As this book took form, its contents furnished the material for a graduate course at the University of Rhode Island. Toward the end of that course, the class reviewed the literature on display characteristics and design. The universal criticism voiced in those reviews was that there was lots of hardware information but no criteria upon which one could base a sound design. Though one could learn all about the size and brightness of various displays, one could not form any judgment about how ef- fectively the display transferred information to an observer. As I reviewed our nearly completed...

The past decade has seen a major resurgence in optical research and the teaching of optics in the major universities both in this country and abroad. Electrooptical devices have become achallenging subject of study that has penetrated both the electrical engineering and the physics departments of most major schools. There seems to be something about the laser that has appealed to both the practical electrical engineer with a hankering for fundamental research and to the fundamental physicist with a hankering to be practical. Somehow or other, this same form of enthusiasm has not previously...

The past decade has seen a major resurgence in optics research and the teaching of optics throughout the major universities both in this country and abroad. Electrooptical devices have become a challenging form of study that has penetrated both the electrical engineering and the physics departments of most major schools. There seems to be something challeng- ing about a laser that appeals to both the practical electrical engineer with a hankering for fundamental research and to the fundamental physicist with a hankering to be practical. Somehow or other this same form of enthusiasm has not...