A
display device is an
output deviceAn output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results of data processing carried out by an information processing system to the outside world....
for presentation of
informationInformation in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in
tactile electronic displaysA refreshable Braille display or Braille terminal is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. Blind computer users, who cannot use a normal computer monitor, use it to read text output...
for blind people). When the input information is supplied as an electrical signal, the display is called an
electronic display.
Common applications for
electronic visual displayAn electronic visual display is display technology which incorporates flat panel displays, performs as a video display, output device for presentation of images transmitted electronically, for visual reception, without producing a permanent record....
s are
television setA television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s or computer monitors.
Segment displays
Some displays can show only
digitA digit is a symbol used in combinations to represent numbers in positional numeral systems. The name "digit" comes from the fact that the 10 digits of the hands correspond to the 10 symbols of the common base 10 number system, i.e...
s or
alphanumericAlphanumeric is a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters, and is used to describe the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits or a text constructed from this collection. There are either 36 or 62 alphanumeric characters. The alphanumeric character set consists of the numbers 0 to...
characters. They are called
segment displays, because they are composed of several segments that switch on and off to give appearance of desired
glyphA glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
. The segments are usually single
LEDLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s or liquid crystals. They are mostly used in digital watches and pocket calculators. There are several types:
- Seven segment display (most common, digits only)
- Fourteen segment display
- Sixteen segment display
- HD44780 LCD controller a widely accepted protocol for LCDs.
Full-area 2-dimensional displays
2-dimensional displays that cover a full area (usually a
rectangleIn Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
) are also called
video displays, since it's the main modality of presenting
videoVideo is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
.
Applications
Full-area 2-dimensional displays are used in, for example:
- Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s
- Computer monitors
- Head-mounted display
A head-mounted display or helmet mounted display, both abbreviated HMD, is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each eye .- Overview :...
- Broadcast reference monitor
Underlying technologies
Underlying technologies for full-area 2-dimensional displays include:
- Light-emitting diode display (LED)
- Electroluminescent display
Electroluminescent Displays are a type of Flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as GaAs between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiation in the form of visible light...
(ELD)
- Electronic paper
Electronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technology which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper...
, E InkE Ink is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997 based on research started at the MIT Media Lab...
- Plasma display
A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
panel (PDP)
- Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
(LCD)
- High-Performance Addressing
High-Performance Addressing was developed by Hitachi and is an LCD Passive-matrix display technology commonly found on low-end portable computers...
display (HPA)
- Thin-film transistor
A thin-film transistor is a special kind of field-effect transistor made by depositing thin films of a semiconductor active layer as well as the dielectric layer and metallic contacts over a supporting substrate. A common substrate is glass, since the primary application of TFTs is in liquid...
display (TFT)
- Organic light-emitting diode
An OLED is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compounds which emit light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes...
display (OLED)
- Surface-conduction electron-emitter display
A surface-conduction electron-emitter display is a display technology which is currently developing various flat panel displays by a number of companies as a electronic visual displays. SEDs use nanoscopic-scale electron emitters to energize colored phosphors and produce an image...
(SED) (experimental)
- Laser TV
Laser color television , or Laser color video display utilizes two or more individually modulated optical rays of different colors to produce a combined spot that is scanned and projected across the image plane by a polygon-mirror system or less effectively by optoelectronic means to produce a...
(forthcoming)
- Carbon nanotube
Carbon nanotubes are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, significantly larger than for any other material...
s (experimental)
- Quantum dot display
A quantum dot display is a type of display technology used in flat panel displays as an electronic visual display. Quantum dots or semiconductor nanocrystals are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display...
(experimental)
- Interferometric modulator display
Interferometric modulator display is a technology used in electronic visual displays that can create various colors via interference of reflected light...
(IMOD)
Three dimensional
- Swept-volume display
A swept-volume display is a volumetric display in which the three-dimensional image is formed by illuminating a rapidly moving display surface, which may be "macroscopically" physical or otherwise...
- Varifocal mirror display
- Emissive volume display
- Laser display
- Holographic display
Holographic display is a display technology that has the ability to provide all four eye mechanism: binocular disparity, motion parallax, accommodation and convergence...
Mechanical types
- Ticker tape
Ticker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
(historical)
- Split-flap display
A split-flap display, sometimes simply flap display, is a display device that presents alphanumeric text, and possibly fixed graphics, often used as a public transport timetable in some airports or railway stations, often called Solari boards, named after display manufacturer Solari di...
(or simply flap display)
- Flip-disc display
The flip-disc display is an electromechanical dot matrix display technology used for large outdoor signs, normally those that will be exposed to direct sunlight. Flip-disc technology has been used on buses across North America and Europe. It has also been used extensively on public information...
(or flip-dot display)
- Rollsign
- Tactile electronic displays
A refreshable Braille display or Braille terminal is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. Blind computer users, who cannot use a normal computer monitor, use it to read text output...
(aka refreshable Braille displayA refreshable Braille display or Braille terminal is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. Blind computer users, who cannot use a normal computer monitor, use it to read text output...
) are usually intended for the blind. They use electro-mechanical parts to dynamically update a tactile image (usually of text) so that the image may be felt by the fingers.
- Optacon
The Optacon is an electromechanical device that enables blind people to read printed material that has not been transcribed into Braille.- Description :...
, using metal rods instead of light in order to convey images to blind people by tactile sensation.
- Idiot light
A tell-tale is an indicator of the status or malfunction of a system within a motor vehicle. Tell-tales consist of a light bulb or an LED which lights up a symbol or text legend...
s, the "Check Engine" light on an automobile dashboard is the quintessential idiot light, giving only the information that something is amiss, but not what particular subsystem or component, nor how urgent the problem is. Neither does it give any information about issues that may be still within acceptable limits, but trending towards failure.
History
In the history of display technology, a variety of display devices and technologies have been used.
See also
- Comparison of display technology
This is a comparison of various properties of different display technologies.- General characteristics :- Temporal characteristics :Different display technologies have vastly different temporal characteristics, leading to claimed perceptual differences for motion, flicker, etc.The figure shows a...
- Comparison CRT, LCD, Plasma
This is a page that lists advantages and disadvantages with CRT, LCD, Plasma and OLED.-CRT:Pros:*High dynamic range , excellent color, wide gamut and low black level...
- Large-screen television technology
Large-screen television technology developed rapidly in the late 1990s and 2000s. Various thin screen technologies are being developed, but only the liquid crystal display , plasma display and Digital Light Processing were released on the public market...
- Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, where numerous display devices can be seen in use
- Haptic technology
- Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
s
- CAD
- Computer-controlled milling machines
- Rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications...
- Digital image processing
Digital image processing is the use of computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing...
- Text display
A text display is an electronic alphanumeric display device that is mainly or only capable of showing text, or extremely limited graphic characters...
- Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
vs. Raster graphicsIn computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
- Video card
A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...
- Graphics chip
- Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
- Flat panel display
Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of electronic visual display technologies. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional television sets and video displays that use cathode ray tubes , and are usually less than thick...
- Human machine interface
External links