optical-mechanical scanner

An optical-mechanical scanner, often simply called a scanner, is a computer input device that uses a light beam to read codes, text, or graphic images and transfer them into a computer system. These devices are widely used in retail for scanning bar codes at point-of-sale terminals, allowing computers to identify products and their prices.12

Optical scanners also find applications in fax machines and for inputting graphics into personal computers. There are different types, including flatbed scanners where materials are changed manually, and sheetfed scanners that process multiple pages automatically. Laser scanners, a type of optical scanner, use focused laser beams to read bar codes, relaying information to computers for processing. In elections, optical scanners detect marks on ballots to count votes and are still in common use today.123