Input
Input may refer to any of the following that any information or data that is sent to a computer
for processing is considered input. Input or user input is most often sent to the computer
using an input device. Computer software can receive data in the form of an input stream,
which is a flowing sequence of data that can be directed to specific functions. The directed
channel in which the data stream flows is known as a pipeline, and changing its direction is
known as piping.
In Unix-like operating systems such as Linux or BSD, the input stream is one of the
three standard data streams. It's known as the "standard input" stream, and often abbreviated
as stdin.
An input device is any hardware device that sends data to a computer, allowing you to
interact with and control the computer. The most commonly used or primary input devices on
a computer are the keyboard and mouse. However, there are dozens of other devices that can
also be used to input data into the computer. Below is a list of computer input devices that
can be utilized with a computer or a computing device. Types of input devices audio
conversion device, barcode reader, biometrics (e.g. fingerprint scanner), business card
Reader, digital camera and digital camcorder, electroencephalography (EEG), finger (with
touchscreen or windows touch), gamepad, joystick, paddle, steering wheel, and microsoft
kinect, gesture recognition keyboard, light gun, light pen, magnetic ink (like the ink found on
checks), magnetic stripe reader, medical imaging devices (e.g., x-ray, cat scan, and
ultrasound images), microphone (using voice speech recognition or biometric verification),
midi keyboard, micr, mouse, touchpad, or other pointing devices, optical mark reader (omr),
paddle, pen or stylus, punch card reader, remote, scanner, sensors (e.g. heat and orientation
sensors), sonar imaging devices, touchscreen, voice (using voice speech recognition or
biometric verification), video capture device, vr helmet and gloves, webcam, yoke and
graphics tablet. Although OMR cards and punch cards contain data they are not considered
input devices by themselves. It is the readers that read the cards that are considered the input
device. Keep in mind that drives such as a CD-ROM, DVD, Floppy diskette drive, and a USB
Flash drive may be capable of sending information to a computer, but they are not input
devices. They are considered storage devices.
What a computer sends (inputs) to a computer all depends on a device. However, all
input devices send data from the device over a cable or wireless transmission to the computer.
For example, as you move a computer mouse the data it sends to the computer are the X-Y
axis movements that the computer uses to display the mouse cursor on the screen. As the
mouse moves left or right the x-axis value increases and decreases, which allows the
computer to know where the mouse cursor is on the screen.
Below is a JavaScript script, which if enabled shows you the mouse's x-axis and y-
axis position as you move your mouse pointer in the screen area. If you are on a Smartphone
or Tablet the example below will not work because they have no mouse pointer.
Today, input devices are important to the computer because they are what allows you
to interact with a computer and add new information to the computer. For example, if a
computer had no input devices it could run by itself but would have no way of having any
settings changed, errors fixed, or any other user interaction. Also, if you wanted to add new
information to the computer (e.g. text, command, document, picture, etc.) it could not be
added without an input device.