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Circular monitor display for Whirlwind

Whirlwind, operational in 1951, may have been the first computer to display text and graphics on a video terminal.

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Light pen and interface box (prototype)

Light pens were developed about 1952 to select points on the video display of MIT’s Whirlwind computer. One disadvantage was that you couldn’t point to a dark area.

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VT04 Graphic Display system console

This video console, with light pen and digitizing tablet, was part of the Graphic-15 Graphic Display System, a DEC PDP-15 computer accessory.

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Tektronix 4012 Graphics Terminal

Tektronix’s 4010-class terminals used special video storage-tube displays. They provided good-quality graphics without expensive memory, but users could only erase the whole screen at once. Two thumbwheels provided basic cursor control.

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VT100 video terminal keyboard

An Intel 8080 CPU provided the VT100 with advanced features such as bold characters and multiple text and graphic character sets. Its success inspired other terminal makers to emulate those features.

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Liveboard interactive video display

Liveboard was a pen-based, networked, interactive “whiteboard” supporting multiple remote documents. PARC’s Ubiquitous Computing program developed Liveboard; a spin-off company offered a commercial version. By 2000, more than 2,000 Liveboards had been sold.

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Calculator with Braille display

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Plasma video display

PLATO educational computer system terminals used plasma displays in 1964. Because the displays stored images independently, they didn’t require extra computer memory.

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Braille display (prototype)

This prototype display evolved into a portable “reader” that converted scanned text into tactile output for blind users.

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VT100 terminal

An Intel 8080 CPU provided the VT100 with advanced features such as bold characters and multiple text and graphic character sets. Its success inspired other terminal makers to emulate those features.

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TI-99/4 home computer color monitor

Home computers in 1979 often used television sets as displays. But TI’s computer-to-TV adapter (radio frequency modulator) was not yet FCC-approved, so TI had Zenith modify a standard TV to allow direct connection to the new TI-99/4 home computer.

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Color Pivot video monitor

This monitor rotated between portrait and landscape orientations, automatically reformatting the displayed material. It was convenient, but cost almost $1,700.

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IBM 581 plasma video display (prototype)

This prototype plasma display was released in 1984, just as laptop computers were beginning to appear on the market. Its flat shape was attractive, but liquid-crystal displays ultimately dominated.