Input
Input is the data that you put into the computer system for processing. Some common methods include:
- Typing on a keyboard
- Pointing with a mouse. As the ball on its underside rotates with motion over a flat surface, the corresponding pointer movement on screen results. Pressing the mouse buttons invoke various commands.
- Scanning with a flatbed scanner, wand reader or bar code reader.
- Flatbed scanners act like a copying machine by using light beams to scan a document or picture that is laid upon its glass face. Bar scanners, which you have seen in retail stores, use laser beams to read special letters, numbers, or symbols such as the striped bar codes on products.
- There are many other ways to input data into a computer, including writing, speaking, pointing, or by having the system detect your eye movement.