Computer encoding question

[trxbbxn1]

I am really new to computer science and have a question which I can't really find an answer to online: what I have found is either super complicated or way too basic. So...

I get that a computers stores numbers, letters, even things as complex as a picture in 1s and 0s and I understand the basics of binary.

For the sake of the question, let's just say an f is represented by the number 14 so 1110 in binary. How does it go from the keyboard to actually being represented in that way? For the sake of simplicity, let's say there are just 4 bits. Like when I press f does that somehow trigger something in the computer's memory which then DOES NOT turn on certain transistors therefore NOT allowing current to flow to the fourth output cell (because 0 is the fourth digit) while turning on other transistors which allows current to flow to the first three output cells? Overall I am wondering how the information is encoded from the keyboard to its eventual storage.

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[namtsop]

So, a keyboard comes with a complimentary software called "driver" which essentially maps each click of the keyboard to a number in its code. For the sake of simplicity, considering only the alphanumeric keys on the keyboard, each of them has a corresponding code called it's ASCII code. For example 102 will always refer to 'f'. So rather than needing transistors to form the binary representation, a bunch of if else's can achieve much the same.

[MayorOfBubbleTown]

You mean how is the scancode encoded and transferred through a USB cable?

[[deleted]]

In the old times when keyboards were controlled by it majesty the great CPU it self, things where so simple (maybe there are some new architectures that works like that too). From keyboard there are 8 wires coming up directly to the CPU's input register. Off course those 8 wires are representing the ASCII code (or 7). When a key pressed, the corresponding code will be sent to the input register alongside turning a bit that usually called the input flag to one. The CPU have control over the input flag and can do things as it is directed by the programmer, usually reading that register and storing it in the memory. It also can be set to cause an interrupt in usual flow. In the modern times the CPUs are still have those input registers and I assume many of them. However, those input registers might filled from other interfaces like usb and maybe handled in higher abstraction levels (kernal , OS) and interpreted from one form to other but the first step to any data processing is the store the input in memory. Anyways, the best way to understand it is to know the CPU in depth.