1985

Sutela, Pirjo

The Information Service of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) has studied pictorial information in public online databases. Different types of databases that contain pictorial information are classified as follows: referral databases, numeric databases, videotex databases and databases on optical disks. Referral data-bases direct the user to the source of graphical material. From numeric databases the information can be displayed in various graphical formats. Videotex databases include several types of graphics in addition to textual information. Optical disk systems can store text, still and moving pictures and voice on the same disk. Examples of different types of databases are given and reproductions of typical displays are presented. The most important types of graphics display devices are also described.