Input is the data that you put into the computer system for processing. Here are some common ways of feeding (подача) input data into the system:
Typing on a keyboard. The computer responds (реагирует) to what you enter; that is, "echoes" what you type by displaying it on the screen in front of you.
Pointing with a mouse. The mouse movement causes corresponding (соответствующее) movement of a pointer on the computer screen.
Scanning with a wand reader (контактное считывающее устройство (жезлового типа)), bar code reader, flatbed scanner (планшетный сканер), or sheet-fed scanner (потоковый сканер). Wand and bar code readers use laser beams to read special letters, numbers or symbols. Flatbed or sheet-fed scanners are used to scan pictures or printed documents into your computer. Because the result of a scan is simply a picture of the document being scanned, special software – usually called OCR software, for optical character recognition (оптическое распознавание символов) – must analyze the picture and convert it into characters.
In addition to text and images, optical recognition can process data in a variety of forms: optical marks, optical characters, bar codes, and even handwritten characters.
Optical mark recognition (OMR) is sometimes called mark sensing (считывание карандашных меток) because a machine senses marks on a piece of paper.
Each product on the supermarket shelf (полка) has its own unique number, which is part of the Universal Product Code (UPC). This code number is represented on the product label by a pattern of vertical marks, or bars, called bar codes. These stripes (полосы) can be sensed and read by a bar code reader, a photoelectric device that reads the code by means of reflected (отраженный) light.
Magnetic-ink character recognition (распознавание символов, нанесённых магнитными чернилами) (MICR, pronounced "mike-er") involves using a machine to read characters made of magnetized particles (намагниченные частицы). The