Keyboards, mouse, scanners, cameras, joysticks, and microphones; a piece of equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system.

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Input devices are hardware that provide data and control signals to a computer. Keyboards, mice, scanners, cameras, joysticks, and microphones fit this role because they are used to enter information or commands into the system and translate human actions into digital form that the processor can understand and act on. This is why they enable you to type, click, scan documents, capture images or audio, and control software.

In contrast, main memory is where data and instructions are stored temporarily while the computer is running, the motherboard is the main circuit board that connects all components, and application programs are software that perform tasks but do not, by themselves, input raw data into the machine.