Intro to IT

ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD

First and foremost, ergonomics is the science of designing the workplace environment to provide the most comfort to users. An ergonomic keyboard is designed with considerations to reduce muscle straints on the user's wrists, along with other problems to provide a more comfortable platform for typing. These keyboards are specially designed and contoured so that the wrists will adopt a more natural positions. They are also often recommended by therapists and health care professionals to vigorous computer users.


INK-JET PRINTER

An ink-jet printer is a type of printer that spray small dots of ionized ink into paper precisely to create a specific image. Most ink-jet printers nowadays also include scanner, photocopier, and fax machine to add appeal to consumers. In addition, ink-jet printers less expensive than laser printers. However, they are also considerably slower. Another disadvantage of ink-jet printers is that they need a special type of ink that is known to smudge on inexpensive copier paper.


LASER PRINTER

Laser printer is a type of printer that is known to produce high quality text and images on normal paper within a small amount of time. It uses a non-impact photocopier technology known as xerographic, where the keys do not touch the paper. Instead, a laser beam is utilized to produce an image. The light of the laser changes the electrical charge on the drum wherever it hits. Then, the drum is rolled in toner, which is a dry powdered type of ink, and picked up by the charged parts of the drum. Lastly, the toner is transferred onto a piece of paper and fused to the paper with heat and pressure.


MAGNETIC-INK CHARACTER RECOGNITION (MICR)

MICR, short for Magnetic-Ink Character Recognition, is a character recognition technology, which is font that can be recognized using magnetically charged ink. The technology enables computers which are installed with the right hardware and software to read information off of printed documents. Unlike barcodes, MICR can easily be read by humans. Also, MICR use magnetic printing, characters can be read easily even if they are overprinted or obscured by other marks, such as cancellation stamps. This technology is usually used to print checks, deposit slips, mortgage coupons and many more.


OPTICAL-CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR)

OCR, short for Optical-Character Recognition is the electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It involves photoscanning of the text, analysis of the scanned image and then the translation of the character image into character codes, such as ASCII, which is commonly used in data processing. It is usually used to convert books and documents into electronic files, whether for the record system in an office, or to be published on the internet. This technology has made it possible for materials to be stored using much less storage space than the hard copy materials, and changed the way information is stored, shared and edited.


OPTICAL-MARK RECOGNITION

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) is a type of technology that can electronically extract intended data from marked fields, such as checkboxes and fill-in fields, on printed forms. It differs from OCR since a recognition engine is not required, which requires the image to have high contrast and an easily-recognizable or irrelevant shape. With the OMR technology, a printed form is scanned to read predefined positions and records where marks are made on the form. It is a useful technology for applications in which large numbers of hand-filled forms need to be processed quickly and with great accuracy, such as surveys, reply cards, questionnaires and ballots.