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.