(video display device)

Computer Graphics has become a common element in today’s modern world. Be it in user
interfaces, or data visualization, motion pictures etc, computer graphics plays an important role.
The primary output device in a graphics system is a video monitor. Although many technologies
exist, but the operation of most video monitors is based on the standard Cathode Ray Tube
(CRT) design.
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) –
A cathode ray tube (CRT) is a specialized vacuum tube in which images are produced when an
electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface.It modulates, accelerates, and deflects electron
beam(s) onto the screen to create the images. Most desktop computer displays make use of CRT
for image displaying purposes.
Image source – physics.usyd
Construction of a CRT –
1. The primary components are the heated metal cathode and a control grid.
2. The heat is supplied to the cathode (by passing current through the filament). This way the electrons
get heated up and start getting ejected out of the cathode filament.
3. This stream of negatively charged electrons is accelerated towards the phosphor screen by
supplying a high positive voltage.
4. This acceleration is generally produced by means of an accelerating anode.
5. Next component is the Focusing System, which is used to force the electron beam to converge to
small spot on the screen.
6. If there will not be any focusing system, the electrons will be scattered because of their own
repulsions and hence we won’t get a sharp image of the object.
7. This focusing can be either by means of electrostatic fields or magnetic fields.
Types Of Deflection:
1. Electrostatic Deflection –
The electron beam (cathode rays) passes through a highly positively charged metal cylinder that
forms an electrostatic lens. This electrostatic lens focuses the cathode rays to the center of the
screen in the same way like an optical lens focuses the beam of light. Two pairs of parallel plates
are mounted inside the CRT tube.
2. Magnetic Deflection –
Here, two pairs of coils are used. One pair is mounted on the top and bottom of the CRT tube, and
the other pair on the two opposite sides. The magnetic field produced by both these pairs is such
that a force is generated on the electron beam in a direction which is perpendicular to both the
direction of magnetic field, and to the direction of flow of the beam. One pair is mounted
horizontally and the other vertically.

Now as this highly energetic beam strikes the surface of the screen, these electrons are stopped
and their kinetic energy is absorbed by the phosphor screen (atoms). Some energy is wasted in
heat also, but majority of the kinetic energy gets transferred to the phosphor atoms. As these
atoms receive this huge amount of energy, they get excited to a higher energy level.
After a short time, these atoms start returning to their original energy level. The original level is
at a lower energy level than the excited one, hence the atoms release some energy while coming
down. This extra energy is dissipated in the form of small quantums of light. Thus the de-
excitation results in a bright coloured spot on the screen. The frequency (color) of the spot
depends on the difference between the two energy levels (excited level and ground state level).
Different kinds of phosphors are used in a CRT. The difference is based upon the time for how
long the phosphor continues to emit light after the CRT beam has been removed. This property is
referred to as Persistence. Basically persistence means how much time is taken by the emitted
light to reduce to one-tenth of its original intensity. Now, phosphors with lower persistence
require higher refresh rates to maintain a picture on the screen without any flicker.
Reference: Computer Graphics by Pauline Baker

Cathode Ray Tube

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

The operation of CRT is very simple −

 The electron gun emits a beam of electrons (cathode rays).

 The electron beam passes through focusing and deflection systems that direct it
towards specified positions on the phosphor-coated 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.
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.
Beam Penetration Method
 This method is used in random scan monitors.
 In this method , only two layers of phosphors are coated onto the CRT screen. (RED & GREEN)
 Beam penetration method is only able to produce 4 colors.
 A beam of electrons penetrates through the red layer and excites the inner green layer which in
intermediate produces the Orange and Yellow color.
 It gives high resolution of the image.
 It is less costly as compared to shadow mask.
 The color of the image depends on how far the electrons excite the outer RED layer and Inner
GREEN Layer.

The Quality of the pictures with the Beam penetration method is not good as with other method.

Shadow Mask Method

 This method is used in Raster scan monitors.
 In this method , CRT has three phosphor color dots at each pixel position. One dot emits a RED
light, another emits a GREEN light and third emits a BLUE light.
 With shadow mask method , millions of colors can be generated.
 This type of CRT has Three electron guns , one for each color dot, and a shadow mask grid just
behind the phosphor- coated screen.
 It gives low resolution of images.
 It is more expensive than other methods.
 In this Method, there are no such criteria for producing colors. It is used in computers, color TV
etc.
The quality of the images is far better then the beam penetration method.

ATTRIBUTES

LINE ATTRIBUTES

Basic attributes of a straight line segment are its type, its width, and its color. In
some graphics packages, lines can also be displayed using selected pen or brush
options.
Line Type
line-type attribute - solid lines, dashed lines, and dotted lines.
We modify a line drawing algorithm to generate such lines by setting the length
and spacing of displayed solid sections along the line path.

A dashed line could be displayed by generating an interdash spacing that is equalto

the length of the solid sections. Both the length of the dashes and the
interdashspacing are often specified as user options. A dotted line can be displayed
bygenerating very short dashes with the spacing equal to or greater than the dash
size. Similar methods are used to produce other line-type variations.

To set line type attributes in a PHICS application program, a user invokes the
function

setLinetype (It)

where parameter I t is assigned a positive integer value of 1,2,3, or 4 to generate

lines that are, respectively, solid, dashed, dotted, or dash-dotted.

Line Width

We set the line-width attribute with the command: Line-width parameter lr. is
assigned a positive number to indicate the relative width of the line to be displayed.
A value of 1 specifies a standard-width line. On.

For lines with slope magnitude greater than 1, we can plot thick lines
withhorizontal spans, alternately picking up pixels to the right and left of the
linepath.
Problem with implementing width options using horizontal or vertical pixel spans
is that the method produces lines whose ends are horizontal or vertical regardless
of the slope of the line. This effect is more noticeable with very thick lines. We
can adjust the shape of the line ends to give them a better appearance by adding
line caps

One kind of line cap is the butt cap obtained by adjusting the end positions of the
component parallel lines so that the thick line is displayed with square ends that
are perpendicular to the line path. If the specified line has slope m, the square end
of the thick line has slope - l / m .

Another line cap is the round cap obtained by adding a filled semicircle to eachbutt
cap. The circular arcs are centered on the line endpoints and have a diameterequal
to the line thickness.

A third type of line cap is the projecting square cap.Here, we simply extend the
line and add butt caps that are positioned one-half ofthe line width beyond the
specified endpoints.

We can generate thick polylines that are smoothly joined at the cost of additional
processing at the segment endpoints.

A miter join is accomplished by extending the outer boundaries of each of the two
linesuntil they meet.
A round join is produced by capping the connection between the two segments
with a circular boundary whose diameter is equal to the linewidth.
And a bevel join is generated by displaying the line segments with butt caps and
filling in the triangular gap where the segments meet.

Pen and Brush Options

lines can be displayed with pen or brush selections. Options in this category
include shape, size, and pattern.

These shapes can be stored in a pixel mask that identifies the array of pixel
positions that are to be set along the line path. Lines generated with pen (or brush)
shapes canbe displayed in various widths by changing the size of the mask.

Line Color

When a system provides color (or intensity) options, a parameter giving the current

color index is included in the list of system-attribute values. A polyline

routinedisplays a line in the current color by setting this color value in the
framebuffer at pixel locations along the line path using the setpixelprocedure.

The number of color choices depends on the number of bits available per pixel in
theframe buffer.We set the line color value in PHlCS with the function
Set PolylineColourIndex (le)
AREA FILL ATTRIBUTES