Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible, Sixth Edition

Listening and Monitoring

If you want your computer to do anything useful, you have to be able to tell it what to do. Although some computers actually do listen to you speak using voice-recognition technology, most systems depend on traditional control systems, the keyboard, and the mouse to put you in command. In addition, many applications require that you fill your computer with data—keystrokes, images, and sounds. Your computer acquires this information by electronically listening to any of several input devices—scanners, digital cameras, sound board samplers, and so on.

Your window into the mind of your computer that lets you monitor what it does is its display system, itself a combination of a graphics adapter or video board and a monitor ...