Donald Blitzer, co-inventor of plasma screen technology, died on December 10 at the age of 90. His death was only announced over the weekend. Plasma screen technology was developed by Blitzer along with Gene Slottow and Robert Willson in 1964.
The screen was developed to support the PLATO (Program Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) computer system that enabled computer-based learning. It was one of the first systems to allow users to access computers on a network. Blitzer realized that using CRT screens for PLATO was annoying because they flickered and were not very bright, making it difficult to learn using computers.
Plasma screen technology solved this issue because it could display content on the screen without any discomfort at a resolution of 512×512 bitmaps. In the early stages, plasma screens could only display orange and black before a color version was created in the 80s.