbed scanners
– Sheet-fed scanners
– Handheld scanners
– Drum scanners

Web Camera
• Web camera or Webcam is a small camera attached to a computer.
• Webcams connected to PCs can act as Web-accessible cameras with certain software.
• Webcam can be used for one-to-one live video communication over the Internet, video
conferencing and so on.
• It can capture short videos in predefined length or still images. The captured files can be
saved locally and uploaded to an Internet server.

Microphone
• A microphone is used to record voice or sound. This recorded sound can be stored in a
computer in the form of digital signals.
 Barcode Reader
• A barcode reader is an electronic device which optically scans a barcode and translates the
data contained in the barcode pattern into data which can be used by a computer or other
equipment.
• Barcode readers are mostly used in shopping malls.
• This device scans the barcodes present in the product labels to input the price of the products
to the billing machine. It is very useful for quick billing.

Output Devices
• The system unit processes the input given to the computer and gives the output. This output
can either be displayed on the monitor or printed on paper using a printer.
 Monitor
• The monitor looks like a television screen.
• It is also called Visual Display Unit (VDU)
• It is used to display information from the computer.
• There are coloured as well as black and white monitors.
• The monitor displays text and graphics.
• Based on the technology used, monitor is classified into two types. They are,
– Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors
– Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors
 Printer
• A printer is used for transferring data from the computer to the paper.
• There are colour printers as well as black and white printers.
• The different types of printers are Dot Matrix Printers, Inkjet Printer and Laser Printers
Dot matrix Printer

Inkjet Printer Laser Printer

 Laser Printer

Types of Printers

Dot Matrix Printer Inkjet Printer Laser Printer

Prints characters in the Prints fully formed Prints fully formed characters
form of dots characters

Speed: 200-540 characters Speed: 4-8 pages per Speed: 4-20 pages per minute
per second minute

Not very expensive Moderately priced Expensive

Touch Screen
• A touch screen is a computer display screen that is sensitive to human touch.
• It allows the user to interact with the computer by touching pictures or words displayed on
the screen.
• Touch screens are used to display the output information on the screen as well as to give
input by touching the words or pictures on the screen. Thus it is an input/output device.
• Touch screens are normally used when information has to be accessed with minimum effort.
2D/3D SCANNER A scanner allows you to take a copy of a physical
document and store it in digital form on a computer. A
bright light moves across the document. The light is
reflected in to a light-sensitive electronic integrated
circuit called a CCD (charge coupled device). From
here the light is assembled in to digital code which
represents which colour of light was in which part of
the image. The data is put together to form the digital
version of the scanned image.
MICROPHONE
When you speak, sound waves created by your voice
carry energy toward the microphone. Inside the
microphone, the diaphragm and a coil move back and
forth when the sound waves hit them. The permanent
magnet produces a magnetic field that cuts through the
coil. As the coil moves back and forth through the
magnetic field, an electric current flows through it.
The electric current flows out from the microphone to
an amplifier or sound recording device.

An optical mouse has a small red light at the bottom of

MOUSE it which you will notice if you turn it over. This small
red light comes from an LED (light emitting diode).
The light is used to recognise small patterns on the
surface which the mouse is moving on. The light is
sent to a CMOS sensor for analysis. If the mouse is
moved, the CMOS sensor (complimentary metal-oxide
semiconductor) will recognise this from the change in
where the patters are on the surface. It will in turn
send this information to the computer which will make
the movement of the mouse cursor, or character in a
video game.
 KEYBOARD When a key is pressed on a keyboard, two small
pieces of conductive material are pushed together
which cause an electrical signal to be sent to eh
computer. The computer recognises which key was
pressed by which circuit was completed. The
computer then sends this information to the piece of
software which is active at the time, for example the
Word Processor.
An interactive whiteboard recognises when a person
touches the screen and performs an action as a result
of this. There are several types of whiteboard. The
INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD most common uses a resistive system. This means that
there is a thin layer over the top of the board. When a
certain part of the two layers are pressed together, the
board recognises the position of this contact and sends
this information to the computer. Other types use
infrared signals which when broken, will send a signal
to the computer. The board will recognise where the
signal was broken and write or click in the appropriate
place.

Instead of the ink in an inkjet printer, a laser printer

uses what is called ‘toner’. This is a carbon passed
powdered form of ink. As a laser beam scans back and
forth across a ‘drum’ in the printer, static electricity is
built up which draws the powdered ‘toner’ on to the
paper.
BARCODE READER

A barcode reader uses light in the same way that a

scanner does. It reads the thickness of the lines on the
barcode and converts this in to a digital code. The
code is then entered in to a database where it
corresponds to a product. In a supermarket, one of the
products would then be removed from the database to
show that the product had been purchased.

QR code readers work like barcode readers except that

they usually use the camera of the device that they are
QR CODE READER
installed on rather than a CCD chip. The camera is
used to recognise the mathematical properties of the
shape on the QR code. This is then translated to code
 which corresponds to a website. The information is
then sent to the browser and the website is launched.

Touchscreen is a general term used to describe any

TOUCH SCREEN device which uses touch to control the software. There
are two main types of touchscreen, resistive and
capacitive. Resistive screens have a thin layer over the
top of another layer of material. When a certain part of
the two layers are pressed together, the screen
recognises the position of this contact and sends this
information to the software. Capacitive screens are
more expensive. They rely on the human body being
able to conduct small amounts of electrical current.
Touching the screen distorts the electronic field and
the device recognises where the interference was.
DIGITAL CAMERA A digital camera uses a CCD (charge coupled device)
much like a flatbed scanner. Light is transmitted in to
the device where is analysed for brightness and colour.
The information is sent to the software on the
computer where it is decoded and converted in to
individual pixels. Each pixel of contains details of
how much of each colour was in this part of the light
reading. The pixels are then put together to form an
digital representation of the light which was captured
by the CCD
Resolution refers to the number of individual dots of color, known as pixels, contained on a
display. Resolution is expressed by identifying the number of pixels on the horizontal axis (rows)
and the number on the vertical axis (columns), such as 800x600. Resolution is affected by a
number of factors, including the size of the screen.
Cathode Ray Tube Monitors
A CRT has a large vacuum tube in the back, with a cathode containing a heated filament pointing
forward, toward the viewer. This heated filament becomes an electron gun, firing off streams of
electrons in response to the visual signal it receives from the computer. Ahead of the cathode,
ringing it, is a set of electromagnets which activate in response to the same signal. These magnets
alter the course of the electron stream, aiming it. At the front of the monitor is a glass plate. On
the back of this plate are millions of tiny phosphor dots. These dots are combined into groups of
three--one red, one blue and one green. These groups are called pixels. When the electron stream
touches the pixels, the correct combination of the phosphor dots will light up and different
intensities to create any color in the spectrum. The stream passes over the entire monitor at a rate
of 50 to 100 times per second to create the continuous interactive image that we see.

CRT: Cathode Ray Tube

CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. It is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns and
a phosphorescent screen, which is used in traditional computer's display and in Television. It
works by moving electrons from the back of the tube towards the display screen where it collides
with the phosphorous. When the electrons hit the phosphorous, they light up and are projected on
the screen.

The colour shown on the screen is produced by three lights Red, Green and Blue and often
referred to as RGB.
When a speaker or other magnetic devices are kept close to a CRT monitor, interference is
produced.

This is due to the Magnetic charges which guides the way of electrons. LCDs and flat screens
don't face this problem as they don't use magnetic charges. Tube is also absent, due to which they
look much thinner than CRT monitors. LCD display is almost matchable with the quality of CRT
monitors which is why they are replacing them from both consumer as well as professional
market.

Features
o Physical size: CRT has a larger size and a heavy weight.
o Contrast: They have much better contrast ratio and give more visible details in dark
images. While they lack to give brighter white levels in LCD display.
o Cost: CRT is getting vanished from market. Most manufacturers have stopped the
production of CRT. It is quite inexpensive and is very difficult to find in the market.
o User Friendliness: CRT uses 4:3 ratio display screen. You must have seen in traditional
televisions, a black bar on top and bottom of the screen. It means that it is not able to use
all the screen space. Whereas, LCD screens are much wider which means they have
either a small bar or no bars at all.

Basic Components of CRT

o Electron Gun: It generates the beam of electrons.
o Anodes: They accelerate the electrons.
o Horizontal and Vertical Deflection Plates: These plates produce the low frequency
electromagnetic field required to adjust the direction of beam of electrons.
o Fluorescent Screen: It is made up of phosphor. It emits light when the electrons strike
on it.
o Evacuated Glass Envelope: It assembles or holds the whole cathode ray tube.
Pros

 Multisync Capable
 High Refresh Rates
 Color Clarity and Depth

Cons

 Very Heavy and Large

 Use Large Amounts of Energy
 Generate Excess Heat

Liquid Crystal Display Monitors

An LCD monitor is composed of two specially treated plates of polarized glass pressed together.
Between these plates is a liquid crystal material which responds to an electrical current by allowing
different wavelengths of light through at various points across its surface. Instead of creating points
of light, the entire premise of an LCD monitor is to block out the majority of light, to allow only
specific wavelengths, interpreted as colors by our brains, through the front of the monitor. A
backlight emits a continuous stream of light covering the entire back of the monitor, at all visible
wavelengths. The electrical current created by the visual signal sent from the computer causes the
liquid crystal material to block out different wavelengths of light across its face to create the
general shapes and colors of an image. Behind the monitor's face but in front of the liquid crystal
is an enclosed matrix of transistors connected to pixels on the screen's face. This matrix is so thin
that it appears to be transparent. But when a varying current runs through it, the same current as
the one manipulating the liquid crystal, it causes certain pixels to light up, adding definition to the
overall color passing through from the backlight.

Pros

 Smaller and Lighter

 Energy Efficient
 Causes Less Eye Fatigue

Cons

 Blurry Images Outside Native Resolution

 Motion Blur on Fast Moving Images
 Some Models Have Reduced Color Clarity
The operation of CRT is very simple −

 The electron gun emits a beam of electrons (cathode rays).

 The electron beam passes through focusing and deflection systems that direct it towards
specified positions on the phosphor-coated screen.

 When the beam hits the screen, the phosphor emits a small spot of light at each position
contacted by the electron beam.

 It redraws the picture by directing the electron beam back over the same screen points
quickly.
Inkjet printers spray liquid ink through microscopic nozzles onto paper as pictured below.

Laser printers, on the other hand, have a drum unit that fuses toner powder onto paper with heat.
So, one printer type uses ink, the other uses powder.

With this difference in application between the two inkjet and laser printer types, it’s a common
belief that smudging is more common with inkjet printers than laser. That’s not to say all inkjet
printers do. Inkjet printers that use pigment based ink aren’t likely to smudge whereas dye-based
ink require a longer drying time for the ink to set. And this also depends on what paper you’re
printing on. Some paper types absorb ink better while some don’t.