Input Devices : Scanner

A scanner can be used to input printed images such as photographs or pages of text directly into the computer. A scanner works by shining a light at the image being scanned and measuring how much light is reflected back using an optical sensor. The amount of light that is reflected back tells the computer how light or dark the image is at each point.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software can be used to read printed text from an image that has been scanned and store it as text rather than an image. You can then edit the text using a word processor or desktop publisher. OCR software is not yet sophisticated enough to read hand-written text accurately.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004