MagNeTiC DaTa EnTRy

What is means by Magnetic Data Entry??

There are two technologies in data entry:-
i. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR).
ii. Magnetic Stripe Technology.


(i) Magnetic Ink Character recognition (MICR)

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or 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. Unlike barcodes or similar technologies, however, MICR codes can be easily read by humans.
MICR characters are printed in special typefaces with a magnetic ink or toner, usually containing iron oxide. As a machine decodes the MICR text, it first magnetizes the characters in the plane of the paper. Then the characters are passed over a MICR read head, a device similar to the playback head of a tape recorder. As each character passes over the head it produces a unique waveform that can be easily identified by the system.
The use of magnetic printing allows the characters to be read reliably even if they have been overprinted or obscured by other marks, such as cancellation stamps. The error rate for the magnetic scanning of a typical check is smaller than with optical character recognition systems. For well printed MICR documents, the "can't read" rate is usually less than 1% while the substitution rate (misread rate) is in the order of 1 per 100,000 characters.
MICR is standardized by ISO 1004:1995.

(ii) Magnetic Stripe Technology

A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called a magnetic stripe, is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head. Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit cards, identity cards, and transportation tickets. They may also contain an RFID tag, a transponder device and/or a microchip mostly used for business premises access control or electronic payment. A number of International Organization for Standardization standards, ISO/IEC 7810, ISO/IEC 7811, ISO/IEC 7812, ISO/IEC 7813, ISO 8583, and ISO/IEC 4909, define the physical properties of the card, including size, flexibility, location of the magnetic stripe, magnetic characteristics, and data formats. They also provide the standards for financial cards, including the allocation of card number ranges to different card issuing institutions.

BaR CoDe ReaDeRS

What is means by Bar Codes Reader??

A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers contain decoder circuitry analyzing the barcode's image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode's content to the scanner's output port.




Types of technology
• Pen-type readers
• Laser scanner
• CCD readers
• Camera-based readers
• Omni-directional barcode scanners
• Cell phone cameras

ScaNNeR

What is means by scanner??

An optical device that reads a printed page or transparency and converts it into a graphics image for the computer. The scanner does not recognize or differentiate in any manner the content of the material it is scanning. Everything is converted into a bitmapped image, which is a pattern of dots. See bitmapped graphics.



• Desktop Scanners
The flatbed scanner is the most common desktop scanner. With the addition of a transparency adapter, which provides a light source from the top, it can scan 35mm slides and film negatives. The slide scanner is specialized for 35mm slides and film negatives and cannot scan photos. Transparencies are scanned one at a time or in groups, depending on the device.

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Optical character recognition systems use scanners to capture a document's contents, but go one step further. They use software to convert the dots into ASCII or EBCDIC text characters so they can be used in word processing, e-mail and other text applications. See OCR and document scanner.

• Scanners and Cameras
Scanners are similar to digital cameras, except cameras can focus into infinity. Desktop scanners have physical dimensions that determine the size and bulk of the material that can be scanned. Automatic feeders are used to scan batches of paper, typically for OCR jobs.

Scanners are rated in dots per inch (dpi), whereas cameras are rated in total pixels. Both scanners and cameras have an optical resolution (the real lens resolution) and an interpolated resolution computed by software. The higher the optical, the better it operates.

Scanners are also rated by the maximum bit depth of each pixel (how many colours can be stored). At minimum, scanners support 24-bit colours, and many go up to 48 bits. See optical resolution, interpolated resolution, 4K resolution, document scanner, flatbed scanner, sheet-fed scanner, handheld scanner, drum scanner, slide scanner, photo scanner and digital camera.

DiGiTiZeR TabLe

What is means by Digitizer Tablet??

A graphics tablet (or digitizing tablet, graphics pad, drawing tablet) is a computer input device that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. A graphics tablet (also called pen pad or digitizer) consists of a flat surface upon which the user may "draw" an image using an attached stylus, a pen-like drawing apparatus. The image generally does not appear on the tablet itself but, rather, is displayed on the computer monitor. Some tablets however, come as a functioning secondary computer screen that you can interact with directly using the stylus. Some tablets are intended as a general replacement for a mouse as the primary pointing and navigation device for desktop computers.

LighT PeN

What is means by light pen??

A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy. A light pen can work with any CRT-based display, but not with LCD screens (though Toshiba and Hitachi displayed a similar idea at the "Display 2006" show in Japan), projectors and other display devices.

MouSe

What is means by mouse??

In computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse, or mouse devices.) is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons. It sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels", which allow the user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features can add more control or imensional input. The mouse's motion typically translates into the motion of a cursor on a display, which allows for fine control of a Graphical User Interface. The name mouse, originated at the Stanford Research Institute, derives from the resemblance of early models (which had a cord attached to the rear part of the device, suggesting the idea of a tail) to the common mouse. The first marketed integrated mouse – shipped as a part of a computer and intended for personal computer navigation – came with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981. However, the mouse remained relatively obscure until the appearance of the Apple Macintosh; in 1984 PC columnist John C. Dvorak ironically commented on the release of this new computer with a mouse: “There is no evidence that people want to use these things.” A mouse now comes with most computers and many other varieties can be bought separately.

TeRMiNaL

What is means by terminal??

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. Early terminals were inexpensive devices but very slow compared to punch cards or paper tape for input, but as the technology improved and video displays were introduced, terminals pushed these older forms of interaction from the industry. A related development was timesharing systems, which evolved in parallel and made up for any inefficiencies of the user's typing ability with the ability to support multiple users on the same machine, each at their own terminal. The function of a terminal is confined to display and input of data; a device with significant local programmable data processing capability may be called a "smart terminal" or fat client. A terminal that depends on the host computer for its processing power is called a thin client. A personal computer can run software that emulates the function of a terminal, sometimes allowing concurrent use of local programs and access to a distant terminal host system. There are three different types, Dumb terminal, Smart terminal and Intelligent terminal.

• Dumb Terminal

The specific meaning of the term dumb terminal can vary depending on the context in which it is used. In the context of traditional computer terminals that communicate over a serial RS-232 connection, dumb terminals are those that can interpret a limited number of control codes (CR, LF, etc.) but do not have the ability to process special escape sequences that perform functions such as clearing a line, clearing the screen, or controlling cursor position. In this context dumb terminals are sometimes dubbed glass teletypes, for they essentially have the same limited functionality as does a mechanical teletype. This type of dumb terminal is still supported on modern Unix-like systems by setting the environment variable TERM to dumb. Smart or intelligent terminals are those that also have the ability to process escape sequences, in particular the VT52, VT100 or ANSI escape sequences. In the broader context that includes all forms of keyboard/screen computer communication devices, including personal computers, diskless workstations, network computers, thin clients, and X Terminals, the term dumb terminal is sometimes used to refer to any type of traditional computer terminal that communicates serially over a RS-232 connection that does not locally process data or execute user programs. The term dumb terminal sometimes also refers to public computer terminals that are limited to monochrome text-only capabilities, or to terminals that transmit each character as it is typed rather than waiting until it is polled by a host computer.


• Smart Terminal

A terminal that has enough computing capability to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to. The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term and the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase act like a smart terminal used to describe the behavior of workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote server's storage, using local devices as displays. Smart terminals have built-in logic for performing simple display operations, such as blinking and boldface. In contrast, a dumb terminal has no processing capabilities at all.

• Intelligent Terminal

This terminal that has a full processing capability. The terminal has a processing unit, primary voltage. It may or may not have local storage. Recently, most intelligent terminal have local disk. An intelligent terminal is actually a microcomputer with communications capabilities.

KeYBoarD

What is means by keyboard??

A keyboard is a device used to encode data by key depression, which enter information into a system. The keyboard converts alphabets and number, and other special symbols into electrical signals that processor can understand and process. These signals are sent to the computer’s CPU. It includes the standard typewriter keys, numerical keypad and functional keys, special keys that issue command. Keyboard can divide into three different layouts QWERTY keyboard, AZERTY keyboard and Dvorak keyboard.





• QWERTY

QWERTY (pronounced /ˈkwɜrti/) is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six characters seen in the far left of the keyboard's top row of letters. The QWERTY design is based on a layout designed by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1874 for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the same year, when it first appeared in typewriters. It was designed to minimize type bar clashes, became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in use on electronic keyboards due to the network effect of a standard layout and the failure of alternatives to provide very significant advantages.

• AZERTY

A keyboard layout used in France and neighboring countries. A, Z, E, R, T and Y are the letters on the top left, alphabetic row. AZERTY is similar to the QWERTY layout, except that Q And A is swapped, Z and W are swapped and M is in the middle row instead of the bottom one.

• Dvorak

Keyboard layout designed in the 1930s by August Dvorak, University of Washington, and his brother-in-law, William Dealey. 70% of words are typed on the home row compared to 32% with QWERTY, and more words are typed using both hands. In eight hours, fingers of a QWERTY typist travel 16 miles, but only one for the Dvorak typist.