Input, Output, and Storage Devices

Input device – hardware that allows you to communicate with your computer such as a keyboard.

Computer Input Devices

Keyboard Mouse Trackball- a hand-held input device similar to a mouse

turned upside down; used by rolling the trackball with the fingers.

Light Pen –a hand-held input device that looks similar to a pen.

Pointing stick –a small device that looks like a pencil eraser and is used in place of a mouse to move around the screen.

More Input Devices

Touch pad – a pressure-sensitive and motion-sensitive input device; used by moving the finger over the touch pad.

Touch screen – an input device; used by touching the computer screen.

Bar Code Reader – a wand or screen that uses a light source to read the bar code characters.

Scanner – an input device; used to turn pictures or documents into groups of dots or pixels using a light source.

Microphone – a device that allows you to record sounds as input to your computer.

Output Devices

Hardware that allows your computer to communicate with you such as a monitor or printer.

Computer Output Devices

Monitor Printer

– Dot matrix printer – an inexpensive, durable printer that uses a pattern of tiny ink dots to produce an image.

– Inkjet printer – a medium-quality printer that uses an ink cartridge to produce an image.

– Laser printer – a high-quality printer that uses a laser beam and ink toner cartridge to produce an image.

More Output Devices

Speaker

Modem – hardware that allows your computer to communicate with other computers over phone lines.

Fax – short for facsimile which means copy or duplicate; used to produce a copy of document similar to a photocopy by long distance.

Storage Devices

Hardware that allows you to store information such as hard drive or a floppy disk.

Storage Devices

Hard Disk – a storage device, usually a stack of disks enclosed in a case; used to store large amounts o f information.

Floppy Disk – a removable storage device, usually one flat disk enclosed in a case; used to store small amounts of information.

Magnetic Tape – a storage device, usually stored in a cartridge, reel, or cassette; used to store large amounts of information for a long time.

Optical Discs (CD’s) – usually called laser disks or compact disks; used to hold very large amounts of information permanently if it is a CD-R.