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Beam-Penetration Method and The Shadow-Mask Method.: Computer Graphics Colour CRT Monitors

CRT monitors display color using phosphors that emit red, green, or blue light. There are two main methods for color CRTs: beam penetration and shadow mask. Beam penetration uses phosphor layers that emit different colors depending on the electron beam speed. It allows four colors but lower quality. Shadow mask CRTs have three electron guns and color dots aligned with a mask. Combining beam intensities produces colors, allowing millions of possible colors. Input devices for graphics include mice, keyboards, and other devices like trackballs and digitizers. Mice contain sensors to detect movement and buttons to select functions.

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Rokey Ahmed
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376 views

Beam-Penetration Method and The Shadow-Mask Method.: Computer Graphics Colour CRT Monitors

CRT monitors display color using phosphors that emit red, green, or blue light. There are two main methods for color CRTs: beam penetration and shadow mask. Beam penetration uses phosphor layers that emit different colors depending on the electron beam speed. It allows four colors but lower quality. Shadow mask CRTs have three electron guns and color dots aligned with a mask. Combining beam intensities produces colors, allowing millions of possible colors. Input devices for graphics include mice, keyboards, and other devices like trackballs and digitizers. Mice contain sensors to detect movement and buttons to select functions.

Uploaded by

Rokey Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computer Graphics

Lecture 4
Colour CRT Monitors
A CRT monitor displays colour pictures by using a combination of
phosphors that emit different-coloured light. By combining the emitted
light from the different phosphors, a range of colours can be generated.
The two basic techniques for producing colour displays with a CRT are the
Beam-penetration method and the Shadow-mask method.

The Beam-penetration method for displaying colour 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
colour 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 electrons 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 colours, orange and
yellow. The speed of the electrons, and hence the screen colour at any
point, is controlled by the beam-acceleration voltage. Beam penetration
has been an inexpensive way to produce colour in random-scan monitors,
but only four colours are possible, and the quality of pictures is not as good
as with other methods.

Shadow-mask methods are commonly used in raster scan systems


(including colour TV) because they produce a much wider range of colours
than the beam penetration method. A shadow-mask CRT has three
phosphor colour 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
of CRT has three electron guns, one for each colour dot, and a shadow-
mask grid just behind the phosphor-coated screen. Figure 2-4 illustrates
the delta-delta shadow-mask method, commonly used in colour CRT
systems. The three electron beams are deflected and focused as a group
onto the shadow mask, which contains a series of holes aligned with the
phosphor-dot patterns. When the three beams pass through a hole in the
shadow mask, they activate a dot triangle, which appears as a small colour
spot on the screen. The phosphor dots in the triangles are arranged so that
each electron beam can activate only its corresponding colour dot when it
passes through the shadow mask. Another configuration for the three
electron guns is an in-line arrangement in which the three electron guns,
and the corresponding red-green-blue colour dots on the screen, are
aligned along one scan line instead of in a triangular pattern. This in-line
arrangement of electron guns is easier to keep in alignment and is
commonly used in high-resolution colour CRTs.

Fig 2-4
We obtain colour variations in a shadow-mask CRT by varying the intensity
levels of the three electron beams. By turning off the red and green guns,
we get only the colour coming h m the blue phosphor. Other combinations
of beam intensities produce a small light spot for each pixel position, since
our eyes tend to merge the three colours into one composite. The colour
we see depends on the amount of excitation of the red, green, and blue
phosphors. A white (or grey) 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, and cyan shows up when
blue and green are activated equally. In some low-cost systems, the
electron beam can only be set to on or off, limiting displays to eight colours.
More sophisticated systems can set intermediate intensity levels for the
electron beams, allowing several million different colours to be generated.

INPUT DEVICES
Various devices are available for data input on graphics workstations. Most
systems have a keyboard and one or more additional devices specially
designed for interactive input. These include a mouse, trackball, space ball,
joystick, digitizers, dials, and button boxes. Some other input devices used
in particular applications are data gloves, touch panels, image scanners,
and voice systems.

Mouse
A mouse is small hand-held box used to position the screen cursor. Wheels
or rollers on the bottom of the mouse can be used to record the amount
and direction of movement. Another method for detecting mouse motion
is with an optical sensor. For these systems, the mouse is moved over a
special mouse pad that has a grid of horizontal and vertical lines. The
optical sensor detects movement across the lines in the grid.
Since a mouse can be picked up and put down at another position without
change in cursor movement, it is used for making relative change in the
position of the screen cursor. One, two, or three buttons are usually
included on the top of the mouse for signalling the execution of some
operation, such as recording cursor position or invoking a function. Mast
general-purpose graphics systems now include a mouse and a keyboard as
the major input devices

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