Input without Wires Technology – Computer Science Essay (100 Level Course)
On any given day, you encounter wireless technologies being used for a wide range of communications. Televisions remote controls, baby monitors, remote garage door openers, and cellular telephones, for example, all use wireless technologies to communicate with other devices. Wireless technologies also allow input devices, such as the keyboard and mouse, to communicate with a computer.
A wireless keyboard and wireless mouse communicate with a computer using one of two wireless technologies: infrared or radio frequency technology. Infrared technology uses light waves to transmit signals to other infrared-enabled devices.
Infrared-enabled devices, such as a notebook computer or PDA, have a small, red plastic-covered IrDA (Infrared Data Association) port that transmits and receives signals. Infrared technology, however, only can transmit signals approximately three feet, and the two IrDA ports must be in direct line with each other to communicate. Given the clutter on most people desk and the constant movement of a mouse, infrared technology is not the ideal solution for wireless input devices (Patsch 4-15).
With radio frequency (RF) technology, devices communicate signals at least six feet without a clear line of sight . Even piles of paper, books, and other desktop items will not degrade the communication among the wireless keyboard and the mouse and the computer. Given these advantages, most users prefer a wireless keyboard and mouse that use radio frequency technology instead of infrared (Wireless Input).
Connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse using RF technology requires two parts: a transmitter and a receiver. The radio transmitter is inside the wireless keyboard or mouse. The radio receiver plugs into a keyboard port, mouse port, or USB port. Once the receivers are plugged in, the computer recognized the devices as if they were connected by a cable .
Works Cited
Patsch, Jason G. “Buying and Installing Wireless Hardware.” Future Technology Magazine.
September 2006: 4-15
Wireless Input. Shelly Cashman Series. Course Technology. 10 Oct. 2006.
www.scsite.com/wd20032e/pr2wc2.htm.
Zataq, Pamela T. and Roger D. Lang. The Wireless World of the Future. New Jersey: Griffin
Books, 2006.