What is an automatic input device?

An automatic input device is a way of entering data directly without the need of a human. Examples of an automatic input devices are sensors, barcode readers, magnetic strip on credit card, optical mark reader/optical character recognition.

What is a manual input device?

A manual input devices are used by people to enter data by hand. Examples of an manual input device are cameras, touchscreen, joustic, numeric keypad, microphone, light pen.

Input devices allow us to enter raw data into a computer. The computer processes the data and then produces outputs that we can understand using an output device. For example when you click a button on a keyboard it sends code to the system of the computer in which it displays it on the screen. Input devices can be manual or automatic. The most commonly used input devices include:

• keyboard
• mouse
• camera
• touchscreen
• remote control
• sensors
• joysticks
• bar code scanner etc...

An output device is any peripheral that receives data from a computer, usually for display, projection, or physical reproduction. Most computer data output that is meant for humans is in the form of audio or video. Examples of output devices are:

• Headphones
• Monitor
• Speakers
• Projector
• 3D Printer
• GPS
• Plotter

What is a Peripheral device?

A peripheral device is defined as a computer device, such as a keyboard or printer, that is not part of the essential computer (e.g. the memory and microprocessor). Examples of external peripherals include mouse, keyboard, printer, monitor, external Zip drive or scanner. Examples of internal peripherals include CD-ROM drive, CD-R drive or internal modem.

What is an optical mark reader?

Optical Mark reading (OMR) is a method of entering data into a computer system. Optical Mark Readers reads pencil or pen marks made in pre-defined positions on paper forms as responses to questions or tick list prompts. These were used to mark tests super quickly

What is an optical character recognition?

OCR (optical character recognition) is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer. This involves photo scanning of the text character-by-character, analysis of the scanned-in image, and then translation of the character image into character codes.