There are many different devices that we
can connect to our computers and in this video,
we'll look at some of these peripherals.
If you need physical output from your computer then
you need a printer.
Many printers are designed to provide
color or black and white output that can
provide documents or photos.
Sometimes you can extend the capabilities of your printer
by having an all-in-one system or AIO.
This is not just a printer, it can also
act as a scanner, a copier, and a fax machine.
Usually we connect to these printers
using a USB connection.
Some of these printers can support connectivity
over Ethernet or even over 802.11 wireless.
And if you have systems that support mobile devices,
they may also include Bluetooth or infrared capability.
Scanners allow us to take a printed document
and get it into our computer, usually over a USB connection
or over 802.11 wireless.
There are different form factors for these printers.
There might be an all-in-one that
has the scanner built into this printer combination device,
or it might be a flatbed scanner that's easier
to scan more bulky devices.
The all-in-one device might also include
an ADF, or an automatic document feeder,
so you can put a large number of papers
in and have them all scanned automatically
through the scanner itself.
Here's a flatbed scanner which can
scan a single sheet of paper, or we
can put a book or some other large bulky item on top
and scan it using the flat bed scanner.
If you work in a warehouse or use a point of sale terminal,
you're probably also using a barcode reader or a QR code
reader.
These are usually connected to your computer
with serial connections, or these days, USB connections.
Or with your mobile devices, these
may be 802.11 wireless devices.
Of course, this functionality has even
come down to our mobile phones, where
you can read barcodes and QR codes with the camera that's
on your mobile device.
Perhaps the most popular output device on our computers
is our display.
These monitors are providing the output from the computer
and we connect to these over many different kinds
of connections.
We commonly use VGA, DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort to connect
to our display devices.
There are, of course, many different standards available,
not just in our connectivity, but also
in the sizes and resolutions available,
which makes it easy to find the exact display
device for our requirements.
A relatively new peripheral for our computers
is the virtual reality headset.
This headset determines everything
that we see, effectively putting us into this virtual world.
We're able to control the virtual world
with motion tracking.
Not only motion tracking on our hands,
but other parts of our body, as well.
And it's able to track not just the XY but also the z-axis
to know exactly what's happening with our body
while we're using this system.
The technology behind virtual reality is still emerging,
but we're seeing VR being used for gaming education, art
or even travel applications.
Some of our desktop and server devices
may use optical drives or DVD drives
that allow us to read and store information using light.
This optical drive is able to read the information
by looking at bumps or discoloration
on the optical media itself.
These optical drives support both reading and writing
of information, which means we can
store a large amount of information as backups.
But you can also create this as read-only media, where
once you put the data onto the optical drive,
it can't be changed.
This is especially common for video distribution
or environments where the data must not
change after it's been written.
There is a limitation to the amount of data
that you can put on a single optical drive, the highest
end being a dual-layer Blu-ray, which can support up
to 50 gigabytes of information.
Another popular peripheral for your computer is a mouse.
It usually connects to your system with a USB connection
or there might be an adapter for PS/2.
Your mouse might be wireless, which
means you might even have a wireless connection through USB
on your computer.
The mouse that we use today is usually
an optical mouse with a limited number of moving parts.
That light is used to determine if the mouse is
moving, which can sometimes cause problems on a glass top.
Fortunately, there are manufacturers
that make a mouse that is specifically designed
to work on a glass tabletop.
If you're using a mouse, then you're
probably also using a keyboard.
Most of our keyboards connect through USB,
but if you have an older system, you
may be plugging into a PS/2 interface.
Most keyboards will work without any special software.
But if your keyboard has additional capabilities,
you can see additional buttons at the top of this keyboard
that start different applications
or change some of the media settings,
than you might want to install the software
or additional drivers that enable those capabilities.
If you're using a laptop, you might not
have enough room for a mouse.
In those cases, you may be using a touchpad.
This is usually a piece of hardware
that is integrated into the keyboard area,
but could also be a standalone device, as well.
It usually connects through USB or Bluetooth
if you're connecting externally.
This effectively replaces a mouse.
So you don't need a separate mouse
if you're using a touchpad.
And you can see it uses no additional space
or requires any room to move around on a desktop.
Another type of pad that is usually an external pad
is the signature pad.
We're usually paying for things electronically these days,
but we often still have to provide a signature.
So it's common to see the signature
pad available with a digitizer and a stylus
so that we can sign a form without having
an actual form in front of us.
These usually connect to your computer over USB
and there are usually specialized drivers
for your signature pad.
If you're a gamer, than you're probably
already familiar with connecting a gamepad,
a joystick, or some other type of gaming
peripheral to your computer.
These are usually connected to your computer through a USB,
and they're almost exclusively used for gaming.
We are increasingly using video conferencing on our computers
these days, and it's common to see webcams
either as a separate peripheral or built
into our mobile devices.
If it is a device that is external,
it's usually connected over USB, although there
are some models of webcams that will
connect over 802.11 wireless.
These are more than just cameras,
they also include audio input and they're usually
specialized drivers or specialized software
that enable both the visual and audio input.
If you have a laptop, you may have a webcam
built into the laptop itself.
This laptop has a webcam right in the middle.
It has a tally light next to it that turns on
with the webcam is in use, and this particular laptop also
has audio input.
There's a left and right microphone right
at the top of the screen.
If your laptop or desktop computer
doesn't have a built-in microphone,
you may want to plug-in an external microphone.
These usually connect over analog connections using TRS,
or the tip/ring/sleeve jacks.
Or if it's a digital microphone, it
may already come with a USB connection.
If you want to hear what's coming out of your computer
without having to use headphones,
then you'll need a good pair of speakers.
These are analog output devices that usually connect over TRS,
those are the tip/ring/sleeve jacks
that are in the back of your computer.
There is usually an option to have
speaker output or an audio adapter that
has speaker connections on it.
If you want to combine both a headphone and a microphone
in the same unit, then you want a headset.
Headsets can be used for desktop,
use they can be used on mobile devices,
and they often connect over a USB connection.
There might be multiple TRS plugs, one for the headset
and the other for the microphone,
or they may be connecting over Bluetooth.
This wireless connection is very common for mobile devices.
This allows you to be hands free as you're
listening in through the headphones
and talking through the microphone.
This is great if you need access to the keyboard
while you're on the phone, or if you
need to communicate to others while you're in a game.
If you're in a conference room or a large speaking
environment, you may be seeing the output
from a computer being projected over a digital projector.
We sometimes refer to these as LCD projectors,
although the technology used inside of these devices
may not necessarily be using LCD.
The type of lamp that is inside of these projectors
has to be very bright.
It's very common to see a technology called
metal-halide lamps.
These are, of course, very bright, but they also
get very hot and it's common to see the brightness
of these lamps measured in lumens.
These are not the type of lamps that you would
use for consumer purposes.
These lamps are usually very expensive
and they can range from $35 to $350 US.
For that reason, you'll notice that when
you power off a digital projector,
there's still a fan that will continue
to run for a number of minutes to help cool down that lamp.
For that reason, you don't want to simply unplug
the digital projector when you're done.
You want it to shut down normally and continue
to cool that bulb.
If you need to move a large amount of data
from one computer to another, it's
common to use an external storage device.
This is usually a device that is very small.
It connects to your computer over USB
and inside of this device is usually a hard drive or an SSD.
If these are very large drives or you need higher bandwidth
than what USB can support, you might also
find external storage drives that
support Thunderbolt or eSATA.
These external storage devices make it very easy
to move very large amounts of data from one place
to the other, and for that reason,
these can also be a very significant security concern.
It's not unusual in some high security environments
that all of these external interfaces
are disabled on the computer to prevent anybody from using
an external storage device.
If you're working in a data center,
you may have tens or even hundreds of servers
that you need to connect to, but you
don't want to have tens or hundreds of keyboards, mice,
and displays all set up to be able to connect
to all of those devices.
Instead, you might use something like a KVM.
KVM stands for keyboard, video, and mouse.
You would plug-in a single monitor, a single mouse,
and a single keyboard and then simply plug-in
those connections from all of the other devices in your data
center.
From there, you can push a button
or use a keystroke on a keyboard to electronically move
between all of these devices, all by using a single keyboard,
video, and mouse connection.
If you're working in a retail environment,
you're probably using a magnetic reader or a chip reader
as a point of sale terminal.
This is a way that you can use a credit card or a mobile device
to be able to pay for any type of product or service.
There are a number of different ways
to get information into this point of sale terminal.
One is using the integrated circuit
that's built into your credit card
by sliding it into the reader.
You're able have a physical connection to that integrated
circuit.
If your card doesn't support or have an integrated circuit,
you can always use the magnetic strip on the back
and slide the card down the magnetic strip
reader on the side of the point of sale terminal.
If this card reader is physically
associated with a point of sale terminal,
it's usually connected over a USB interface.
Your point of sale terminal may also
be able to accept payment using NFC,
or near-field communication, where
you're able to put a mobile device very
close to the terminal and be able to transfer your payment
information that way.
This is built into many phones and many payment terminals
are already accepting these NFC payment methods.
This near-field communication also
allows for other functionality with your mobile device.
For example, you can now use your mobile device
to unlock a door using NFC.
This embedded circuitry that we've seen in credit cards
can also be used for other purposes, as well.
A smart card reader that's in a laptop or a desktop computer
would be able to read the information on this integrated
circuit and be able to use that as a form of authentication.
You may have usernames and passwords that you can provide,
but it may also ask you to insert your card
into the smart card reader as another form of authentication.
These readers are sometimes built into a laptop.
so when you sign into the laptop,
you simply slide your card into the side.
Or if you're on a desktop computer,
there might be an external reader
that's connected to the desktop computer over USB.