From Signboards to Screens: Displays

Abstract

In 1900 signs, whether for giving information or as advertisements, had to be either paint on boards or print on paper—the traditional poster. Variable information presented even greater problems and here the choice was to use pointers over some form of fixed scale; the most obvious versions being the clock face and the electrical voltmeter and its variants. More random information needed manual intervention, such as the station master changing the painted wooden board to show the destination of the next train.

When you have a few billion people connected with screens, not voice… screens are important. You can transmit a thousand times more information.

Yuri Milner