Types Of Input Devices For A Computer

An input device is one of the hardware devices that help to send various data to the computer and without it, there would be no mode to interact with the computers. There are many different types of input devices for computer which are considered to be quite important. Typically, an input device consists of a terminal, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, webcams, microphones and scanner etc. Moreover, some of the input devices that are not used commonly are of three-dimensional navigation devices such as mouse that can point to the 3D space and punch card readers. One of the most commonly used types of input devices for a computer is of keyboard, which is now available in various designs. Normally, the cell phones consist of a thumb-sized keyboard as well as numeric keyboards that are quite same to that of a calculator.

Mice are the types of input devices for a computer that includes several designs such as laser mouse, scroll mouse, digital pens, and track balls etc. The punched cards also known as IBM was considered to be one of the most prevailing input devices in the early days of the computer. Digital cameras and webcams are also considered to be a type of input device for a computer. These input devices plays a vital role in rendering visual information to the computer in the video or image form. In addition, some of the webcams can also be utilized as pointing devices with the help of tracking the position of the hand or face of any person. Some of the examples of these audio input devices include digital musical instruments, microphones, and midi keyboards etc. Moreover, when hooked to a computer, an electric guitar can also act as an input device.

Scanners are the types of input devices for a computer that are helpful in converting the black, white, and colored images into the digital data. Generally, there are two kinds of scanners used to scan documents named as optical mark recognition or OMR and optical character recognition or OCR. Another type of input device for a computer is of magnetic tape which can be rewritten as well as stored indefinitely without any difficulty. The magnetic tape mechanisms are basically of two types known as reel-to-reel and cartridge. Most often, the reel-to-reel tape drives are utilized by the computers having large mainframes, while tape cartridges are commonly used by small computers. In addition, the magnetic tape drive can be easily removed for offline storage from the tape drive.

Touch screens are the types of input devices for a computer, which works by simply touching the display screen. The screen can be touched either with the help of fingers or a stylus. This type of input device can is normally found on cell phones, PDAs, tablet PCS, and video games etc. the audio input device is another type of input device that helps to capture sound and then send it to the computer. various digital instruments are included in audio input devices.