Keyboard
"Keyboard ... how quaint!" In Star Trek IV, the Voyage Home, Scotty uttered these words when he and the rest of the crew went back in time to the late 20th century. As he sat at (to him) an antiquated computer and attempted to speak into its mouse, the chief engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise was kindly motioned to 'just use the keyboard.' Sure, maybe in the 23rd century keyboards will be ancient history. But in the 21st century, they're still in use every single day by about a billion folks. In fact, even though voice recognition software has been around for a while now, it still doesn't look like keyboards will be replaced anytime soon. The keyboard is the computer's input device. It sends the information typed into it to a program on the computer that then deciphers it. Most keyboards have around a hundred keys, with letters, numbers, and function keys. The layout of a keyboard is still like that of its ancestor, the typewriter. Do you know how a keyboard works? What are a keyboard's innards all about? And what makes the keyboard so user-friendly and popular?
History
Even if you're too young to have used a typewriter, most people who use keyboards know that the keyboard layout started with the typewriter, right? Actually, keyboards started way back in the 1870s with teleprinter-like gadgets that were used to type and transmit stock market information at the same time. The data would be typed into a keyboard across telegraph lines to ticker tape machines. In fact, these were the earliest digital electronic communications machines. They were in use for nearly a hundred years. The word 'ticker' was derived from the tickering sound the machine made while it printed information. More updated versions of this ticker tape keyboard device were developed in the early 20th century by Charles Krum, an American mechanical engineer. Krum and his son, Howard, developed these updated keyboards, while Herman Hollerith, an American statistician and inventor, devised the first keypunch devices, soon evolving into machines that included keys with both letters and numbers. These devices are the early versions, and early fusion, of today's computer keyboard.
How does it work?
Think of a keyboard as a mini computer. Keyboards have their own circuitry and processors. The circuitry is what transmits data from and to the processor. Also inside the keyboard is its key matrix. In fact, the major portion of the keyboard's innards is its key matrix. A keyboard's key matrix consists of a grid of circuitry that lies under the keys. In most keyboards, every circuit is broken at a point underneath keys. When keys are depressed during typing, a switch is struck. This completes the circuit and permits a small amount of electrical current to flow through it. It is this depression of switches that results in 'bounce,' meaning the processor filters out. When the processor locates a closed circuit, it will then compare the location of that closed circuit to what is known as a character map, which is kind of table for comparing. The character map can be found in the keyboard's read-only memory, or ROM. It is the character map that signals to the processor of the location of each key in the key matrix. It relays which keystroke or combination of keystrokes is represented. Thus, if the key for the number '3' is depressed, the character map will send a signal to the processor to type the number, but if the 'shift' key is depressed simultaneously with the '3' key, then the character map tells the processor that the '#' has been depressed. The keyboard is linked to the computer through a plug, typically a five-pin male plug. Computers and keyboards work in sync in what is known as a 'bi-directional' format, meaning that they are capable of sending data to each other.
Keyboards are in use in just about every country in today's world of computers and electronics. They've been around for more than a century. And, until today's voice recognition software becomes more widely used, keyboards will probably be in use for a long time to come.
History
Even if you're too young to have used a typewriter, most people who use keyboards know that the keyboard layout started with the typewriter, right? Actually, keyboards started way back in the 1870s with teleprinter-like gadgets that were used to type and transmit stock market information at the same time. The data would be typed into a keyboard across telegraph lines to ticker tape machines. In fact, these were the earliest digital electronic communications machines. They were in use for nearly a hundred years. The word 'ticker' was derived from the tickering sound the machine made while it printed information. More updated versions of this ticker tape keyboard device were developed in the early 20th century by Charles Krum, an American mechanical engineer. Krum and his son, Howard, developed these updated keyboards, while Herman Hollerith, an American statistician and inventor, devised the first keypunch devices, soon evolving into machines that included keys with both letters and numbers. These devices are the early versions, and early fusion, of today's computer keyboard.
How does it work?
Think of a keyboard as a mini computer. Keyboards have their own circuitry and processors. The circuitry is what transmits data from and to the processor. Also inside the keyboard is its key matrix. In fact, the major portion of the keyboard's innards is its key matrix. A keyboard's key matrix consists of a grid of circuitry that lies under the keys. In most keyboards, every circuit is broken at a point underneath keys. When keys are depressed during typing, a switch is struck. This completes the circuit and permits a small amount of electrical current to flow through it. It is this depression of switches that results in 'bounce,' meaning the processor filters out. When the processor locates a closed circuit, it will then compare the location of that closed circuit to what is known as a character map, which is kind of table for comparing. The character map can be found in the keyboard's read-only memory, or ROM. It is the character map that signals to the processor of the location of each key in the key matrix. It relays which keystroke or combination of keystrokes is represented. Thus, if the key for the number '3' is depressed, the character map will send a signal to the processor to type the number, but if the 'shift' key is depressed simultaneously with the '3' key, then the character map tells the processor that the '#' has been depressed. The keyboard is linked to the computer through a plug, typically a five-pin male plug. Computers and keyboards work in sync in what is known as a 'bi-directional' format, meaning that they are capable of sending data to each other.
Keyboards are in use in just about every country in today's world of computers and electronics. They've been around for more than a century. And, until today's voice recognition software becomes more widely used, keyboards will probably be in use for a long time to come.