ABSTRACT

Non-emitter/Liquid-Crystal Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Plasma Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Electroluminescent Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Cathodoluminescent Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Laser Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Electronic Ink and Electronic Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Visual Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Task Demands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Measures Used for Visual Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Effects of Specific Display Factors

on Visual Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Comparison of Different Display Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Standards, Rules, and Legal Regulations

and Health Protection Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Displays for Selected Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Augmented Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Mobile Phones and Handheld Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Since the existence of mankind, humans have been inventing and building tools to make life easier and more comfortable. One of mankind’s first tools with a visual display was the sundial, which was invented more than 3,000 years ago in Babylon. Due to its basic physical principle, one of its significant disadvantages was that it could not show the time during the night or when the weather was cloudy. Moreover, the first sundials were in public places, so that people had to make the effort to go there in order to check the time. Later developments of clocks (also in public places) eliminated the disadvantages of the sundial. Church clocks could not only show the time under any weather condition and at any time of day or night, but they could also display the time acoustically and therefore bridge distances up to a few miles. The following developments are well known-from the grandfather clock and the fob watch continuing with the first analog and digital wristwatches to today’s high performance wrist computers with high-resolution wrist-worn visual displays (Luczak & Oehme, 2002). They do not only display the time accurately, but they are truly multifunctional. For instance, some can visualize individual heart-rate profiles, and others can be used to chart one’s precise location on earth with the help of the global-positioning system. A few can even replace personal digital assistants.