A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Every type of modern technology uses dot matrices for display of information, including cell phones, televisions, and printers. They are also used in textiles with sewing, knitting, and weaving.
An alternate form of information display using lines and curves is known as a vector display, was used with early computing devices such as air traffic control radar displays and pen-based plotters but is no longer used. Electronic vector displays were typically monochrome only, and either don't fill in the interiors of closed vector shapes, or shape-filling is slow, time-consuming, and often non-uniform, as on pen-based plotters.
In printers, the dots are usually the darkened areas of the paper. In displays, the dots may light up, as in an LED, CRT, or plasma display, or darken, as in an LCD.
Read more about Dot Matrix: Usage in Printers, Usage in Computers, LED Matrix
Famous quotes containing the word matrix:
““The matrix is God?”
“In a manner of speaking, although it would be more accurate ... to say that the matrix has a God, since this being’s omniscience and omnipotence are assumed to be limited to the matrix.”
“If it has limits, it isn’t omnipotent.”
“Exactly.... Cyberspace exists, insofar as it can be said to exist, by virtue of human agency.””
—William Gibson (b. 1948)