A fiber-optic display is a light-emitting display that uses

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...

s to display images or text. Fiber-optic displays can either be static or dynamic, with the typical lighting source being halogen light bulbs.

Static fiber optic displays

Static fiber optic displays have been commonly used for some types of

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic light ...

s. One common use for static fiber optic displays are lane control lights, which display either a green downward-pointing arrow or a red X to indicate the open/closed status of road lanes.

Dynamic fiber optic displays

Dynamic fiber optic displays typically display alphanumeric text, and utilize electromechanical shutters to open or close the ends of the fiber strands to display an alphanumeric pixel. These type of displays were commonly used as

variable-message sign A variable- (also changeable-, electronic-, or dynamic-) message sign, often abbreviated VMS, CMS, or DMS, and in the UK known as a matrix sign, is an electronic traffic sign often used on roadways to give travelers information about special ...

s on highways. Compared to

eggcrate display A text display is an electronic alphanumeric display device that is mainly or only capable of showing text, or extremely limited graphic characters. This includes electromechanical split-flap displays, vane displays, and flip-disc displays; all- ...

s, dynamic fiber optic displays offered lower energy consumption due to requiring fewer bulbs, and offered improved nighttime legibility. For daytime legibility, they were sometimes combined with

flip-disc display The flip-disc display (or flip-dot display) is an electromechanical dot matrix display technology used for large outdoor signs, normally those that will be exposed to direct sunlight. Flip-disc technology has been used for destination signs in ...

s to be reflective in daylight and emissive at night. {{Display technology Display technology