Display devices



A display device is an output device for presentation of information for visual or tactile reception, acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms. When the input information is supplied as an electrical signal, the display is called electronic display. Electronic displays are available for presentation of visual and tactile information.

Tactile electronic displays (aka refreshable Braille display) are usually intended for the blind or visually impaired, they use electro-mechanical parts to dynamically update a tactile image (usually of text) so that the image may be felt by the fingers.

Common applications for electronic visual displays are television sets or computer monitors.

Early devices

 * IBM 740
 * IBM 2250
 * IBM 1627
 * Tektronix 4014
 * Cathode ray tube (CRT)
 * Storage tube
 * Bistable display
 * Electronic paper
 * Nixie tube displays
 * Vector display
 * Flat panel display
 * Vacuum fluorescent display (VF)
 * Light-emitting diode (LED) displays
 * 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.
 * Head-mounted display

Paper

 * Computer printers
 * Laser printer
 * Inkjet printer
 * Electrostatic printer
 * Thermal printer
 * Industrial digital printer
 * Plotters

Projectors

 * Film projectors
 * Movie projector
 * Slide projector
 * Digital projector
 * Video projector
 * LCD projector
 * Laser projector
 * Head-up display

Three dimensional

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

Mechanical types

 * Ticker tape (historical)
 * Split-flap display (or simply flap display)
 * Flip-disc display (or flip-dot display)
 * Rollsign

Refreshable Braille display
See also Optacon.

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.

Segment displays
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.

Misc

 * Film recorder