Friday 12 August 2011

Output Devices

An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results of data processing carried out by an information processing system (such as a computer) to the outside world.

In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world. Inputs are the signals or data sent to the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent by the system to the outside.
Examples of output devices:
  • Speakers
  • Headphones
  • Screen (Monitor)
  • Printer

1.Speakers

Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers external to a computer, that disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio connection is a 3.5 mm (approximately 1/8 inch) stereo jack plug often color-coded lime green (following the PC 99 standard) for computer sound cards. A plug and socket for a two-wire (signal and ground) coaxial cable that is widely used to connect analog audio and video components. Rows of RCA sockets are found on the backs of stereo amplifier and numerous A/V products. The prong is 1/8" thick by 5/16" long. A few use an RCA connector for input. There are also USB speakers which are powered from the 5 volts at 500 milliamps provided by the USB port, allowing about 2.5 watts of output power.
Computer speakers range widely in quality and in price. The computer speakers typically packaged with computer systems are small, plastic, and have mediocre sound quality. Some computer speakers have equalization features such as bass and treble controls.
The internal amplifiers require an external power source, usually an AC adapter. More sophisticated computer speakers can have a subwoofer unit, to enhance bass output, and these units usually include the power amplifiers both for the bass speaker, and the small satellite speakers.
Some computer displays have rather basic speakers built-in. Laptops come with integrated speakers. Restricted space available in laptops means these speakers usually produce low-quality sound.
For some users, a lead connecting computer sound output to an existing stereo system is practical. This normally yields much better results than small low-cost computer speakers. Computer speakers can also serve as an economy amplifier for MP3 player use for those who wish to not use headphones, although some models of computer speakers have headphone jacks of their own



2.Headphones



Sennheiser HD555 headphones, used in audio production environments

Sony MDR-7506 headphones for professional audio
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable media player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear versions are known as earphones or earbuds. In the context of telecommunication, the term headset is used to describe a combination of headphone and microphone used for two-way communication, for example with a telephone.
                                                                         Headphones may be used both with fixed equipment such as CD or DVD players, home theater, personal computers and with portable devices (e.g. digital audio player/mp3 player, mobile phone, etc.). Cordless headphones are not connected via a wire, receiving a radio or infrared signal encoded using a radio or infrared transmission link, like FM, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. These are actually made of powered receiver systems of which the headphone is only a component, these types of cordless headphones are being used more frequently with events such as a Silent disco or Silent Gig.
In the professional audio sector headphones are used in live situations by disc jockeys with a DJ mixer and sound engineers for monitoring signal sources. In radio studios, DJs use a pair of headphones when talking to the microphone while the speakers are turned off, to eliminate acoustic feedback and monitor their own voice. In studio recordings, musicians and singers use headphones to play along to a backing track. In the military, audio signals of many varieties are monitored using headphones.
Wired headphones are attached to an audio source. The most common connection standards are 6.35mm (¼″) and 3.5mm TRS connectors and sockets. The larger 6.35mm connector tending to be found on fixed location home or professional equipment. Sony introduced the smaller, and now widely used, 3.5mm "minijack" stereo connector in 1979, adapting the older monophonic 3.5mm connector for use with its Walkman portable stereo tape player and the 3.5mm connector remains the common connector for portable application today. Adapters are available for converting between 6.35mm and 3.5mm devices.


3.Computer monitor


A 19-inch, 16:10 wide screen LCD monitor.
A monitor or display (sometimes called a visual display unit) is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure. The display device in modern monitors is typically a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) thin panel, while older monitors use a cathode ray tube about as deep as the screen size.
The first computer monitors used Cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which was the dominant technology until they were replaced by LCD monitors in the 21st Century.
Originally, computer monitors were used for data processing while television receivers were used for entertainment. From the 1980s onwards, computers (and their monitors) have been used for both data processing and entertainment, while televisions have implemented some computer functionality. The common aspect ratio of televisions, and then computer monitors, has also changed from 4:3 to 16:9.



Technologies

Different image techniques have been used for Computer monitors. Until the 21st century most monitors were CRT but they have been phased out for LCD monitors.


(a) Cathode ray tube



A CRT monitor.
The first computer monitors used cathode ray tubes (CRT). Until the early 1980s, they were known as video display terminals and were physically attached to the computer and keyboard. The monitors were monochrome, flickered and the image quality was poor. In 1981, IBM invented the Color Graphics Adapter, which could display four colors with a resolution of 320 by 200 pixels. They introduced the Enhanced Graphics Adapter in 1984, which was capable of producing 16 colors and had a resolution of 640 by 350.
CRT remained the standard for computer monitors through the 1990s. CRT technology remained dominant in the PC monitor market into the new millennium partly because it was cheaper to produce and offered viewing angles close to 180 degrees.

(b)Liquid Crystal


There are multiple technologies that have been used to implement Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). Throughout the 1990s the primary use of LCD technology as computer monitors was in laptops where the lower power consumption, lighter weight, and smaller physical size of LCDs justified the higher price versus a CRT. Commonly, the same laptop would be offered with an assortment of display options at increasing price points (active or passive monochrome, passive color, active matrix color (TFT). As volume and manufacturing capability have improved the monochrome and passive color technologies were dropped from most product lines.
TFT is a variant of liquid crystal display(LCD) which is now the dominant technology used for computer monitors.
The first standalone LCD displays appeared in the mid 1990s selling for high prices. As prices declined over a period of years they became more popular. During the 2000s TFT LCDs gradually displaced CRTs, eventually becoming the primary technology used for computer monitors. The main advantages of LCDs over CRT displays are that LCDs consume less power, take up much less space, and are considerably lighter. The now common active matrix TFT-LCD technology also has less flickering than CRTs, which reduces eye strain.

(c) Organic light-emitting diode

 

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) monitors provide higher contrast and better viewing angles than LCDs, and are predicted to replace them. In 2011 a 25 inch OLED monitor costs $6000, but the prices are expected to drop.



4.Printers



A modern printer with scanning/copying capability
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most newer printers, a USB cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless and/or Ethernet based, and can serve as a hard copy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the same time. In addition, a few modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit, and can function as photocopiers.


 Printers that include non-printing features are sometimes called multifunction printers (MFP), multi-function devices (MFD), or all-in-one (AIO) printers. Most MFPs include printing, scanning, and copying among their many features.
Consumer and some commercial printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs; requiring virtually no setup time to achieve a hard copy of a given document. However, printers are generally slow devices (30 pages per minute is considered fast; and many inexpensive consumer printers are far slower than that), and the cost per page is actually relatively high. However, this is offset by the on-demand convenience and project management costs being more controllable compared to an out-sourced solution. The printing press remains the machine of choice for high-volume, professional publishing. However, as printers have improved in quality and performance, many jobs which used to be done by professional print shops are now done by users on local printers; see desktop publishing. Local printers are also increasingly taking over the process of photofinishing as digital photo printers become commonplace. The world's first computer printer was a 19th century mechanically driven apparatus invented by Charles Babbage for his Difference Engine.
A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer.

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