Data on display: the cathode-ray tube, which dominated display technology for half a century, has given way to flat-panel displays. All current flat-panel display technologies involve a degree of compromise, but new concepts leaving the laboratory promise better visual images and lower power consumption.

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Technology

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Data on display: the cathode-ray tube, which dominated display technology for half a century, has given way to flat-panel displays. All current flat-panel display technologies involve a degree of compromise, but new concepts leaving the laboratory promise better visual images and lower power consumption.

As military operations become ever more complex and faster-paced, combatants will require quick and easy access to ever-increasing amounts of data, a requirement which will demand the best which display technology can provide.

Ask the end user what features are desirable in a new display, and the response is likely to be:

* high resolution * fast response * legible under all lighting conditions from sunlight to near-darkness * light weight * rugged * minimal power consumption * low cost.

Anyone who has gone shopping for a new computer monitor will realise just how optimistic such specifications are, but display designers are determined to rise to the challenge, offering a range of technologies which will meet most conceivable demands and finally see the traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT) transformed into a museum exhibit.

Ultra Electronics used 1280 x 1028 pixel Fujitsu solid-state colour screens in 1995 to create a prototype console for naval applications. Displayed for the first time at a defence exhibition that year, it was positioned so that visitors could see its minima...

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