Computer Hardware

- Siddharth Karakoti

Hardware
Computer

hardware
is
the
collection of physical elements
that constituents a computer
systems. Computer hardware is
the physical parts or components
of computer including input and
output devices such as Monitor,
keyboard,
mouse,
printers,
plotters, scanners.

Input Devices

In computing, an input device is a

piece of hardware equipment use to

provide data and controls signals to
an information processing system such
as computer of information alliance.
Examples of input devices include
keyboard, mouse, scanners, digital
camera etc.

Keyboard
This is the most common input device which uses

arrangement of buttons or keys.

In a keyboard each press of a key typically
correspond to single written symbol.
The keyboard resembles a typewriter with
additional keys to handle control function.

Mouse

A mouse is a pointing device that functions by

detecting two-dimensional motion .

The motion of the mouse typically translate into
the motion of a cursor on a display, which
allows for fine control of Graphical User
Interface.
It usually contains two or three push buttons on
its surface.

Touch Pad

Touch pad is a pointing device featuring a tactile

sensor.
It is a specialized surface that can translate the
motion and position of a users fingers to a relative
position on the OS that is outputted to the screen.
Touchpad are common factor of laptops, and are
substitute to mouse

Trackball
A trackball is an alternative to a mouse.
In effect, it is an upside-down mouse with the

ball on the top or side.

It is often present on a portable computer as
the user may not able to find enough smooth
surface to roll the mouse freely.

Light Pen

Light pen is also a pointing device .It looks like

a writing pen.
It is also used to point out or highlight contents
on the monitor.
It is a light sensitive stylus attached to a video
terminal to draw pictures or to select menu
options.

Joystick

It is a popular and low priced input device

which is very easy to use, it is widely used for

playing games on computer.
It consists of a pivots on a base and
translates its angle or direction as data.
Joysticks
provide
an
exciting
gaming
experience.

Microphone

Microphone is becoming increasingly important as an

input device.
It is used to input audio data in computer. It is
mainly used for sound recording.
When the human voice is fed into the computer
through microphone, it is converted into digitized
form, which can be used as required.

Web Camera

Web camera or webcam is a tiny video camera

usually placed on the top of the monitor.

It can be used to store pictures/videos on the
computer or transmit to the Internet.
Webcams are mostly used for video
conferencing over the Internet. They have inbuilt microphone.

Card Reader

A card reader reads the stored information on the

memory card. It converts data into digitized form.

This data is sent to the computer for storage and
processing. Card readers are very commonly used
now.
Driving license, credit cards, debit cards etc are
all cards that have information in them and the
card reader helps to read this information .

Bar Code Reader

Bar codes are black vertical lines found on the

product or packing of almost every item nowadays,

example, books, apparels etc.
A bar code reader is used to read this information
and feed it in the computer for further processing.
A bar code reader emits a beam of light which
reflects off the bar code image

Digital Camera

Adigital

cameraordig camis acamerathat

encodesdigital
imagesandvideosdigitally
and
stores them for later reproduction.
Digital andfilm camerasshare an optical system,
typically using a lens with a variablediaphragmto
focus light onto an image pickup device.
We can also print the photos through a printer.

Tablet

A graphic tablet consists of a flat pad called the tablet

which the user draws with a special pen called stylus.

As the user draws on the pad, the drawing is created
on the screen. The image usually does not appear on
the screen.
A graphic tablet is also known as a drawing tablet or a
digitizing tablet. These tablets may also be used to
capture data or handwritten signature.

Touch Screen

A touch screen is a computer display screen that is also input

device.
The screens are sensitive to pressure; a user interacts with
the computer by touching pictures or words on the screen.
It accepts the human touch as the input. Using our finger or
a small stick as input, whatever is touched on the screen is
sent to the computer for processing.

Scanner

A scanner is an input device. We can use it to

input graphics and pictures into the computer.

These are stored into computer in digital form as a
file. After you have scanned your photograph, you
can edit it or make changes in it.
Similarly, you can scan any picture from a book
and the digital form will be stored in the computer.

Output Device

In computing

an output device is a
piece of hardware equipment use to
communicate the results
of data
processing carried out by processing
system such as a computer, it converts
the machine language into humanreadable language.
Examples of output device include
monitor, printer, plotters etc.

Monitor

Monitor is the most common output device. It is also

called a Visual Display unit (VDU).

Just like television, a monitor also displays the output
on the screen. The picture on the monitor is made up
of the thousands of small colored dots called pixels.
There are a variety of monitors, for examples
Cathode Ray Tube(CRT), Liquid Crystal Display(LCD)
or Thin Film Transistor(TFT)monitors.

Printers

Printers

are output devices used to prepare

permanent output on paper. The output is called
hard copy.
The output quality of a printer is measured by dots
per inch(DPI).
Printers are of two types: Impact printers an NonImpact printers.

Plotters

Plotter is a specialized output device used extensively

in the drafting field by architects, engineers, etc.

A plotter produces high quality line diagrams on
paper. Pens are used to draw line on the paper, which
is place in the plotter.
Plotters are of two types: Flatbed plotter and Drum
plotter.

Speakers

Computer speakers, ormultimedia speakers, arespeakerssold

for use with computers, although usually capable of other audio

uses, e.g. for anMP3 player.
Most computers have speakers of low power and quality built in;
when external speakers are connected they disable the built-in
speakers.
More sophisticated computer speakers can have
asubwooferunit, to enhance bass output. The larger subwoofer
enclosure usually contains the amplifiers for the subwoofer and
the left and right speakers.