The conduit through which data and instructions enter a computer. For example, the keyboard, a mouse, a joystick.
Hardware devices that accept data in a form that the computer can utilize; they send the data or instructions to the processing unit to be processed into useful information. hard disk An internal disk, a metal platter coated with magnetic oxide that can be magnetized to represent data. machine cycle Four steps performed by the central processing unit in carrying out the instructions of a program. megaflop One million floating-point operations per second.
Devices such as limit switches, pressure switches, push buttons, etc., that supply commands or data to a robot controller. (R15.02)
Include: keyboard, mouse, digitiser, joystick, bar code reader, MICR, OMR, OCR, voice (speech recognition), scanner, sensor devices, data logger.
Any machine that feeds data into a computer. For example, a keyboard is an input device, whereas a display monitor is an output device. Input devices other than the keyboard are sometimes called alternate input devices. Mice, trackballs, and light pens are all alternate input devices.
A piece of computer hardware (the keyboard and the mouse being the most popular examples) that is used to enter and manipulate information on a computer. Other input devices include but are not limited to Light Pens, Scanners, and Trackballs.