Abstract: In a system and method for the display, or presentation, of electronic information in an ambient, or pre-attentive, form, a centralized server converts textual or quantitative data into a form suitable for remotely located non-textual ambient displays, or objects. The conversion, or translation, of the information occurs in response to a set of rules which may be fixed at the server, or otherwise modifiable by a user of the display, for example via Web-based interface, or at the display itself. The translated data, referred to herein as “ambient data” is in compressed, encoded form, so as to optimize the efficiency of its periodic transmission of such data to multiple remotely located recipient displays. In one example, the display comprises an analog-type gauge having a hand that varies in angular or linear offset, or multiple hands that independently vary in angular or linear offset, in response to the received ambient data.