Display device

Nixie tubes, LED-display and VF display, top to bottom.

A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays 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 displays are television sets or computer monitors.

Segment displays

Digital clocks display changing numbers.

Some displays can show only digits or alphanumeric characters. They are called segment displays, because they are composed of several segments that switch on and off to give appearance of desired glyph. The segments are usually single LEDs 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 Character LCD a widely accepted protocol for LCDs.

Full-area 2-dimensional displays

2-dimensional displays that cover a full area (usually a rectangle) are also called video displays, since it's the main modality of presenting video.

Applications

Full-area 2-dimensional displays are used in, for example:

• Television sets
• Computer monitors
• Head-mounted display
• Broadcast reference monitor

Underlying technologies

Underlying technologies for full-area 2-dimensional displays include:

• Light-emitting diode display (LED)
• Electroluminescent display (ELD)
• Plasma display panels (PDP)
• Liquid crystal display (LCD)
  • HPA display
  • Thin-film transistor displays (TFT)
• Organic light-emitting diode displays (OLED)
• Surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) (experimental)
• Laser TV (forthcoming)
• Carbon nanotubes (experimental)
• Nanocrystal displays (experimental), using quantum dots to make vibrant, flexible screens.

Three dimensional

• Swept-volume display
• Varifocal mirror display
• Emissive volume display
• Laser display
• Holographic display

Further information: Volumetric display

Mechanical types

• Ticker tape (historical)
• Split-flap display (or simply flap display)
• Flip-disc display (or flip-dot display)
• Rollsign
• Tactile electronic displays (aka refreshable Braille display) 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, using metal rods instead of light in order to convey images to blind people by tactile sensation.
• Idiot lights, 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

Main article: History of display technology

In the history of display technology, a variety of display devices and technologies have been used.

See also

• Comparison of display technology
• Comparison CRT, LCD, Plasma
• Large-screen television technology
• Times Square, where numerous display devices can be seen in use
• Haptic technology
• Graphical user interfaces
• CAD
• Computer-controlled milling machines
• Rapid prototyping
• Digital image processing
• Text display
• Vector graphics vs. Raster graphics
• Video card
• Graphics chip
• Computer graphics
• Flat panel display
• Human machine interface

External links

• Society for Information Display - An international professional organization dedicated to the study of display technology
• display-Magazine - The Online Magazine for Displays
• [1] - Solari di Udine