

Microphones are essential to voice recognition technology, which uses your voice to issue commands to the computer and execute specific tasks. Once the recording is stored as an audio file, it can be played, edited, and shared. For example, when a microphone records a voice, the audio is sent to the computer and stored on the computer's hard drive. Why is a microphone considered an input device?īecause a microphone sends information to a computer, it's considered an input device.

Clip-on microphoneĪlso known as a lavalier microphone, a clip-on microphone is a hands-free wireless mic that clips to the user's shirt. These microphones are used with a headset and phones, and are great for voice-recognition software. Close-talk microphoneĪ close-talk microphone is a microphone designed to have someone's mouth near the microphone without creating noise that may occur with other microphones. This type of microphone is good to use when interviewing a person to equally pick up the sound from the interviewer and interviewee. Bidirectional microphoneĪ bidirectional microphone is a microphone that picks up sound equally from the front and back of the microphone. This type of microphone is useful for when someone only wants to record one thing, such as their voice when doing a podcast or voice-over. Unidirectional microphoneĪ unidirectional microphone is any microphone that is only capable of picking up sound in one direction. For example, the Yeti microphone shown at the top of this page is an example of an omnidirectional microphone.

These types of microphones are used in studios for recording more than one person or musical instruments. Omnidirectional microphoneĪn omnidirectional microphone is a microphone capable of picking up the sound in all directions around the microphone. For a full listing of computer-related symbols, see: What are the most common symbols used by computers? What type of microphones are available?īelow we've listed the most common types of microphones and how they may be used. See our sound card page for further information about these ports for desktop computers. The port may also be labeled "mic." If the port connectors are color-coded, the pink connector is usually the microphone port. The microphone port is usually marked with an icon of a microphone, as pictured.
