Input devices

An input device presents data to the processing unit In a machine readable form. Although the keyboard is a common input device for a small computer, a system may also support various other input devices such as optical character recogniation (OCR), magnetic link character recogniation (MICR), Mark sense reader, etc.

Keyboard

The keyboard is very much like a standard typewriter keyboard with a few additional keys. The basic qwerty layout of characters is maintained to make it easy for the trained typist to use the system. The additional keys are included to perform certain special functions such as loading a program, editing, a text etc. these are known as number keys that vary in number from system to system.

Optical character recognition

Often abbreviated as OCR, optical character recognition involve reading text from paper and translating the images into a form that the computer can manipulate. An OCR system enables you to take a or a magazine article and feed it directly into an electronic computer file.