An input device which can read characters directly from an ordinary piece of paper is

ANS:A - OCR

Optical mark recognition /Optical Mark Reading (OMR) : is the process of capturing human-marked data by recognizing marks on a document.

Takes input from document forms such as surveys and tests.

OMR only detects the presence of a mark while OCR needs to discern what the mark is.

OCR is used for converting printed documents to an editable format while an OMR is typically used in grading or tabulating.

OCR requires a complex recognition engine while an OMR does not.