Input devices

Question 1

Keyboard

Answer 1

Set of keys that can be pressed to input data. Can also be on screen (called a virtual keyboard).

Pros: Simple to use, fast to use with practice
Cons: Easy to make mistakes

Question 2

Mouse

Answer 2

Controls a pointer on a screen. Has left and right click buttons to perform different operations. 2 types of mouse: roller ball mouse has a ball that when rolled is detected by internal sensors, and optical laser mouse which uses a red laser to detect the mouse’s movement across a surface.

Pros: Simple to use
Cons: Requires space, requires a flat surface, if it gets dirty it works less efficiently

Question 3

2D scanner

Answer 3

Scans a 2D document and converts it into a digital format for use on a computer. Can be stored as an image or a text file (using optical character recognition (OCR)). The scanner can be handheld or flatbed.

Pros: Flatbed scanners produce high quality copies, digital copies can easily be edited, digital copies are easy to share and attach to other things
Cons: Scanned documents take up a lot of space

Question 4

3D scanner

Answer 4

Scans a 3D object to produce a 3D model using a laser, light source, or x-ray.

Pros: Digital copies can easily be edited, digital copies are easy to share and attach to other things
Cons: Scanned documents take up a lot of space

Question 5

Barcode

Answer 5

Made up of black and white lines (1D). Barcode readers automatically scan, read, and convert the lines into data.

Pros: Fast, efficient, automatic
Cons: If the barcode is damaged the code might read wrong, if the barcode data hasn’t been recorded in the database, the scanner won’t be able to find it

Question 6

Quick response (QR) code

Answer 6

Made up of black and white squares (2D). Needs to be scanned by a QR code reader, which most things have built in, such as a camera on a phone.

Pros: Easy to scan, stores far more data than barcode, stores many different types of information, such as a link to a website, an image, a video, or a message
Cons: Requires a scanner to be read

Question 7

Digital camera

Answer 7

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Question 8

Touch screen

Answer 8

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Question 9

Interactive whiteboard

Answer 9

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Question 10

Microphone

Answer 10

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