Input and Output

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques. The technology allows computers to read information (such as account numbers) off of printed documents.

Optical-character Recognition (OCR)

OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text. An OCR system enables you to take a book or a magazine article, feed it directly into an electronic computer file, and then edit the file using a word processor.

Optical-mark Recognition (OMR)

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) is the technology of electronically extracting intended data from marked fields, such as checkboxes and fill-in fields, on printed forms. It is generally distinguished from OCR by the fact that a recognition engine is not required. This requires the image to have high contrast and an easily-recognizable or irrelevant shape.

Dot Matrix Printer

Dot Matrix Printer is a type of printer that produces characters and illustrations by striking pins against an ink ribbon to print closely spaced dots in the appropriate shape. Dot-matrix printers are relatively expensive and do not produce high-quality output. However, they can print to multi-page forms (that is, carbon copies), something laser and ink-jet printers cannot do.

Plotters

A device that draws pictures on paper based on commands from a computer. Plotters differ from printers in that they draw lines using a pen. As a result, they can produce continuous lines, whereas printers can only simulate lines by printing a closely spaced series of dots. Multicolor plotters use different-colored pens to draw different colors. It can be used to create layouts, diagrams, specs, and banners.

Photo Printer

A photo printer is a printer (usually an inkjet printer) that is specifically designed to print high quality digital photos on photo paper. These printers usually have a very high number of nozzles and are capable of printing droplets as small as 1 picoliter.

Portable Printer

Portable printer gives you the freedom to print from nearly anywhere. You can print high-quality documents and photos from your laptop PC, or any number of portable devices, such as PDAs, digital cameras, camera phones, and memory cards.

Fax Machine

a device that can send or receive pictures and text over a telephone line. Fax machines work by digitizing an image -- dividing it into a grid of dots. Each dot is either on or off, depending on whether it is black or white. Electronically, each dot is represented by a bit that has a value of either 0 (off) or 1 (on). In this way, the fax machine translates a picture into a series of zeros and ones (called a bit map) that can be transmitted like normal computer data.



Multifunctional Devices

Multifunctional devices have evolved from photocopiers and have many areas of functionality, predominantly printing, faxing, scanning and integration with other applications.

Internet Telephones
Technology that converts analog speech signals into digital signals and routes them through packet-switched networks of the internet. These signals bypass the traditional circuit-switched networks used for telephone calls and thus escape the long-distance phone charges.

Telephony

Telephony is the technology associated with the electronic transmission of voice, fax, or other information between distant parties using systems historically associated with the telephone, a handheld device containing both a speaker or transmitter and a receiver.