Audio Visuals Devices

1.    Microphone

An input device that converts sound into a signal that can be fed into a computer. The signal from a microphone is usually analogue so, before it can be processed by a computer, it must be converted into digital data. An Analogue-to-Digital Convertor (ADC) is used for this (usually built into the computer’s sound card)

2.    Digital Camera

A device that captures digital photographs. Most digital cameras do not directly input data into a computer - they store photographs on memory cards. The photographs can later be transferred to a computer. A modern digital camera can capture 10 Megapixels or more per photograph - that’s 10,000,000 colored dots (pixels) in every photo!

3.    Video Camera

A device that captures moving images, or video. Like a digital camera, most video cameras do not directly input data into a computer – the captured movies are stored on video-tape or memory cards and later transferred to a computer. However, there are some situations where video cameras do feed video data directly into a computer: television production and video-conferencing. In these situations the video data is required in real-time.

4.    Web Cam

This is a very basic video camera used to feed live video into a computer.
The video data from a web cam is low quality compared to a full video camera. However it is good enough for web chats (e.g. using a messenger application such as MSN Messenger or Skype). Usually a web cam is clipped to the top of a monitor, but many laptops now have web cams built into the edge of the screen.

5.    Graphics Tablets

Graphics tablets are often use by graphics designers and illustrators. A graphics tablet consists of a flat pad (the tablet) on which you draw with a special pen. As you draw on the pad, the image is created on the screen.