COMPUTER GRAPHICS ASSIGNMENT

Topic: INPUT DEVICES

Submitted By; Aravind M.S BSc. Computer Science Roll No. 13

Scanner
In computing, an image scanneroften abbreviated to just scanneris a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop (or flatbed) scanner where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning. Hand-held scanners, where the device is moved by hand, have evolved from text scanning "wands" to 3D scanners used for industrial design, reverse engineering, test and measurement, orthotics, gaming and other applications. Mechanically driven scanners that move the document are typically used for large-format documents, where a flatbed design would be impractical. Modern scanners typically use a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) as the image sensor, whereas older drum scanners use a photomultiplier tube as the image sensor. A rotary scanner, used for high-speed document scanning, is another type of drum scanner, using a CCD array instead of a photomultiplier. Other types of scanners are planetary scanners, which take photographs of books and documents, and 3D scanners, for producing three-dimensional models of objects. Another category of scanner is digital camera scanners, which are based on the concept of reprographic cameras. Due to increasing resolution and new features such as anti-shake, digital cameras have become an attractive alternative to regular scanners. While still having disadvantages compared to traditional scanners (such as distortion, reflections, shadows, low contrast), digital cameras offer advantages such as speed, portability and gentle digitizing of thick documents without damaging the book spine. New scanning technologies are combining 3D scanners with digital cameras to create full-colour, photo-realistic 3D models of objects.

Light pen
A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy. It was long thought that a light pen can work with any CRT-based display, but not with LCD screens (though Toshiba and Hitachi displayed a similar idea at the "Display 2006" show in Japan), projectors and other display devices. However, in 2011 Fair light Instruments released its Fair light, which uses a 17" LCD monitor with light pen control. A light pen is fairly simple to implement. Just like a light gun, a light pen works by sensing the sudden small change in brightness of a point on the screen when the electron gun refreshes that spot. By noting exactly where the scanning has reached at that moment, the X, Y position of the pen can be resolved. This is usually achieved by the light pen causing an interrupt, at which point the scan position can be read from a special register, or computed from a counter or timer. The pen position is updated on every refresh of the screen. The light pen became moderately popular during the early 1980s. It was notable for its use in the Fair light CMI, and the BBC Micro. IBM PC compatible CGA, HGC and some EGA graphics cards featured a connector for a light pen as well. Even some consumer products were given light pens, in particular the Thomson MO5 computer family. Because the user was required to hold his or her arm in front of the screen for long periods of time or to use a desk that tilts the monitor, the light pen fell out of use as a general purpose input device. The first light pen was created around 1952 as part of the Whirlwind project at MIT.[2][3] Since the current version of the game show Jeopardy! Began in 1984, contestants have used a light pen to write down their wagers and responses for the Final Jeopardy! Round. Since light pens operate by detecting light emitted by the screen phosphors, some nonzero intensity level must be present at the coordinate position to be selected; otherwise the pen won't be triggered.

Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, karaoke systems, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, radios, megaphones, in radio and television broadcasting and in computers for recording voice, speech recognition, VoIP, and for non-acoustic purposes such as ultrasonic checking or knock sensors. Most microphones today use electromagnetic induction (dynamic microphone), capacitance change (condenser microphone), piezoelectric generation, or light modulation to produce an electrical voltage signal from mechanical vibration. The sensitive transducer element of a microphone is called its element or capsule. A complete microphone also includes a housing, some means of bringing the signal from the element to other equipment, and often an electronic circuit to adapt the output of the capsule to the equipment being driven. A wireless microphone contains a radio transmitter.

OMR
Optical mark recognition (OMR) readers can sense hand-drawn marks such as small circles or rectangles made on pre-printed forms in certain places. The OMR reader first reads the answer key sheet to record the correct answers based on the patterns of light, and then reads the remaining documents and matches their patterns of light against the answer key sheet. OMR readers are often used for marking multiple choice answer sheets, capturing data from questionnaires, enrolment forms, and lottery tickets. Advantages of OMR readers include OMR has a better recognition rate than OCR because fewer mistakes are made by machines to read marks than by reading handwritten characters. Large volumes of data can be collected quickly and easily without the need for specially trained staff. The cost of inputting data and the chance of data input errors could be reduced because it is not necessary to type the details for data entry.

Disadvantages of OMR readers include The OMR reader needs to be reprogrammed for each new document design. OMR readers are relatively slow.

Kinect
Kinect, originally known by the code name Project Natal, is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively. A version for Windows will be released in Early 2012. Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010, in Europe on November 10, 2010, in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on November 18, 2010, and in Japan on November 20, 2010. Purchase options for the sensor peripheral include a bundle with the game Kinect Adventures and console bundles with either a 4 GB or 250 GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures. After selling a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days, the Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics device". 10 million units of the Kinect sensor have been shipped as of March 9, 2011. Microsoft released a non-commercial Kinect software development kit for Windows 7 on June 16, 2011, with a commercial version following at a later date. This SDK will allow .NET developers to write Kinecting apps in C++/CLI, C#, or Visual Basic .NET.

Barcode reader
A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers contain decoder circuitry analysing the barcode's image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode's content to the scanner's output port. The scanner resolution is measured by the size of the dot of light emitted by the reader. If this dot of light is wider than any bar or space in the bar code, then it will overlap two elements (two spaces or two bars) and it may produce wrong output. On the other hand, if a too small dot of light is used, then it can misinterpret any spot on the bar code making the final output wrong. The most commonly used dimension is 13 mils (0.33 mm), although some scanners can read codes with dimensions as small as 3 mils. Smaller bar codes must be printed at high resolution to be read accurately.