SCS1302 COMPUTER GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

(Common to CSE & IT)

UNIT I BASICS OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Output Primitives: Survey of computer graphics – Overview of graphics systems – Line drawing
algorithm –Circle drawing algorithm – Curve drawing algorithm - Attributes of output primitives –
Anti-aliasing
Computer Graphics
Computer Graphics involves creation, display, manipulation and storage of pictures and experimental
data/models or images for proper visualization using a computer. Such models come from diverse and
expanding set of fields including physical, biological, mathematical, artistic, and conceptual/abstract
structures.Typical graphics system comprises of a host computer with support of fast processor, large
memory, frame buffer and

•Display devices (color monitors),

• Input devices (mouse, keyboard, joystick, touch screen, trackball)

• Output devices (LCD panels, laser printers, color printers. Plotters etc.)

•Interfacing devices such as, video I/O, TV interface etc.

Application of Computer Graphics

Computer-Aided Design for engineering and architectural systems

• Objects maybe displayed in a wireframe outline form. Multi-window environment is also

favored for producing various zooming scales and views.
• Animations are useful for testing performance.

Presentation Graphics

• To produce illustrations which summarize various kinds of data. Except 2D, 3D graphics
are good tools for reporting more complex data.

Computer Art

• Painting packages are available. With cordless, pressure-sensitive stylus, artists can
produce electronic paintings which simulate different brush strokes, brush widths, and
 colors. Photorealistic techniques, morphing and animations are very useful in commercial
art. For films, 24 frames per second are required. For video monitor, 30 frames per
second are required.

Entertainment

• Motion pictures, Music videos, and TV shows, Computer games

Education and Training

• Training with computer-generated models of specialized systems such as the training of

ship captains and aircraft pilots.
• Drawing Maps, Weather Maps, Satellite Imaging, Medical Imaging, Flight Simulation,
Machine design, Photo enhancements etc.

Visualization

• For analyzing scientific, engineering, medical and business data or behavior. Converting
data to visual form can help to understand mass volume of data very efficiently.

Image Processing

• Image processing is to apply techniques to modify or interpret existing pictures. It is

widely used in medical applications.

Graphical User Interface

• Multiple window, icons, menus allow a computer setup to be utilized more efficiently.

Video Display devices

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

The primary output device in a graphical system is the video monitor. The main element of a
video monitor is the Cathode Ray Tube, shown in the following illustration.

The operation of CRT is very simple:

 • The electron gun emits a beam of electrons (cathode rays), when the filament is heated.

• Intensity of the electron beam is controlled by setting voltage levels on the control grid.

• The electron beam passes through focusing and deflection systems that direct it towards
specified positions on the phosphor-coated screen. The focusing system is needed to
force he electron beam to converge into a small spot as it strikes the phosphor screen,
else the bam would spread out as it approaches the screen.

• When the beam hits the screen, the phosphor emits a small spot of light at each position
contacted by the electron beam.

• It redraws the picture by directing the electron beam back over the same screen points
quickly. This is called refreshing, hence the CRT is called as Refresh CRT.

• The difference between the kinds of phosphors is their persistence- how long they
continue to emit light after the CRT beam is removed.

There are two ways (Random scan and Raster scan) by which we can display an object on the
screen.

Raster Scan

In a raster scan system, the electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a time from top
to bottom. As the electron beam moves across each row, the beam intensity is turned on and off
to create a pattern of illuminated spots.
Picture definition is stored in memory area called the Refresh Buffer or Frame Buffer. This
memory area holds the set of intensity values for all the screen points. Stored intensity values
are then retrieved from the refresh buffer and “painted” on the screen one row (scan line) at a
time as shown in the following illustration.

Each screen point is referred to as a pixel (picture element) or pel. At the end of each scan line,
the electron beam returns to the left side of the screen to begin displaying the next scan line.

Random Scan (Vector Scan)

In this technique, the electron beam is directed only to the part of the screen where the picture is
to be drawn rather than scanning from left to right and top to bottom as in raster scan. It is also
called vector display, stroke-writing display, or calligraphic display.

Picture definition is stored as a set of line-drawing commands in an area of memory referred to

as the refresh display file. To display a specified picture, the system cycles through the set of
commands in the display file, drawing each component line in turn. After all the line-drawing
commands are processed, the system cycles back to the first line command in the list.

Random-scan displays are designed to draw all the component lines of a picture 30 to 60 times
each second.
 Random Scans

Color CRT Monitor

A CRT monitor displays color picture by using a combination of phosphor that emit different-
colored light. By combining the emitted light from the different phosphor, a range of colors can
be generated. The two basic techniques for producing color displays with a CRT are the beam-
penetration method and the shadow-mask method.

Beam-penetration method

The beam-penetration method for displaying color pictures has been used with random-scan
monitors. Two layers of phosphor, usually red and green, are coated onto the inside of the CRT
screen, and the displayed color depends on how far the electron beam penetrates into the
phosphor layers. A beam of slow electrons excites only the outer red layer. A beam of very fast
electron penetrates through the red layer and excites the inner green layer. At intermediate beam
speeds, combinations of red and green light are emitted to show two additional colors, orange
and yellow. The speed of the electrons, and hence the screen color at any point, is controlled by
the beam-acceleration voltage. Beam penetration has been aninexpensive way to produce color
in random-scan monitor, but only four colors are possible, and the quality of picture is not as
good as with other methods.

Shadow Mask Method

Shadow-mask methods are commonly used in raster-scan system (including color TV) because
they produce a much wider range of colors than the beam penetration method. A shadow-mask
CRT has three phosphor color dots at each pixel position. One phosphor dot emits a red light,
another emits a green light, and the third emits a blue light. This type ofCRT has three electron
guns, one for each color dot, and a shadow
shadow-mask
mask grid just behind the phosphor-coated
phosphor screen.
Figure illustrates the delta-delta
delta shadow
shadow-mask
mask method, commonly used in color CRT
CR system.
The three beams are deflected and focused as a group onto the shadow mask, which contains a
series of holes aligned with the phosphor
phosphor-dot
dot patterns. When the three beams pass through a hole
in the shadow mask, they activate a dot triangle, which aappears
ppears as a small color spot on the
screen. The phosphor dots in the triangles are arranged so that each electron beam can activate
only its corresponding color dot when it passes through the shadow mask. Another configuration
for the three electron guns iss an in
in-line
line arrangement in which the three electron guns, and the
corresponding redgreen-blue
blue color dots on the screen, are aligned along one scan line instead of
in a triangular pattern. This in-line
line arrangement of electron guns is easier to keep in alignment
alig
and is commonly used in high-resolution
resolution color CRTs.

We obtain color variations in a shadow

shadow-mask
mask CRT by varying the intensity levels of the three
electron beams. By turning off the red and green guns, we get only the color coming from the
blue phosphor.
phor. Other combinations of beam intensities produce a small light spot for each pixel
position, since our eyes tend to merge the three colors into one composite. The color we see
depends on the amount of excitation of the red, green, and blue phosphors. A white (or gray) area
is the result of activating all three dots with equal intensity. Yellow is produced with the green
and red dots only, magenta is produced with the blue and red dots, any cyan shows up when blue
and green are activated equally. In some low-cost
cost systems, the electron beam can only be set to
on or off, limiting displays to eight colors. More sophisticated systems can set intermediate level
for the electron beam, allowing several million different colors to be generated.

Direct – View Storage

orage Tubes ((DVST)
In raster scan display, we do refreshing of the screen to maintain a screen image. The DVST
gives the alternative method of maintaining the screen image.A DVST uses the storage grid
which stores the picture information as a charge distribution just behind the phosphor-coated
phosphor
screen.The
The figure below shows the general arr
arrangement
angement of the DVST. It consists
consist of two electron
guns: a primary gun and a flood gun.

The primary gun stores the picture pattern and the flood gun maintains the picture display.

The primary gun produces high speed electrons which strike on the storage grid to draw the
picture pattern. As electron beam strikes on the storage grid with high speed, it knocks out
electrons
ectrons from the storage grid keeping the net positive charge. The knocked out electrons are
attracted
acted towards the collector. The net positive charge on the storage grid is nothing but the
picture pattern. The continuous low speed electrons from flood gun pass through the control grid
and are attracted to the positive charged areas of the storage grid. The low speed electrons then
penetrate the storage grid and strike the phosphor coating without affecting the positive charge
pattern on the storage grid. During this process the collector just behind the storage grid
smooth’s out the flow of flood electrons.

Advantages:

• Refreshing of CRT is not required.

• Because no refreshing is required, very complex pictures can be displayed at very high
resolution without flicker.
• It has flat screen.

Disadvantages:

• They do not display colors and are available with single level of line intensity.
• Erasing requires removal of charge on the storage grid Thus erasing and redrawing
process takes several seconds.
• Selective or part erasing of screen is not possible.
• Erasing of screen produces unpleasant flash over the entire screen surface which prevents
its use of dynamics graphics applications.
• It has poor contrast as a result of the comparatively low accelerating potential applied to
the flood electrons.
• The Performance of DVST is somewhat inferior to the refresh CRT.

Flat Panel Displays

Although most graphics monitors are still constructed with CRTs, other technologies are
emerging that may soon replace CRT monitors. The term Flat panel displays refers to aclass of
video devices that have reduced volume, weight and power requirements compared to a CRT.
The important feature of flat panel display is that they are thinner than the CRTs. Since we can
even write on some flat-panel displays, they will soon be available as pocket notepads. Current
uses for flat-panel displays include small TV monitors, calculators, pocket video games, laptop
computers, armrest viewing of movies on airlines, as advertisement boards in elevators, and as
graphics displays in applications requiring rugged, portable monitors. There are 2 types:
Emissive and Non Emissive displays.
 Emissive Displays: They covert electrical energy into light energy. E.g. Plasma panels,
Thin Film Electroluminescent displays, LED
LEDs.

Non Emissive Displays: They use optical effects to convert sunlight or light from some
other source into graphics patterns. E.g. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

Plasma panels, also called gas

gas-discharge
discharge displays, are constructed by filling the region
between two glass plates with a mixture of gases that usually includes neon. A series of vertical
conducting ribbons is placed on one glass panel, and a set of horizontal ribbons is
i built into the
other glass panel (Fig. below). Firing voltages applied to a pair of horizontal and vertical
conductors cause the gas at the intersection of the two conductors to break down into a glowing
plasma of electrons and ions. Picture definition iiss stored in a refresh buffer, and the firing
voltages are applied to refresh the pixel positions (at the intersections of the conductors) 60 times
per second. Alternating –current
current methods are used to provide faster application of the firing
voltages, and thus
hus brighter displays. Separation between pixels is provided by the electric field of
the conductors. Figure below shows a high definition plasma panel. One disadvantage of plasma
panels has been that they were strictly monochromatic devices, but systems hhave
ave been developed
that are now capable of displaying color and grayscale.

Basic design of a Plasma Panel display device

Thin-film
film electroluminescent displays are similar in construction to a plasma panel. The
difference is that the region between the glass plates is filled with a phosphor, such as zinc
sulfide doped with manganese,instead of a gas (see Fig. below). When a sufficiently high voltage
is applied to a pair of crossing electrodes, the phosphor becomes a conductor in the area of the
intersection
tion of the two electrodes. Electrical energy is then absorbed by the manganese atoms,
which then release the energy as a spot of light similar to the glowing plasma effect in a plasma
panel. Electroluminescent displays require more power than plasma panel
panels,
s, and good color and
gray scale displays are hard to achieve.

Basic design of a thin

thin-film electroluminescent display device

A third type of emissive device is the Light-Emitting Diode (LED). A matrix of diodes is
arranged to form the pixel positions in the display, and picture definition is stored in a refresh
buffer. As in scan-line
line refreshing of a CRT, information is read from the refresh buffer and
converted to voltage levels that are applied to the diodes to produce the light patterns in the
display. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) are commonly used in small systems, such as
calculators (see figure below) and portable, laptop computers. These nonemissive devices
produce a picture by passing polarized light from the surroundings or from an internal light
lig
source through a liquid-Crystal
Crystal material that can be aligned to either block or transmit the light.
The term liquid crystal refers to the fact that these compounds have a crystalline arrangement of
molecules, yet they flow like a liquid. Flat
Flat-panel displays
lays commonly use nematic (threadlike)
liquid-crystal
crystal compounds that tend to keep the long axes of the rodshaped molecules aligned. A
flat-panel
panel display can then be constructed with a nematic liquid crystal
crystal. Two glass plates, each
containing a light polarizer
izer at right angles to the
the-other
other plate, sandwich the liquid-crystal
liquid material.
Rows of horizontal transparent conductors are built into oneglass plate, and columns of vertical
conductors are put into the other plate. The intersection of two conductors defines
defi a pixel
position.

Normally, the molecules are aligned as shown in the "on state". Polarized light passing through
the material is twisted so that it will pass through the opposite polarizer. The light is then
reflected back to the viewer. To turn off the pixel, we apply a voltage to the two intersecting
conductors to align the molecules so that the light is not .twisted. This type of flat-panel
flat device is
referred to as a passive-matrix
matrix LCD. Picture definitions are stored in a refresh buffer, and the
screen
reen is refreshed at the rate of 60 frames per second, as in the emissive devices. Back lighting
is also commonly applied using solidstate electronic devices, so that the system is not completely
dependent on outside light sources. Colors can be displayed by using different materials or dyes
and by placing a triad of color pixels at each screen location. Another method for constructing
LCDs is to place a transistor at each pixel location, using thin
thin-film
film transistor technology. The
transistors are used to control
ntrol the voltage at pixel locations and to prevent charge from gradually
leaking out of the liquid-crystal
crystal cells. These devices are called active
active-matrix
matrix displays.

Hand calculator with a LCD screen

The light-twisting,
twisting, shutter effect used in the design of most liquid crystal display devices.

INPUT DEVICES

• Keyboards, Button Boxes, and Dials

• Mouse Devices
• Trackball, Spaceball
• Joystick
• Data Gloves
• Digitizers
• Image Scanners
• Touch Panels
• Light Pens
• Voice Systems
HARD-COPY
COPY DEVICES

• Printers
• Plotters

Line Drawing Algorithms

A line connects two points. It is a basic element in graphics. To draw a line, you need two
points between which you can draw a line.
The DDA is a scan conversion line algorithm based on calculating either dy or dx. A line
issampled at unit intervals in one coordinate and corresponding integer values nearest the line
path are determined for other coordinates
coordinates.

Considering a line with positive sslope,

lope, if the slope is less than or equal to 1, we sample at unit x
intervals (dx=1) and compute successive y values as
Yk+1 =Yk + m

Subscript k takes integer values starting from 0, for the 1st point and incr
increases
eases by until end point
is reached. Y value is rounded off to nearest integer to correspond to a screen pixel.
For lines with slope greater than 1, we reverse the role of x and y i.e. we sample at dy=1 and
calculate consecutive x values as
X k+1 = X k + 1/m

Similar calculations are carried oout

ut to determine pixel positions along a line with negative slope.
Thus, if the absolute value of the slope is less than 1, we set dx=1 if i.e. the
starting extreme point is at the left.

Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA) line drawing algorithm

lgorithm

Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA) algorithm is the simple line generation algorithm which is
explained step by step here.
 • Get the input of two end points (X0, Y0) and (X1, Y1).
• Calculate the difference between two end points.
• Based on the calculated difference, you need to identify the number of steps to put pixel.
If dx >dy, then you need more steps in x coordinate; otherwise in y coordinate.
• Calculate the increment in x coordinate and y coordinate.
• Put the pixel by successfully incrementing x and y coordinates accordingly and complete
co
the drawing of the line.
Algorithm:

Advantages:

• It is the simplest algorithm and it does not require special skills for implementation.
• It is a faster method for calculating pixel positions than the direct use of equation y=mx +
b. It eliminates the multiplication in the equation by making use of raster characteristics,
so that appropriate increments are applied in the x or y direction to find the pixel
positions along the line path
path.

Disadvantages:

• Floating point arithmetic in DDA algorithm is still time

time-consuming.
• The algorithm is orientation dependent. Hence end point accuracy is poor.
Bresenham’s line drawing algorithmalgorithm

The Bresenham’s algorithm is another incremental scan conversion algorithm. The big
advantage of this algorithm is that, it uses only integer calculations. Moving across the x axis in
unit intervals and at each step choose between two different y coordinates.

For example, as shown in the following illustration, from position (2, 3) you need to choose
between (3, 3) and (3, 4). You would like the point that is closer to the original line.

At sample position Xk+1,the vertical separations from the mathematical line are labelled
as dupperand dlower.
Algorithm
procedurelineBresenham(xa, ya, xb, yb : integer)
var
dx,dy,x, y, xend, p : integer;
begin
dx=abs(xa-xb);
dy=abs(ya-yb);
p=2*dy-dx;
if(xa>xb) then
begin
x=xb;y=yb;xend=xa;
end
else
begin
x=xa; y=ya;xend=xb;
end;
putpixel(x,y,4);
while(x<=xend) do
begin
 x=x+1;
if (p<0) then
p=p+2*dy;
else
begin
y=y+1;
p=p+2*(dy-dx);
end;
putpixel(x,y,4);
end
end

Difference between DDA Line Drawing Algorithm and Bresenhams Line Drawing
Algorithm
Digital Differential Analyzer Line Bresenham’s Line Drawing Algorithm
Drawing Algorithm
Arithmetic DDA algorithm uses floating points i.e. Bresenham’s algorithm uses fixed points i.e.
Real Arithmetic. Integer Arithmetic
Operations DDA algorithm uses multiplication and Bresenham’s algorithm uses only subtraction
division in its operations. and addition in its operations.
Speed DDA algorithm is rather slowly than Bresenham’s algorithm is faster than DDA
Bresenham’s algorithm in line drawing algorithm in line drawing because it performs
because it uses real arithmetic (floating only addition and subtraction in its calculation
point operations) and uses only integer arithmetic so it runs
significantly faster.

Accuracy & DDA algorithm is not as accurate and Bresenham’s algorithm is more efficient and
Efficiency efficient as Bresenham’s algorithm much accurate than DDA algorithm.

Drawing DDA algorithm can draw circles and Bresenham’s algorithm can draw circles and
curves but that are not as accurate as curves with much more accuracy than DDA
Bresenham’salgorithm algorithm.

Round off DDA algorithm round off the coordinates Bresenham’s algorithm does not round but
to integer that is nearest to the line takes the incremental value in its operation.

Expensive DDA algorithm uses an enormous Bresenham’s algorithm is less expensive than
number of floating-point multiplications DDA algorithm as it uses only addition and
so it is expensive subtraction.
 CIRCLE DRAWING ALGORITHM
(Midpoint Circle drawing algorithm)
A Circle is defined as the set of points that are all at a given distance r from a
center position (xc,yc).
The distance relationship is expressed by Pythagorean theorem in Cartesian
coordinates as ,
(x-xc)2 – (y-yc)2=r2,
Therefore,

In parametric polar form,

The Circle function is given by,

fcircle(x,y)= x2+y2-r2 and
The Midpoint Circle algorithm is as follows:
Attributes of Output Primitives
 Antialiasing
Antialiasing is the smoothing of the image or sound roughness caused by aliasing . With images,
approaches include adjusting pixel positions or setting pixel intensities so that there is a more
gradual transition between the color of a line and the background color. With sound, aliases are
removed by eliminating frequencies above half the sampling frequencies.

Side effects of Scan Conversion

The most common side effects when working with raster devices are:
• Unequal Intensity
• Overstrike
• Aliasing
Unequal Intensity
Human perception of light is dependent on density and intensity of light source.Thus a
raster display with perfect squareness, a diagonal line of pixels will appear dimmer that a
horizontal or vertical line.
Solution:By increasing the number of pixels on diagonal lines.
Overstrike:
The same pixel is written more than once.
This results in intensified pixels in case of photographic media, such as slide or
transparency.
Solution:Check each pixel to see whether it has already been written to prior to writing a new
point.
Aliasing
The effect created when rasterization is performed over a discrete series of pixels.
In particular, when lines or edges do not necessarily align directly with arrow or column
of pixels, that line may appear unsmooth and have a stair-step edge appearance.
Jagged appearance of curves or diagonal lines on a display screen, which is caused by
low screen resolution.
Refers to the plotting of a point in a location other than its true location in order to fit the
point into the raster.
 Consider equation Y=mX+b
Y=mX+b, For m=0.5, b=1, X=3 ------ Y would be 2.5. So the point
(3, 2.5) is plotted at alias location (3,3).

Anti-Aliasing

The image on the right shows the result of anti

anti-aliasing
aliasing through the use of higher resolution.
Area Sampling
Determine the percentage of area coverage for a screen pixel, then set the pixel intensity
proportional to this percentage.
Consider a line as having thickness.
Consider pixels as little squares.
Unweighted area sampling: Fill pixels according to the proportion of their square covered
by the line.
Weighted area sampling: Weight the contribution according to where in the square the
primitives falls
 Area Sampling

UnweightedArea Sampling
Primitive cannot affect intensity of pixel if it does not intersect the pixel
pixel.
Equal areas cause equal intensity, regardless of distance from pixel center to area.
Unweighted sampling colors two pixels identically when the primitive cuts the same area
through the two pixels.
Intuitively, pixel cut through the center should be more heavily weighted than one cut
along corner.

Unweighted sampling
Filtering Techniques
A continuous weighting surface (or filter function) covering the pixel.
Applying the filter function by integrating over the pixel surface to obtain the weighted
average intensity
Weighted (Filter ) Function
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