INTERFACE

Interface
An interface is what enables two things to
interact with each other. In the world of
information technology, however, the
interface is what enables the user to interact
with the computer system. Interface comes in
two forms,
• Hardware interface and
• Software interface.
 Hardware interfaces
• Hardware interfaces include tangible objects
that enable the user to better communicate
with the computer, examples being: Touch
screens; Pivoted monitors and anti-glare
screen.
Touch screen
• As the name suggest, is a touch sensitive display
device that has different options displayed on it, to
select and activate a command all the user has to do
is to touch the screen at the location of the desired
command. When this happens light is broken at the
point of contact and the computer processes the
location at which the light was broken to determine
which option was selected. A touch screen is easier
and faster to use, as there are no mouse or
keyboard movement attached to it.
Pivoted Monitors
• These monitors can be turned and positioned
at angles that allow the user to be more
comfortable when using the computer. 
Antiglare Screen
• This is a screen that is placed over the screen
of your monitor and is coated with a special
substance to reduce the amount of light
coming to your eye from the screen.
Braille Keyboard
• There are two types of braille keyboards. The most common type of braille
keyboard is the chorded keyboard (left image) used on the Perkins brailler
and on electronic braille notetakers. These keyboards do not have a
separate key for each letter. There is one key for each dot of a braille cell.
To type one letter, all of the keys that correspond to the dots in that letter
are pressed at the same time. The brailler or notetaker advances to the
next letter after the keys are released. A spacebar is located below the
main keys.Occasionally, one may find a computer or typewriter keyboard
that has been labeled with braille letters(right image). Most blind people
do not use these, as they learn to memorize the keyboard layout and type
by touch. Good sighted typists use the same memorization techniques to
speed up typing. Typically, labelled QWERTY keyboards are only used by
young children, newly blind 1adults, or people with additional disabilities
who have difficulty memorizing the keyboard layout.
Software Interfaces
 Software Interfaces

Software interfaces are intangible features of

the computer that enable the user to
communicate with it. Software interface can
be broken down into three main types;
• Command-Line Interface (CLI),
• Menu-Driven Interface (MDI) and
• Graphical User Interface (GUI).
CLI
• To configure devices, manage resources and trouble shoot
network connections, network administrations and other
advanced users work with a command-line interface. These
types of interfaces are difficult to use because they require the
user to remember and type different commands and
keystrokes in order to enter commands into the computer.
These command used are called command language and
require exact spelling, grammar and punctuation. Minor errors
such as missing a period (full stop) will result in an error.
Command –line interfaces do not offer much help when
solving errors but has a major advantage of allowing the user
to have more control to manage detailed settings.
MDI 
• These types of interfaces provide menus as a means of entering
commands in to the computer. Menu-driven interfaces are easier
to learn because the user does not have to learn the rules of
entering the command; they however do have to remember
what menu options contain the necessary commands. Menus
also come in a variety of forms such as Pull-down and Popup
menus. Pull-down menus, sometimes referred to as drop down
menus, are vertical menu options that hang from a vertical
menu bar; sometimes there are sub-menus that are a secondary
set of menu options that are found to the side of the primary
menu options. Popup-menus are menu options that appear on
the screen and are contained in their own window.
GUI
• Graphical User Interfaces: These types of
interfaces allow the user to send commands
to the computer via menus, icons, pictorial
representations of commands, and keystrokes.