Screensaver

A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use. Contemporary screensavers are used primarily for entertainment, security or to display system status information.

Decades before the first computers utilizing this technology were invented, Robert A. Heinlein gave an example of how they might be used in his novel Stranger In A Strange Land (1961).

Many modern television systems, media players and other entertainment systems have a form of screensaver integrated. Most simply display a logo moving around the screen.