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The use of computer graphics techniques is far more widespread in the United States than in the UK. In this paper the author reports on his own experience of the current state of their application and comments on present trends.

The author attended the recent Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco to announce the April 1970 Brunel University Computer Graphics Symposium and Exhibition, CG.70. While in the United States he visited several university and industrial computer graphics installations with the purpose of soliciting speakers and session chairmen for the Symposium. This report summarises the state of the art in computer graphics research and applications as he found it.

A major feature of the Brunel Symposium was an exhibition of on-line equipment operating either from a local computer or over telephone lines to a remote backup processor. Manufacturers also presented lecture-demonstrations on applications of their systems, and participants were able to see and operate the graphic equipment.

The various types of display terminals used for remote on-line interaction with computer systems are investigated and details are given of their operation and applications. The methods of data transmission between the computer and the terminal are discussed and present research and development projects, both in this country and in the United States, are reviewed.

Computer graphics is already proving itself to be an extremely valuable and exciting field. The previous sections dealing with hardware and software systems and their applications inspire an atmosphere of confident anticipation for the future of graphics. It appears to be generally accepted that the present trend towards decreasing terminal costs and increasing system flexibility will be maintained and even accelerated.