• Keyboard,Mouse, Trackball, Trackpad
• Concept Keyboards,Touch Screens, Graphics Tablets, Speech Recognition
• Card Reader - Magnetic strip and Smart Cards
• Scanners, Optical Mark Reader (OMR), Optical Character Reader (OCR), Barcode Readers, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, Sound input, Video Input, Webcams, Digital Cameras

• Keyboard
• Mouse

• Standard Keyboard: QWERTY
• Egronomic keyboards are designed to try to reduce RSI

• Most common pointing device
• Connected via cable/ wireless
• Two types: Mechanical and Optical

• Has a rolling ball and computer senors its position pm a flat surface
• Work best on mouse mat
• Has 2/3 buttons and a scroll

• Uses a light sensor to detect motion
• Does not need a mouse mat
• Has 2/3 buttons and a scroll.

• Does same job as mouse
• Ball on surface rather than underneath
• Sometimes used with laptop computers because they are easier to use in confined spaces

• Many laptops have them
• User moves their finger over a sensitive plate to control the cursor

• Concept Keyboards
• Touch Screens
• Graphics Tablets
• Speech Recognition

• Divided into ares which are labelled to suit the actual use
• Special software then interprets the key press for the computer
• Used in Checkouts tills, restraunts
• May be used for children & people with disabilities
• e.g. A small child may hear a question asking what colour an object is, they then press the correct section of the keyboard that has been divided into six sections, each representing a colour.

Touch Screens

• Senses when an area has been touched
• Either by wires embedded into the screen or by patterns of infa-red light beams.
• Software interprets the signal
• Often used in public areas: - easy to use, combines input and output so no other devices are needed (e.g. mouse)

• Mainly for drawing
• Stylus used to draw on a flat plate
• Stylus feels like a pencil rather than a mouse

• User speaks into a microphone
• Sounds of the words are compared with a dictionary of sounds & converted into computer-readable text using speech recognition software
• Still not very reliable - different voices & accents can make the same word sound very different

• Card Readers
• Scanners
• Optical Mark Recognition
• Optical Character Recognition
• Bar-code Readers
• Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
• Sound & Video Input
• Webcams
• Digital Camera

Magnetic Strip Cards:

• Swipped through a card reader/ fed into a  slot in the card machine
• Easy to read
• Can' hold much data & magnetic strip is easily scratched

Smart Card:

• Can have data written onto it
• Card has to be authorised by a PIN, making it more secure than a swipe card
• Data can be encrypted

• Turn paper-based documents/pictures into didgital images
• Quality of picture being scanned depends on the resolution the scanner has been set to
• Higher the resolution, higher the quality of the picture, but the bigger the file size
• Resolution measured in Dpi

• Flat-bed
• Barcode Scanners
• Hand-Held (used in shops)
• Sheet feed scanners
• Drum Scanners

• Used mostly for multiple choice examinations & lottery tickets
• Uses a light beam to sense position of pencil/marks on a piece of paper
• Forms need to be specially printed, software needs to be configured for each one
• Fairly expensive to set up but results are produced accurately and quickly

• Paper based document is scanned & each part of image is compared to a dictionary of known letter shapes
• Letters are converted into computer characters
• OCR is used to input formss that have been filled in by clients/employees
• Big disadvantage = takes user long time to fill in form & any mistakes they have to start again

• Used in Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems
• Also used in libraries
• Bar codes have a built in error checking

• Used by Banks to process cheques & other negotiable documents
• Cheque & account numbers are printed along the bottom of a cheque in uniquelu shaped characters using an ink containing magnetic particles.
• Magnetic reader translates them into numbers which are stored on computer system
• Are being used less & less as payments are being done electronically

• Has to be encoded as a digital signal=sampled
• Sample rate  controls quality of sound produced

• Made up of many still images played very rapidly in sequence to trick the eye into thinking that the movement is continous
• Video does not need to be high definition

• Used for video conferencing
• Not particular high quality
• Many laptops now come with webcams built in
• Its easier to see family & friends that live all over the world

• Can be connected directly to the computer via cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth
• Most mobile phones have built in cameras

• Some games simulate activites such as driving/flying a plane, input device is important part of making the experience feel real
• Example: Wii - Wii control is one handed remote control that works by sensing motion. Communicates Via Bluetooth. Held left/right handed. Extra devices can change the wii into a gun, sword, steering wheel, golf club, tennis racquet

• Text
• Still Images
• Moving Images
• Numbers
• Sound

• Type of data
• Volume of data
• User preferences
• Cost considerations
• Where the device is to be used