BCA-V

US05DBCA21
COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Devotion Towards Humanity...

UNIT: 1 BCA: 5th SEMESTER US05DBCA021: Computer Graphics
Unit: 1: Introduction of Computer Graphics
− A survey of major applications of Computer Graphics
− Overview of different video display Devices: CRT, Raster scan, Color Monitors, DVST, Flat Panels
− Input Devices: Keyboard, mouse, Trackball, Space ball, Joystick, Data Glove, Digitizers, Image
Scanner, Touch Panel, Light pen & Voice system,

 A survey of major applications of Computer Graphics

The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or sound.
Today almost every computer can do some graphics, and people have even come to expect to control
their computer through icons and pictures rather than just by typing.
A Survey of Computer Graphics Applications:
1. Computer Aided Design
2. Presentation Graphics
3. Computer Art
4. Entertainment
5. Education and Training
6. Visualization
7. Image Processing
8. Graphical User Interface

1. Computer Aided Design

 A major use of computer graphics is in design processes, particularly for engineering and
architectural systems.
 Computer-aided design (CAD) methods are now used in design of automobiles, buildings,
aircraft, and many other products.
 For some applications, objects are first displayed as wireframes that shows the overall shape and
internal features of objects.
 Software packages for CAD applications generally a multi-window setting where various
windows can show enlarged sections or different views of objects.
 Animations are also used in CAD applications.

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  When object designs are complete, or nearly complete, realistic lighting and surface rendering
(creating outer bodies of objects) are applied to produce displays that will show the appearance of
final product.
 Architects use interactive graphics methods to draw floor layout plans, such as, showing the
positioning of rooms, doors, windows, stairs, and other building features.
 Also electrical wiring, fire warning systems, etc can also be drawn.

2. Presentation Graphics
 Its used to summaries financial, statistical, mathematical, scientific and economic data for research
reports, managerial reports and other types of reports.
 To generate 35-mm slides or transparencies for use with projectors.
 Typical examples of presentation graphics are bar charts, line graphs, surface graphs, pie charts,
etc. showing relationships between multiple parameters.
 Task planning, Time chart, Schedule Chart, and task network layouts are used in project
management to schedule and monitor the progress of projects.

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3. Computer Art
 Computer graphics are widely used in both fine and commercial art applications.
 Artists use a variety of computer methods, including special-purpose hardware, paintbrush
programs, mathematical packages, animation packages, etc that provides facilities for designing
object shapes and specifying object motions.
 The picture is usually painted electronically on a graphics tablet using a stylus, which can stimulate
different brush strokes, brush widths and colors.
 Some software allows the artist to create watercolor, pastel or oil brush effects that stimulate
different drying times.
 Some computer technologies use 3-Dimensional modeling packages, texture mapping etc.
Fig…

4. Entertainment
 Computer graphics methods are commonly used in making motion pictures, music videos and
television shows.
 Sometimes the graphic scenes are displayed alone and sometimes graphics objects are combined
with the actors and live scenes.
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  Scenes can be generated using advanced modelling, surface rendering and other image processing
techniques.
 Graphics and image processing techniques can be used to produce a transformation of one person
or object to another, known as “Morphing”.
Fig…

5. Education and Training

 For some training applications, special systems are designed, such as simulators for practice
sessions or training of aircraft pilots, heavy-equipment operators, ship captains and air traffic
control personnel.
 Most simulators provides graphics screens for visual operations and control panel.

 Computer generated models of physical system, population trends, financial system, economic
systems or equipment are often used as educational aids.

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 Fig.

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6. Visualization
 Scientists, engineers, medical personnel, business analysts and other often need to analyze large
amount of information to study the behavior of certain processes.
 Scanning large amount of data to determine various results is a difficult and time-consuming
process. But if the data are converted to a visual form, the results can be easily assessed.
 Producing graphical representations for scientific, engineering and medical data and processes is
referred to as “Scientific Visualization”.

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7. Image Processing
 Image processing applies techniques to modify or interpret existing pictures.
 Image processing can be applied for improving picture quality.
 To apply image-processing methods, we first digitize a picture into and image file. Then various
methods can be applied to rearrange picture parts, to enhance color separations or to improve the
quality of shading.
 These techniques are used in commercial art applications that involve the retouching and
rearranging of parts of photographs.
 Image processing is also applicable in satellite photos, medical applications, etc.
Fig…

8. Graphical User Interface

 Most software packages have the Graphical Interface. A major component of the graphical
interface is a window.
 User can display multiple windows.
 Each window can contain different process.
 To make a particular window active, we click in that window using some interactive pointing
device.
 Graphical interfaces also display menus and icons.
 An icon is a graphical symbols that is designed to process some options.
 The advantages of icons are that they take up less space and are easy to understand.
 Menus contain texture description and icons.

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 Fig…

 Overview of different video display Devices: CRT, Raster scan, Color

Monitors, DVST, Flat Panels
1. CRT
2. Raster Scan Display
3. Color monitor
4. DVST
5. Flat Panels

1. Cathode-Ray Tubes (CRT)

 A beam of electrons(cathode rays), emitted by an electron gun, passes through focusing and
deflection systems that direct the beam toward specified positions on the phosphor coated screen.
 The phosphor then emits a small spot of light at each position contacted by the electron beam.
Because the light emitted by the phosphor fades very rapidly.
 The picture is redrawn repeatedly by quickly directing the electron beam back over the same
points. This type of display is called a “Refresh CRT”.
 Operation of an electron gun with an accelerating anode

Electron Gun: It generates electrons whenever metal cathode is heated by filament by passing
current in it.
Control Grid: Setting voltage levels on the control grid controls intensity of the electron beam.

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  A high negative voltage applied to the control grid will shut off the electron beam by
repelling through the grid.
 Since the amount of light emitted by the phosphor coating depends on the number of
electrons striking the screen.
 We control the brightness of a display by varying the voltage on the control grid.
A Basic design of a magnetic-deflection CRT.

Focusing System: The focusing system in a CRT is needed to force the electron beam to join into
a small spot as it strikes the phosphor screen.
Deflection Plates: Similarly, deflection of the electron beam can be controlled by electric or
magnetic fields. Horizontal deflection is done by a pair of deflection coils and vertical deflection
by another pair of coils.
Phosphorous coating: When the electrons in the beam collide with the phosphor coating, the
phosphor coating glows. Different kinds of phosphors are available for use in a CRT.
 After the CRT beam is removed, the amount of time phosphor continues to emit light is
known as the “Persistence”.
 Lower persistence phosphors require higher refresh rates to maintain a picture on screen
without a flicker.
 A phosphors with low persistence is useful for animations.
 And high persistence is useful for static and complex pictures.
 The maximum number of points that can be displayed without overlap on a CRT is referred
to as the “Resolution”.
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  The number of points per centimeter that can be plotted horizontally and vertically or we can
say resolution means total number of points in each directions.
 Resolution of CRT is depends on the type of phosphor, the intensity to be displayed and the
focusing and deflection systems.
 The ratio of vertical points to horizontal points necessary to produce equal- length lines in
both directions on the screen property is called “Aspect Ratio”.

2. Raster scan Display

 In a raster-scan system, the electron beam moves 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 a memory are called the “Refresh Buffer” or “Frame Buffer.”
 This memory area hold the set of intensity values for all screen points.
 Stored intensity values are then taken back from the refresh buffer and put on the screen one
row at a time.
 Each screen points is referred to as a “Pixel” or “Picture Element”.
 In a simple black and white system each pixel is either turned on or off, so only one bit per
pixel is needed to control the intensity value per pixel position.
 On a black and white system, frame buffer store one bit per pixel that is known as “bitmap”.
 In color system frame buffer stores multiple bits per pixel then it is referred to as “pixmap”.
 Refreshing on raster-scan displays is carried out at the rate of 60 to 80 times per second.
 At the end of each scan line, the electron beam returns to the top left corner of the screen
from bottom right corner to begin the next frame.

 Scanning of the screen from top left to bottom right once is referred to as one “frame”.
 This is known as the “Vertical Retrace”.
 Figure showing scan lines, horizontal retrace and vertical retrace in a Raster-Scan Display
 On some raster-scan systems, each frame is displayed in two passes using an “Interlacing”
procedure.
 Figure showing interlacing scan lines on raster-scan display, First all solid scan lines are displayed
then dashed scan lines are displayed.

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  Interlacing allows us to see the entire screen displayed in half the time it would have taken to
sweep across all the lines at once from top to bottom.
 Interlacing is mainly used with slower refreshing rates as it can reduce flicker caused due to slow
refresh rates.
 On non-interlaced display having 30 Hz refresh rate, some flickers developed on the screen.
 But with interlacing each of the two pass can be accomplished in 1.60th of a second.

 Random Scan / Stroke Writing / Calligraphic Display(Unit-2)

 In random-scan display systems, a CRT have the electron beam directed only to the parts of the
screen where a picture is to be drawn.
 Random scan monitor draw a picture one line at a time. So they are also known as “Vector
Display” or “Stroke-Writing Display” or “Calligraphic Displays”.
 The lines of a picture can be drawn and refreshed in any order randomly.
 Picture definition is stored as a set of line-drawing commands in a memory referred to as the
“Refresh Display File” or “Display File” or “Display Program” or “Refresh Buffer”.
 To display the specified picture, the system draws each line from the display file refresh rate
depends on the number of lines to be displayed.
 Random –scan displays are designed draw all the component lines of picture 30 to 60 frames per
second.
 Random-scan systems are designed for line-drawing applications and cannot display shaded
scenes, but have higher resolution than raster system.
 Also, random-scan displays produce smooth line drawings.

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 3. Color CRT Monitor
 A CRT monitor displays color picture by using combination of phosphor that emit different
colored light.
i. Beam Penetration Method:
 The beam penetration method for displaying color picture is generally used with random-scan
monitors.
 Two layers of phosphor, generally red and green, are coated onto the inside of the CRT
screen, and the displayed color depends on how far the electron beam passes into the
phosphor layers.
 A beam of slow electrons strikes only the outer red layer while a very fast beam will pass
through green generate two additional colors, orange and yellow.
 The disadvantage of beam penetration method is that it produce only four colors, and quality
of pictures is not as good as other methods.
ii. Shadow Mask Method:
 Shadow-mask method is commonly used in raster-scan systems 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 of CRT has three electron guns, one for each color dot, and a shadow-mask grid
just behind the phosphor-coated screen.

 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 color spot on the screen.
 This arrangement is known as delta-delta method.
 If three dots are in-line (OOO) this arrangement is known as in-line arrangement and is
commonly used in high-resolution color CRTs.
 We obtain color 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 color coming from the blue phosphor.
 Other combinations of beam intensities produce a small light spot for each pixel position,
Since our eyes merges the three colors into one.
 The color we see depends on the amount of electrons that strike red, green and blue
phosphors.
 Color systems in graphics systems are known as RGB Monitors or True Color System.

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 4. DVST (DIRECT VIEW STORAGE Tubes)
 An alternate method for maintaining a screen image is to store the picture information inside
the CRT instead of refreshing the screen.
 A DVST stores the picture information as a charge distribution just behind the phosphor-
coated screen.
 Two electron guns are used in a DVST. One the primary gun, is used to store the picture
pattern; the second, the flood gun, maintains the picture display.
 Advantage: As no refreshing is needed, very complex pictures can be displayed at very high
resolutions without flicker.
 Disadvantage: DVST systems do not display color and that selected parts of the screen or
complex picture cannot be erased.

5. Flat Panels
 Flat panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume, weight, and
power requirements compared to CRT.
 Plus they are thinner than CRTs, and we can easily hang them on walls or wear them on our
wrists.
 Examples of Flat panel displays are small TV monitors, calculators, pocket video games,
laptop computers, armrest viewing of movies on airlines, an advertisement boards in
elevators.
 There are two categories: Emissive display and Non-emissive displays.
 Emissive display: that converts electrical energy into lights.
1. Example are Plasma panels,
2. thin-film electroluminescent displays and
3. light-emitting diodes.(LED)
 Non-emissive display: that use optical effects to convert sunlight or light from some other
source into graphics patterns.
1. Examples are Liquid – Crystal device.(LCD)

Plasma panels also called gas-discharge displays, are constructed by filling the region between
two glass plates with a mixture of two gases that usually includes neon.
A series of vertical conducting ribbons is placed on one glass panel and a set of horizontal ribbons is
built into the other glass panel.
Firing voltages applied to a pair of horizontal and vertical conductors to break down into a glowing
plasma of electrons.
Picture definition is stored in refresh buffer, and the firing voltages are applied to refresh the pixel
positions 60 times per second
Advantage: it is capable of displaying color and gray scale.
Disadvantage: they were strictly monochromatic devices

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 Thin-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 a zinc sulfide
doped with manganese, instead of gas.
When a sufficiently high voltage is applied to a pair of crossing electrodes, the phosphor becomes a
conductor in the area of the intersection of two electronodes
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.

Disadvantage: electroluminescent displays require more power than plasma panels

Good color and gray scale displays are hard to achieve.

LED(Light Emitting Diode):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 refresh buffer.
As in scan-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.

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 Liquid crystal display(LCD) are commonly used in a small system, calculator, laptop
computers.
These non-emissive devices produce a picture by passing polarized light from the surrounding or
from an internal light source through a liquid-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.
Rows of horizontal transparent conductors are built into one glass plate, and columns of vertical
conductors are put into the other plate.
The intersection of two conductors defines a pixel position.
Normally, the molecules are aligned as shown in the “on state” of figure.
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 device is referred as passive matrix LCD.
Picture definition is stored refresh buffer.
Another method for constructing LCD is to place a transistor at each pixel location, using thin-film
transistor technology.
The transistors are used to control the voltage at pixel location and to prevent charge gradually
leaking out of the liquid crystal cells. These devices are called active matrix display

 Input Devices: Keyboard, mouse, Trackball, Spaceball, Joystick, Data

Glove, Digitizers, Image Scanner, Touch Panel, Light pen & Voice
system,
 Keyboard
 It is a primary device. It is an efficient device for inputting such nongraphic data.
 Cursor control keys and functions keys, numeric keypad are common features on general purpose
keyboards.
 Other input devices may be included on keyboard.
 For specialized applications, input to a graphics application may come from a set of buttons, dials
or switches that select data values or customized graphics operations.
 Alphanumeric Keypad: It consists of keys for English alphabets, 0 to 9 numbers and special
characters like + - / * {}, [],() etc.
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  Function keys: There are twelve function keys labeled F1,F2,F3,…..F12.
 The functions assigned to these keys differ from one software package to another.
 These keys are also user programmable keys.
 Special-function Keys: These keys have special functions assigned to them and can be used only
for those specific purpose.
 Numeric Keypad: Numeric keypad is located on the right side of the keyboard and consists of
keys having numbers (0 to 9 ) and mathematical operators (+,-,/,*) defined on them.
 Cursor Movement Keys: These are arrow keys and are used to move the cursor in the direction
indicated by the arrow (up, down, left, right).

 Mouse
 A mouse is small hand held box used to position the screen cursor.
 Wheels or rollers on bottom of the mouse can be used to record the amount and direction of
movement.

 The another method for detecting mouse motion is with an optical sensor.
 With this system, 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.
 One, two or three buttons are usually included at the top of the mouse for signaling the execution
of some operations like recording cursor position or invoking a function.
 Additional devices can be included in the basic mouse design to increase the number of
allowable input parameters.
 The “Z mouse” includes three buttons, a thumbwheel on the side, a trackball on the top, and a
standard mouse ball underneath.
 This design provides six degree of freedom to select spatial position, rotations and other
parameters.
 Applications of the z mouse include virtual reality, CAD, and animation.

 Trackball

 A Trackball is a ball that can be rotated with fingers or palm of the hand, to produce screen
cursor movement.
 Potentiometers attached to the ball, measure the amount and direction of rotation.
 Trackballs are also mounted on keyboards or other devices. It is 2-dimensional position device
such as Z mouse.

 Spaceball
 It provides 6 degree of freedom, unlike the trackball, it does not actually move.

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  Strain gauges measure the amount of pressure applied to the spaceball to provide input for spatial
positioning and orientation as the ball is pushed or pulled in various directions.
 They are used for 3 dimensional positioning and selection operations in virtual reality systems,
modeling, animation, CAD and other applications.

 Joystick

 It consists of a small vertical lever (call stick) mounted on a base that is used to steer the screen
cursor around.
 Most joy sticks select screen position with actual stick movements;
 other respond to pressure on the stick.
 Some joysticks are mounted on a key-board.

 Data Glove

 It can be used to grasp a virtual object.

 The glove is constructed with a series of sensors that detects hand and finger motions.
 Each sensor has a LED and photo-transistor.
 Electromagnetic coupling between transmitting antenna and receiving antenna is used to provide
information about the position and orientation on the hand .
 The antennas can be structured as a set of three mutually perpendicular coils, forming a three
dimensional Cartesian co-ordinate system.
 Input from the glove can be used to position or manipulate objects in a virtual space.
 A two dimensional projection of the scan can be viewed on a video monitor or a three
dimensional projector can be viewed with a hand set.
 Digitizers
 It is a common device for painting or interaction, selecting coordinate positions on an object.
 These devices can be used to input coordinate values in either 2 or 3 dimensional space.
 One type of digitizer is the graphic tablet, which is used to input 2 dimensional coordinate by
activating a hand cursor or stylus at selected positions on a flat surface.

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  A hand cursor contains cross hairs for sighting positions, while a stylus is a pencil shaped device
that is pointed at positions on the tablet.
 Tablet size varies from 12 by 12 inches for desktop models to 44 by 60 inches or larger for floor
models.
 Graphics tablet provide a highly accurate method for selecting coordinate positions with an
accuracy that varies from about 0.2 mm.
 On desktop models to about 0.05 mm or less on larger models.
 Many graphic tablets are constructed with a rectangular grid of wires embedded in a tablet
surface.
 Electromagnetic pulses are generated in sequence along the wires and electrical signal is induced
in a wire coil in an activated stylus or hand cursor to record a cursor position.
 Depending on the technology either
 signal strength,
 coded pulses or
 Phase shifts can be used to determine the position on the tablet.
 A coustic (Sonic) tablets use sound waves to detect a position.

 Image Scanners
 Drawing, graphs, color and black and white photographs or text can be stored for computer
processing with an image scanner by passing an optical scanning mechanism over the
information to be stored.
 The gradation of gray scale or color are then recorded and stored in array.
 Once we have the internal representation of a picture we can apply transformations to rotate,
scale or crope the picture to a particular screen area.
 We can also apply other various image processing methods to modify the array representation of
the picture.

 Touch Panels
 It allows displayed objects or screen positions to be selected with the touch of finger.
 An electrical touch panel is constructed with 2 transparent plates separated by a small distance.
 One of the plate is coated with a conducting material and other plate is coated with a resistive
material.
 When the output plate is touched it is forced into contact with the inner plate.

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  This contact creates a voltage drop across the resistive plate, that is converted to the coordinate
values of the selected screen position.
 In acoustical touch panels high frequency sound waves generated in the horizontal & vertical
directions across a glass plate.
 Touching the screen causes part of each wave to be reflected from the finger to the emitters.
 The screen position at the point of contact is calculated form a measurement of the time interval
between the transmission of each wave and its reflection to the emitter.

 Light Pens

 It is a light detector.
 Such pencil shaped device are used to select screen positions by detecting the light coming from
points on the CRT screen.
 They are sensitive to the short burst of light emitted from the phosphor coating at the instant the
electron beam strikes a particular point. Other light sources such as background light in the room,
are usually not detected by a light pen.
 An activated light pen pointed at a spot on the screen, as the electron beam lights up that spot,
generates an electrical pulse that causes the coordinate position of the electron beam to be
recorded.
 As with cursor-positioning device, recorded light-pen coordinates can be used to position an object
or to select a processing option.
 Several disadvantages compared to other input devices that have been developed.
1. When a light pen is pointed at the screen, part of the screen is obscured by the hand and
pen.
2. Prolonged use of the light pen can cause arm fatigue.
3. Light pen requires special implementations for some applications because they cannot
detect positions within black areas.
4. To be able to select positions in any screen area with a light pen, we must have some
nonzero intensity assigned to each pixel position.
5. 4. Light pens sometimes give false readings due to background lighting in a room.

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 Voice System

 Speech recognizers are used in workstation as input devices to accept voice commands.
 The voice system input can be used to initiate graphics operation or to enter data.
 These systems operate by matching an input against a predefined dictionary of words and phase.
 A dictionary is a set up for a particular operator by having the operator speak the command words
to be used into the system.
 Each word is spoken several times and the system analyzes the word and establishes a frequency
pattern for that word in the dictionary along with the corr. Function to be performed.
 When voice command is given the system searches the dictionary for a frequency pattern match.
 Voice input is typically spoken into a microphone mounted on a handset.
 The microphone is designed to minimize input of other background sounds
 If a different operator is to use the system the dictionary must be reestablished with that operator’s
voice patterns.

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