Input [ Up ] [ Computing Fundamentals ] [ Program Design ] [ Java ] [ Search ] Keyboards standard keyboardKeyboards are common input devices for computers. Some people (including me!) suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome when a conventional keyboard is used. A split or ergonomic keyboard is available. ergonomic ("split") keyboardWith such a keyboard, the hands and wrists are in a more natural position reducing the incidence of such injuries. Some have touch pads which can reduce mouse elbow injuries caused by frequently reaching for a mouse. Pointing Devicestrack ball A pointing device is used to position the cursor to a mouse particular place on the monitor and is normally used with a graphical user interface such as Microsoft Windows or Java Swing. A mouse is one such device. If you turn the mouse upside-down, mouse ball is on top and you basically have a track ball. joy stickAs a pilot of a helicopter uses a stick to control flight, a joy stick is another mouse alternative. touch padAnd, touch pads are available built-in to a keyboard (as shown above) or separately. Touchpads are common on notebook computers. Sound Input microphone (headset)Computers are increasingly able to understand the spoken word. This is not as easy as it sounds! Advances in artificial intelligence and higher speed processors make voice input a keyboard alternative for some applications. Consider, for example, a doctor in a hospital. Rather that writing in his/her notoriously illegible hand writing, or speaking notes into a dictaphone for later data entry by a medical secretary, the doctor can speak his/her notes into the computer directly. Because sentences are spoken, the computer may have difficulty distinguishing among where, were and we're. Special software, sensing the context in which these words are used, may be useful in selecting the correct spelling. Image Input flat-bed scannerImages can be input into a computer through a scanning process. With a flat-bed scanner -- roughly having an appearance similar to that of a photocopier, images and text may be scanned. Keep in mind that scanning results in image (picture) input. If text is scanned (for example, from a newspaper article) web cam special software -- again thanks to the advances in artificial intelligence -- the words in the image may be identified and stored as text in, perhaps, a Microsoft Word document. Such programs are called text recognition software. Increasingly, digital images are published on web sites. These may be created using a digital camera or "web cam". Both video cameras and web cams are useful for making short movies, which can be stored digitally, incorporated into web pages and viewed. News services such as http://canada.com or http://cnn.com often incorporate video or movie clips into their presentations of current events and sports. [ Top of Page ] [ Up ] [ Computing Fundamentals ] [ Program Design ] [ Java ] [ Search ] © 2000-2008, Peter Gehbauer BSc BEd MBA MA [ Home ]