COMMON PERIPHERAL DEVICES COMPTIA

Speakers

Another output method is sound the sound in most PCs is generated by a pair of stereo speakers connected to the PC by a small lime green jack.

Set-Top Box

A Set-Top Box is generally supplied by the television service provider and is capable of delivering the television channels allowed along with additional material like streaming or on demand services. It is not unusual to see a DVR coupled with a Set-Top Box.

Smart TV

A Smart TV is the result of the convergence of the properties of computers and your conventional flat panel television. The smart TV will typically have its own operating system and be able to access streaming media content and other proprietary content.

Touch pads

How do we navigate through our operating systems without using a mouse? For 99% of the situations the answer is a touch pad. We chose a well-worn touchpad from a laptop to illustrate how the device is used. Most of the action is in the large top section. This is where your fingertip uses capacitance to change the electrical properties of the touchpad and allow you to glide around your desktop from the touchpad surface

Input & Output devices

In these Exam Notes we are looking at CompTIA A+ 220-901 Sub objective 1.12 "Install and configure common peripheral devices". The objective covers Input/Output (I/O) devices from the very old to the newest. So the concept we are after is "What is an Input device?" A mouse is an input device. A keyboard is an input device. And, on the other hand, you have a monitor, output, right? It's that simple. Well, unless you are talking about a Tablet PC where the display would be both.

KVM Switch

KVM stands for keyboard Video Mouse. It is an effective way to save space by allowing one "desktop" a keyboard a monitor and a mouse to be used by multiple PCs. You can switch from one PC to another by simply pressing a button.

Game pads and Joysticks

OK! Enough of the boring stuff let's play a game! (Show FPS.jpg)We'll use what they call a First Person Shooter (FPS) first person (that's you) Shooter (what you have in your hand) or an FPS. In the FPS model you walk around and shoot things or collect them, either way you have to navigate around a maze and defend yourself. To navigate and perform you will use a mixture of your mouse and keyboard at the minimum. You may also need a Game pad or a USB Joystick to move quickly and not lose.

Scanners and Barcode readers

Practically all products sold today have a barcode somewhere on their packaging. The arrangement of the bars provides product specific information to a barcode reader then on to a cash register or other device. This practice was so successful that companies found that they could add more information including web links to the manufacturer's web page to the barcode by changing its format. The QR (Quick Response) code was developed to satisfy this need and additionally the capability to read the new QR code by the consumer using a smartphone. It is not unusual to see a shopper reading a QR code and comparing products using their phones.

Printers

Printers create hard copies of the content displayed on your computers display this can be as simple as printing a note from your word processor. On the other hand you can take a screenshot of your display for troubleshooting purposes. There are several types of printers you are expected to know about for the test. You will be expected to know how the different printer types operate.

Useful components for telecommunication

The broadband access available to most users and long distance meetings are commonplace. All you need is a USB webcam and a microphone in addition to your PC of course. Now if you have a newer laptop or a tablet these devices are built in. If not, your best bet would be to get a USB Webcam and microphone. Other items designed to make your life easier are the digital camera, there's probably one built into your Smartphone. With the digital camera (Show digital camera.jpg though you will gain better quality pictures and higher resolutions. You can take the digital memory card in the camera and transfer your pictures to your PC using a smart card reader. This is also true of movies you make with a Camcorder. If you are taking high quality videos and let's say you want to lay a soundtrack over it later you use a MIDI controller to add either your own performance audio or a sample. MIDI devices interconnect using a 5 pin DIN.

Consumer level security

The most common consumer level security use of biometrics would be a fingerprint scanner, a small photoelectric sensor that you swipe you finger over. The scanner reads the lines and ridges on your fingertip and allows or denies further access based on a comparison to the master scan. Even identical twins have different fingerprints! Compared to other methods this is a surprisingly effective and cost efficient security method. The other biometric options you will need to know about are retinal scanning and facial recognition. These more sophisticated methods use the unchangeable (naturally) geometric features of the face in the case of facial recognition and the complex patterns found in the retina. Both technologies use the integrated camera on the lid of a laptop, a webcam or a smartphone to gather the necessary data. In retinal scanning the retina being scanned is compared to the reference copy on file in the system. Now a good retinal scan can take up to 15 seconds to complete. Remember your retina is the back wall of the eye containing a non-replicable network of blood vessels not the Iris or eye color and pupil. The retinal scan is a military specification for secure access to government installations. When using facial recognition the facial features of the image taken are compared to the reference image for the facial geometry, the distance between the eyes and the width of your nose, the depth of your eye sockets, and your jawline, and cheekbones. There are degrees of confidence in what is and is not considered a match and the user has to attain a certain preset score to get access. A motion detector can also be used in conjunction with the other security devices to prepare the system for access or alert personnel that there is activity. These devices can be set to remain inactive until its infrared scanner picks up activity.

Display devices

The most common display device is your PC or laptop monitor. These devices are capable of displaying the content in a variety of sizes and color depths as required by the user.

Keyboard/Mouse

We start out with the Keyboard and mouse. Believe it or not the first consumer grade PCs did not have a mouse or graphical interface! Everything was command driven. The original mice connected to the serial port, they then upgraded to PS/2 then ultimately USB. The keyboards followed roughly the same path with the only difference being the keyboard began with an XT connector which was a DIN connector twice the size of the PS/2. The keyboard design evolved from a alpha numeric rectangular device which reportedly caused fatigue and nerve damage after extensive use, to a curvy ergonomic design that was more natural in the way your hands rest on the keys. Newer keyboards and mice are wireless to allow for user mobility in gaming or home theatre.

Touchscreen

displays use the contact of the user's skin to emulate the actions typically performed by a mouse. These are great for mobile users.

Inkjet

uses fluid ink that is distributed on the paper by ejecting small amounts of colored dye onto the paper from small ink containers.

LaserJet

uses the electromagnetic properties of the ink, the drum and fuser to create the most stable output type. Moisture does not cause the print to distort.

Dot matrix

uses the impact method to create output.