Introduction

•What is Computer Graphics?

•Applications
•Graphics packages
 What is Computer Graphics?

• Creation, Manipulation and Storage of

geometric objects (modeling) & their images
(rendering)
• Display those images on screens or hardcopy
devices
 Applications of Computer Graphics

• Computer Aided Design (CAD)

• Presentation Graphics
• Computer Art
• Entertainment (animation, games, …)
• Education & Training
• Visualization (scientific & business)
• Image Processing
• Graphical User Interfaces
1.Computer Aided Design (CAD)
– Used in design of buildings, automobiles, aircraft,
watercraft, spacecraft, computers, textiles & many
other products
– Objects are displayed in wire frame outline form
– Software packages provide multi-window
environment
• Graphics design package provides standard shapes
(useful for repeated placements)
• Animations are also used in CAD applications
• Realistic displays of architectural design permits
simulated “walk” through the rooms (virtual -reality
systems)
 2.Presentation Graphics
• Used to produce illustrations for reports or generate
slides for use with projectors
• Commonly used to summarize financial, statistical,
mathematical, scientific, economic data for research
reports, managerial reports & customer information
bulletins
• Examples : Bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, surface
graphs, time chart
Examples of presentation graphics
Examples of presentation graphics
 3.Computer Art

• Used in fine art & commercial art

– Includes artist’s paintbrush programs, paint
packages, CAD packages and animation packages
– These packages provides facilities for designing
object shapes & specifying object motions.
– Examples : Cartoon drawing, paintings, product
advertisements, logo design
Examples :
 Computer Art

• Electronic painting
– Picture painted electronically on
a graphics tablet (digitizer) using a stylus
– Cordless, pressure sensitive stylus
• Morphing
– A graphics method in which one object is
transformed into another
 4.Entertainment
• Movie Industry
– Used in motion pictures, music
videos, and television shows.
– Used in making of cartoon
animation films

Slide information from Leonard McMillian's slides

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~mcmillan/comp136/Lecture1/
compgraf.html
Computer Graphics is about animation (films)
• Game Industry
– Focus on interactivity
– Cost effective solutions
– Avoiding computations and
other tricks
 5.Education & Training
• Computer generated models of physical,
financial and economic systems are used as
educational aids.
• Models of physical systems, physiological
systems, population trends, or equipment
such as color-coded diagram help trainees
understand the operation of the system
 Specialized systems used
for training applications
 simulators for practice
sessions or training of ship
captains
 aircraft pilots
 heavy equipment
operators
 air traffic-control personnel
Training
 6.Visualization
• Scientific Visualization
– Producing graphical representations for
scientific, engineering, and medical data sets
Scientific Visualisation
To view below and
above our visual range
• Business Visualization is used in connection
with data sets related to commerce, industry
and other non-scientific areas
• Techniques used- color coding, contour plots,
graphs, charts, surface renderings &
visualizations of volume interiors.
• Image processing techniques are combined
with computer graphics to produce many of
the data visualizations
 7. Image Processing
• CG- Computer is used to create a picture
• Image Processing – applies techniques to modify or
interpret existing pictures such as photographs and
TV scans
• Medical applications
– Picture enhancements
– Tomography
– Simulations of operations
– Ultrasonics & nuclear medicine scanners
• 2 applications of image processing
– Improving picture quality
– Machine perception of visual information (Robotics)
• To apply image processing methods
– Digitize a photograph (or picture) into an image file
– Apply digital methods to rearrange picture parts to
• enhance color separations
• Improve quality of shading
– Tomography – technique of X-ray photography that allows
cross-sectional views of physiological systems to be
displayed
– Computed X-ray tomography (CT) and position emission
tomography ( PET) use projection methods to reconstruct
cross sections from digital data
– Computer-Aided Surgery is a medical application
technique to model and study physical functions to design
artificial limbs and to plan & practice surgery
 8.Graphical User Interfaces
• Major component – Window manager (multiple-window
areas)
• To make a particular window active, click in that window
(using an interactive pointing device)
• Interfaces display – menus & icons
• Icons – graphical symbol designed to look like the processing
option it represents
• Advantages of icons – less screen space, easily understood
• Menus contain lists of textual descriptions & icons
 Graphics packages
• A set of libraries that provide programmatically access
to some kind of graphics 2D functions.
• Types
– GKS-Graphics Kernel System – first graphics package –
accepted by ISO & ANSI
– PHIGS (Programmer’s Hierarchical Interactive Graphics
Standard)-accepted by ISO & ANSI
– PHIGS + (Expanded package)
– Silicon Graphics GL (Graphics Library)
– Open GL
– Pixar Render Man interface
– Postscript interpreters
– Painting, drawing, design packages
Display Devices
 Displays

• Emissive display -- convert electrical energy into light

- Cathode ray tube (CRT)
- Flat panel CRT
- Plasma panels (gas-discharge display)
- Thin-film electroluminescent (EL) display
- Light-emitting diodes

• Non-Emissive display -- optical effect: convert sunlight or light

from other source into graphic patterns.
- Liquid-crystal device (LCD) – flat panel
- Passive-matrix LCD
- Active-matrix LCD
 Monochrome Cathode Ray Tube
(CRT)
• Cathode Ray – beam of electrons
- emitted by an electron gun
- accelerated by a high positive voltage near the face of the tube
- forced into a narrow stream by a focusing system
- directed toward a point on the screen by the magnetic field generated
by the deflection coils
- hit onto the the phosphor-coated screen
- phosphor emits visible light, whose intensity depends on the number of
electrons striking on the screen

Electron gun

Cathode

Focusing Horizontal
system & vertical
deflection
 Properties of the CRT
• Phosphor Persistence (PP)
- the light output decays exponentially with time.
- a phosphor’s persistence is defined as the time from the removal of
excitation to the moment of decaying the light to one-tenth of its
original intensity
- low persistence -> good for animation
- high persistence -> good for static picture with high complexity
- typical range: 10ms – 60ms

• Refresh rate (RR)

- number of times per second the image is redrawn (e.g., 60 or higher)

• Critical fusion frequency (CFF)

- the refresh rate above which a picture stops flickering and becomes
steady

 longer PP -> lower CFF required

 Properties of the CRT

• Resolution
- the maximum number of points that can be displayed without
overlap on a CRT
- high-definition system, e.g. 1280 * 1024 pixels
- resolution depends on the type of phosphor, the intensity to be
displayed, focusing and deflection systems, size of video memory

• Horizontal scan rate

- the number of scan lines per second that the CRT is able to display
- refresh rate * number of scan lines per frame
 CRT Color Monitor
CRT

Shadow Mask

Electron Guns

Red Input

Green
Input

Blue Input

Deflection
Yoke Red, Blue,
and Green
Phosphor Dots
 Beam Penetration method
This technique is used with random scan monitors.
In this technique inside of CRT coated with two phosphor
layers usually red and green.
The outer layer of red and inner layer of green phosphor.
The color depends on how far the electron beam penetrates
into the phosphor layer.
• A beam of fast electron penetrates more and
excites outer red layer while slow electron
excites inner green layer.
• At intermediate beam speed we can produce
combination of red and green lights which
emit additional two colors orange and yellow.
• The beam acceleration voltage controls the
speed of the electrons and hence color of
pixel.
 Shadow Mask
•Shadow mask has one small hole for each phosphor triad.
•Holes are precisely aligned with respect to both the triads and the electron
guns, so that each dot is exposed to electrons from only one gun.
•The number of electrons in each beam controls the amount of red, blue and
green light generated by the triad.

SHADOW MASK
Phosphor Dot
Screen

Red
Green Convergence
Blue Point
Sr.
No. Basis Beam Penetration Shadow Mask

In this method, there is the production of

In this method, there is the production of
1. Colors produced only four colors i.e., red, green, yellow,
millions of colors.
orange.

As in this method only four colors are As in this method millions of colors are
2. Color dependency produced it is because of the speed of the produced because it depends upon the
electron gun. intensity value of the three available guns.

Number of
In this method, only one electron gun is In this methods, three electron guns are used;
3. electron guns
used. i.e red, green and blue.
used.

As we know in this different colors and As we know in this different colors and shades
4. Picture quality shades are not possible. So, it’s picture are possible. So, it’s picture quality is quite
quality is poor. good.

This method is not suitable for providing This method is suitable for providing the
5. Realistic view
the realistic view. realistic view.

Whereas, this method does not able to provide

6. Resolution This method provides high resolution.
high resolution.

7. Cost It is cheaper than shadow mask method. It is an expensive method.

It is used in random scan system to display

8. Application It is used in raster scan system to display color.
color.
 Properties of the CRT
• Dot Pitch –the spacing between pixels on a
CRT, measured in millimeters. Generally, the
lower the number, the more detailed the
image.
 Output Scan Technology

• Vector display

- line drawing and stroke drawing in a random order

• Raster display

- horizontal scan line order

 Vector Display

• Vector display (1960s)

-- vector
vector system
system consists
consists of:
of:
display
display processor
processor (controller),
(controller),
display
display buffer
buffer memory
memory
CRT
CRT

-- The
The buffer
buffer stores
stores the
the computer-produced
computer-produced display
display list
list or
or display
display program
program
-- Display
Display program
program contains
contains point-
point- and
and point-plotting
point-plotting commands
commands withwith (x,
(x, y,
y, z)
z)
endpoint
endpoint coordinates
coordinates
-- The
The commands
commands forfor plotting
plotting are
are interpreted
interpreted by
by the
the display
display processor
processor

-- The
The principle
principle of
of vector
vector system
system is
is random
random scan
scan
The
The beam
beam isis deflected
deflected from
from endpoint
endpoint to
to endpoint,
endpoint, as
as dictated
dictated by
by the
the order
order of
of the
the
display
display command
command

-- display
display list
list needed
needed to
to be
be refreshed
refreshed (e.g.,
(e.g., 30Hz)
30Hz)
 Raster Display

• Raster display (since 1970s)

-- Raster
Raster system
system consists
consists of:
of:
display
display processor
processor (input,
(input, refreshing,
refreshing, scan
scan converting)
converting)
video
video controller
controller
buffer
buffer memory
memory (frame
(frame buffer)
buffer)
CRT
CRT

-- The
The buffer
buffer stores
stores the
the primitive
primitive pixels,
pixels, rather
rather than
than display
display list
list or
or display
display program
program
-- Video
Video controller
controller reads
reads the
the pixel
pixel contents
contents toto produce
produce the
the actual
actual image
image on
on the
the
screen
screen
-- The
The image
image is
is represented
represented asas aa set
set of
of raster
raster scan
scan lines,
lines, and
and forms
forms aa matrix
matrix of
of pixels.
pixels.

-- need
need refresh
refresh the
the raster
raster display
display (e.g.,
(e.g., 60Hz)
60Hz)
Architecture of a simple raster-graphics
system
 Architecture of a raster system

with a fixed portion of the system memory reserved for the frame
buffer.
Basic video-controller refresh operations
Architecture of a Vector-graphics system
with a display processor.
 Video Controller
•• Access
Access the
the frame
frame buffer
buffer to
to refresh
refresh the
the screen
screen

•• Control
Control the
the operation
operation for
for display
display

•• Color
Color look-up
look-up table
table

X
Linear address Horizontal
address Raster-scan & vertical
generator Deflection signal
Frame Y
buffer address
Data Pixel Intensity
values or color
 Video Controller

 Types
Types of
of refresh
refresh

•• Interlaced
Interlaced (mostly
(mostly for
for TV
TV for
for reducing
reducing flickering
flickering effect
effect --
-- NTSC)
NTSC)
-- two
two fields
fields for
for one
one frame
frame
-- odd-field:
odd-field: odd-numbered
odd-numbered scan scan lines
lines
-- even-field:
even-field: even-numbered
even-numbered scan scan lines
lines
-- refresh
refresh rate:
rate: e.g.,
e.g., NTSC:
NTSC: 60Hz
60Hz (60
(60 fields
fields per
per second);
second); 3030 frame/s.
frame/s.
PAL:
PAL: 50Hz
50Hz

•• Non-interlaced
Non-interlaced (mostly
(mostly for
for monitor)
monitor)
-- refresh
refresh rate:
rate: e.g.,
e.g., 60Hz
60Hz or
or more
more

Odd-field
Even-field
 Display Processor

Also called either a Graphics Controller or Display CoProcessor

Specialized hardware to assist in scan converting output primitives into

the frame buffer.

Fundamental difference among display systems is how much the display

processor does versus how much must be done by the graphics
subroutine package executing on the general-purpose CPU.
 Frame Buffer

A frame buffer may be thought of as computer memory organized as a two-

dimensional array with each (x,y) addressable location corresponding to one
pixel.
Bit Planes or Bit Depth is the number of bits corresponding to each pixel.
A typical frame buffer resolution might be
640 x 480 x 8
1280 x 1024 x 8
1-Bit Memory. Monochrome Display
(Bit-map Display)

1 bit
2 levels

Electron
Gun
 3-Bit Color Display
3

red

green
blue

COLOR: black red green blue yellow cyan magenta white

R 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1
G 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
B 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1
 True Color Display
24 bitplanes, 8 bits per color gun. 224 =
16,777,216 colors
8

8 Red

Green
Blue
 Difference between raster scan and random scan
Base of Difference Raster Scan System Random Scan System

Electron Beam The electron beam is swept across the The electron beam is directed only to the
screen, one row at a time, from top to parts of screen where a picture is to be drawn.
bottom.

Resolution Its resolution is poor because raster Its resolution is good because this system
system in contrast produces zigzag lines produces smooth lines drawings because CRT
that are plotted as discrete point sets. beam directly follows the line path.

Picture Definition Picture definition is stored as a set of Picture definition is stored as a set of line
intensity values for all screen points, drawing instructions in a display file.
called pixels in a refresh buffer area.

Realistic Display The capability of this system to store These systems are designed for line- drawing
intensity values for pixel makes it well and can’t display realistic shaded scenes.
suited for the realistic display of scenes
contain shadow and color pattern.

Draw an Image Screen points/pixels are used to draw an Mathematical functions are used to draw an
image. image.
 Interlaced Systems
In some raster system interlacing technique is
used for painting the screen . Instead of
refreshing every line in an interlaced mode
the electron gun sweeps alternate line in each
pass (each frame is displayed in two frames
odd numbered being refreshed first and then
the even numbered lines.).
* This is an effective
technique for avoiding
flicker
 Direct View Storage Tube

In all the earlier technologies we need

refreshing of the screen
An alternative method is Direct View
Storage Tube .It stores the picture
information as a charge distribution just
behind the phosphor coated screen.
Two electron guns primary gun and flood
gun are used
Primary gun stores the picture pattern and
flood gun maintains the picture display
 DVST Vs Refresh CRT
• In DVST since no refreshing
required so complex
pictures can be displayed
at higher resolution
without flicker.
• However DVST ordinarily
does not display colors and
parts of image cannot be
erased here so not good for
animation