Tech Time Machine:

Screens and Displays

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We spend a lot of time staring at screens. Some estimates suggest that the average American is glued to some kind of screen -- television, mobile devices, PCs, etc. -- for upwards of 400 minutes per day, which translates to roughly 40% of our waking hours. 

From the warbled picture on a 1950s television to the early Macintosh computers to today's impressive AMOLED and flexible screens, display technology has been a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives for decades.

Many of today's most popular and technologically advanced displays actually have roots in earlier years. For example, when you think about 3D movies, you may think of visual modern masterpieces like Avatar -- but 3D film technologies date back to the early 20th century; and today's highly impressive 4K (and now 5K) televisions come from a long line of predecessors.

Check out the timeline, below, outlining a brief history of screen tech evolution over the past century and a half.

Laying the foundation

CRT and early discoveries that paved the way.

1897 - The Birth of CRT

Karl Ferdinand Braun, a Nobel-prize winning physicist and inventor, builds the first CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube), which consists of a vacuum tube that can produce images via electron beams hitting a phosphorescent surface. The technology will later be used to display images on early televisions and computer monitors.

1907 - Discovery of Electroluminescence

British radio researcher Henry Joseph Round discovers electroluminescence, a natural phenomena that serves as the foundation upon which LED technology will later be built. This same year, Russian scientist Boris Rosing is the first to transmit crude geometrical patterns onto a television screen using CRT.

1925-1928 - Glimpses of TV's Capabilities

John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer, demonstrates some of the capabilities of television including transmitting recognizable human faces (1925), moving objects (1926) and color (1928).

'40s and '50s - Experiments with 3D Movies

In 1947, the Soviet Union releases the film Bwana Devil and bills it as "the first feature length motion picture in 3-dimension natural vision." In total, between 1952 and 1955, there are 46 3D movies released, including the famous House of Wax. Poor visual quality was off-putting to viewers, and the 3D craze didn't really catch on for years to come.

1952 - Debut of Curved TV Screen

The Cinerama is unveiled as the first curved television screen in a handful of movie theaters. The technology is based on the science behind human vision, and it becomes a tourist attraction that people travel miles to see. The trend of curved screens won't hit the consumer TV market for more than half a century.

Early '50s - Color Television

Television begins to incorporate color, encoding both luminance and chrominance for the first time. Since TVs, which at this time encode programs using the NTSC (National Television System Committee) System, vary from model to model, color changes based on viewers' equipment. This leads to the nickname "Never The Same Color" to describe the NTSC technology.

1961-1962 - Invention of LED

In 1961, Robert Biard and Gary Pittman patent an infrared LED (light-emitting diode) -- the first LED -- for Texas Instruments. It is, however, invisible to the human eye. The next year, Nick Holonyack invents the first light LED that's visible to the human eye and becomes known as "the father of the LED."

1964 - Invention of LCD and Plasma

Both the first working LCD (liquid crystal display) and the first PDP (plasma display panel) are invented. LCD technology makes flat-screen television possible, and later LCD research by James Fergason, an American inventor, leads to the first modern LCD watch in 1972. Plasma TVs, however, don't become widely successful (or possible) until the advent of digital technologies years later.

Advancing technologies

Touchscreen, IMAX and high-definition.

1965 - Touchscreen Technology

E.A. Johnson develops what some consider to be the world's first "touch screen" technology. At first, it's used for air traffic control, but after sometime around 1995, it becomes the predecessor to the screens used in today's ATMs and ticketing kiosks.

1967 - Birth of IMAX

The inception of IMAX occurs when Canadian filmmakers band together in Montreal to produce a multi-screen film installation -- the first truly large-screen film experience -- by syncing together nine film projectors.

'60s and '70s - Beginnings of HDTV

The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) begins experimenting with high-definition television after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In 1974, Panasonic designs a TV prototype that can display 1,125 lines of pixels (about 2.5 times that of standard definition).

The '80s and '90s

Displays get bigger and better.

1984 - First Macintosh Computer

The first Mac becomes available to the consumer market, with a 9-inch, monochrome 512×342 pixel display. Compare that to today's Mac with Retina 5K, a 5,120x2,880 pixel display -- an increase of about 8,400% -- that supports millions of colors.

1987 - OLED

Researchers at Eastman Kodak invent OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology; chemists Ching W. Tang and Steven Van Slyke are the primary inventors.

'80s and '90s - Rise of Large-Scale TVs

Consumer televisions continue to get larger and larger. Rear projection televisions are the standard -- though they take up a great deal of space -- until about 2005, when they are replaced by lighter and slimmer technologies like Digital Light Processing (DLP), Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), and improved Plasma and LCD.

'80s and '90s - Touchscreen Invades

IBM, Microsoft, Apple, HP and Atari are among just a few of the tech companies bringing touchscreen into the mainstream in this era. In 1992, IBM's Simon is the first phone with a touchscreen. FingerWorks, a gesture recognition company that is later acquired by Apple, produces a line of multi-touch products in 1998.

'90s - Full Color Plasma Display

Plasma displays continue to improve in resolution with technology brands debuting new and improved models throughout the '80s and '90s. Plasma technologies continue to evolve into the 2000s, particularly for large-sized screens (40 inches and above), until they're eventually surpassed by LCD.

1995 - Larger Than Life LED

The Fremont Street Experience, the world's largest LED display at the time, is put on display in Las Vegas. It measures over 1,500 feet long and 90 feet high.

1998 - Launch of HDTV in the U.S.

The official public launch of HDTV digital broadcasting system in the United States takes place. Though high-definition technology has been in the works (primarily in Japan and other countries) for years, it doesn't become mainstream in America until the late 1990s.

The new millenium

Improvements and innovations abound.

LCD Surpasses Plasma

Sometime around 2007, LCD televisions surpass Plasma in popularity due to their large size and lower cost. LED technologies also continue to improve, and LED-backlit LCD televisions become commonplace. OLED technologies also continue to improve, and can function without backlight.

Retina Display Debuts

Apple begins to market its products -- for the first time in 2014 -- with "Retina Display" and later "Retina HD" Display. The term means, essentially, that the resolution of the screen is so great that the human eye is incapable of determining any pixelation at all. Retina Display is a term used exclusively with iPads, iPhones, iPods, Macs and MacBooks.

Touchscreen is the Status Quo

The 2007 iPhone is the first commercially successful smartphone that is exclusively touchscreen, though there is debate about which tech company lays claim to the "first" touchscreen smartphone. Regardless, touchscreen becomes the industry standard for mobile devices from this point forward.


AMOLED, or active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, increases screen resolution and quality of OLED screens. Today, versions of AMOLED include Super AMOLED, HD Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED Advanced and more -- the labeling generally varies based on tech companies' marketing terms.

Mainstream Resurgence of 3D

3D becomes popular in the movie theaters and at home, due to improved technologies such as alternate-frame sequencing (battery-powered glasses for 3D viewing at home) and autostereoscopic technologies (3D that does not require glasses).

High-Res Continues to Improve

Resolutions become better and better in the aughts -- not only on televisions, but on mobile devices and even wearable technologies. Along with higher resolutions come larger televisions. In 2004, the average TV was a CRT of just 27 inches, and today's screens often measure 60 inches or more.

Electronic Paper

Though e-paper technology was actually pioneered in the '70s, it begins to rise to popularity in e-readers and other devices in the aughts. E-paper is portable, reusable and can be "erased" -- or re-written on -- thousands of times.

The future of screen technology

VR, bendable screens and what lies in store.

Thinner and More Flexible

Televisions are getting thinner and thinner -- there's now a Sony 4K TV that's just 4mm thick at its thinnest point, which debuted at CES 2015. In addition, flexible OLED and AMOLED screens are in the midst of penetrating the market, and the race is on for the first fully bendable smartphone screen. (Say goodbye to Bendgate.)

4K and 5K

While 4K was the buzzword of CES 2014, 5K is making its debut at this year's show. 4K, also referred to as 4K2K, means that a device has a horizontal resolution of at least 4,000 pixels.

Improved 3D and Virtual Reality

Displays are allowing for increasing user interactivity, such as the HP Zvr Virtual Reality Display, a monitor that debuted at this year's CES that actually allows users to manipulate 3D images on the screen.

Quantum-Dot Technology

Quantum-dot technology arrived on the scene in 2013 with debuts by LG, but the display tech is quickly picking up speed. QD is essentially a fancy version of an LED-backlit LCD TV, boasting exceptional image quality and vivid hues.

What lies in store for the future? What type of screens will we find ourselves staring at a decade down the road? 

Stay tuned with Mashable's coverage of CES 2015 to glimpse the latest and greatest display technologies hitting the market this year.