From the course: Help Desk Handbook for End Users: PC Basics, Hardware, Operating Systems, and Applications

General use I/O devices

From the course: Help Desk Handbook for End Users: PC Basics, Hardware, Operating Systems, and Applications

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General use I/O devices

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- Computing devices compute. They process information. They enable us to produce content, to communicate, to have fun. The processing components are inside the computing device, like you saw in the chapter two episodes. The interaction with the user comes through input/output devices. On an awesome computing device like this smartphone, all the input/output devices are built into the same system. The touchscreen, for example, enables us to input information. And then the touchscreen also shows the processing and the information back to us, so the touchscreen is both an input and an output device. What other kind of input/output devices does the smartphone have? I know; hey, Siri? (phone chimes) That's right, voice for input and sound for output. The device also has cameras for additional input devices. Once you start scaling up the computing devices, you begin to get some separation between the processing components and the input/output devices. This laptop has an attached LCD screen and built-in speakers for output. The keyboard and touch pad enable me to type and move the cursor around the screen. Also, like the smartphone, this particular laptop has a built-in camera called a webcam and a microphone. They handle input duties, taking pictures, and voice commands. Both the laptop and the smartphone have built-in networking capability so I can get on the internet. Network components work for both input and output. I can send an email message and stream a video from YouTube. Once you get bigger, components can start separating even more. Here's a typical Windows PC. The PC has a wired network connection that, just as with other networking, works as both input and output. The output screen is a separate monitor. The speakers, likewise, are separate units. The keyboard provides text-based input. The mouse, like the touch pad on the laptop, moves the cursor on the screen for more visual input. (lively music)

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