Chapter2

Graphics Hardware, Output

Device and Input Device

Dr. Md Zahidul Islam

Professor
Dept of Computer Science and Engineering

© 2005 Pearson Education

Overview of Graphics Systems

• Video Display Devices

• Input Devices
• Raster-Scan Systems
• Graphics Software
Video Display Devices

• Cathode-ray tube (CRT) Monitor

• Rater-Scan Displays
• Random-Scan Displays
• Color CRT Monitors
• Flat-Panel Displays
Cathode-ray tube (CRT) Monitors

• Primary output device – Video monitors

– Standard design of video monitor:
Cathode-ray tube (CRT)
Cathode-ray tube (CRT) Monitors

© 2005 Pearson Education

Display Technologies
Cathode-ray tube (CRT) Monitors

– Refresh CRT
• Beam of electrons hit phosphor-coated screen, light
emitted by phosphor
• Direct electron beam to the same screen repeatedly,
keeping phosphor activated
• The frequency at which a picture is redrawn on the
screen is referred to as the “refresh rate”
• The maximum number of points that can be displayed
on a CRT is referred to as the “resolution”
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution
• Display principle
– Raster Scan Display Principle
– Random Scan Display Principle

© 2005 Pearson Education

 CRT Display Principles

• Raster-Scan Displays
– Based on TV technology
• Electron beam swept
across screen one row
at a time from top to
bottom
• Each row is referred to
as a scan line

© 2005 Pearson Education

CRT Display Principles

• Raster-Scan Displays
– Picture elements: screen point referred as “Pixel”
– Picture information stored in refresh (frame) buffer

© 2005 Pearson Education

CRT Display Principles

• Raster-Scan Displays
– Picture information stored in refresh (frame) buffer
• The number of bits per pixel in the frame buffer is
called depth or bit planes
• Buffer with 1 bit per pixel – Bitmap
• Buffer with multiple bits per pixel – Pixmap
– Interlaced refresh procedure
• Beams sweeps across every other scan line
• A frame buffer is
characterized by size, x, y,
and pixel depth.
• the resolution of a frame
buffer isBuffer
Frame the number of
pixels in the display. e.g.
1024x1024 pixels. Bilevel or monochrome displays
• Bit Planes or Bit Depth is have 1 bit/pixel
the number of bits
8bits/pixel -> 256 simultaneous colors
corresponding to each
pixel. This determines the 24bits/pixel -> 16 million simultaneous
color resolution of the colors
buffer.
 Specifying Color

• direct color : 8
– each pixel directly
specifies a color value
8
• e.g., 24bit :
8bits(R) + 8bits(G)
+ 8 bits(B) 8 Re
d
• palette-based color :
Gree
indirect specification n Blu
– use palette (CLUT) e

• e.g., 8 bits pixel

can represent 256 24 bits plane, 8 bits per
colors color gun.
224 = 16,777,216
Refresh Rates and Bandwidth

• Frames per second (FPS)

Interlaced Scanning

• Scan frame 30 times per second

• To reduce flicker, divide frame into two fields—one
consisting of the even scan lines and the other of the
odd scan lines.
• Even and odd fields are scanned out alternately to
produce an interlaced image.
Aspect Ratio

Frame aspect ratio (FAR) = horizontal/vertical size

TV 4:3
HDTV 16:9
Page 8.5:11 ~ 3/4

Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) = FAR vres/hres

Nuisance in graphics if not 1
CRT Display Principles

• Random-Scan Display Principles

– Calligraphic Displays also called vector, stroke or line drawing
graphics
– Electron beam directed only to the points of picture
to be displayed.
– Vector displays, electron beams trace out lines to generate
pictures
– Picture stores as a set of line-drawing commands
• Storage referred as display list, refresh display file, vector
file or display program
CRT Display Principles

• Sample of Random-Scan displays principles

 CRT Display Principles

• Images are described in terms of line segments rather than pixels

• Display processor cycles through the commands
[1]-23

Graphics: Main Components

• Theory
– Analytical Geometry
– Vectors and Matrices
• Algorithms
– Eg: Line drawing, Filling etc.
• Implementation
– Programming (OpenGL)

RM
[1]-24

Graphics Hardware
• Line Drawing Devices:
– Eg. Pen Plotters
– Advantages: Perfect lines, Sharp Diagrams
– Disadvantages: Not suitable for filled regions.

RM
[1]-25

Graphics Hardware
• Raster Devices: Create pictures by displaying dots
– Eg: Video monitor, dot-matrix printer, laser printer, ink-jet
printer, film recorder
– Advantages: Filled, shaded regions are easily displayed
– Disadvantages: Jaggies

Pixel

RM
[1]-26

Pixel Depth
• Pixel depth refers to the number of bits used to
represent a pixel value.

1 bit/pixel: 0 2 Levels
(Bi-level image)
1

2 bits/pixel: 0 0 4 Levels

0 1

1 0

1 1

RM
[1]-27

Pixel Depth

– 1 bit per pixel produce 2 levels (bi-level

image).
– 2 bits per pixel produce 4 levels.
– 8 bits per pixel produce 256 levels.

• In general, if the pixel depth is n, then

it is possible to have 2n levels.

RM
[1]-28

Raster Display

• Most display used for computer graphics nowadays

are raster displays.
• Image presented in display surface that contains
certain number of pixels. Eg. 480 x 640 (r x c).
• Frame buffer is a region of memory sufficiently large to
hold all the pixel values for display.

RM
Pros and Cons

• Advantages to Raster Displays

– lower cost
– filled regions/shaded images
• Disadvantages to Raster Displays
– a discrete representation, continuous primitives
must be scan-converted (i.e. fill in the appropriate
scan lines)
– Aliasing or "jaggies" Arises due to sampling error
when converting from a continuous to a discrete
representation
Comparing Raster and Vector (1/2)

• advantages of vector:
– very fine detail of line drawings (sometimes curves), whereas
raster suffers from jagged edge problem due to pixels
(aliasing, quantization errors)
– geometry objects (lines) whereas raster only handles pixels
– eg. 1000 line plot: vector disply computes 2000 endpoints
– raster display computes all pixels on each line
Comparing Raster and Vector (2/2)

• advantages of raster:
– cheaper
– colours, textures, realism
– unlimited complexity of picture: whatever you put in
refresh buffer, whereas vector complexity limited by
refresh rate
Color CRT Monitors

• Using a combination of phosphors that emit

different-colored light
• Beam-penetration
– Used in random-scan monitors
– Use red and green phosphors layers
– Color depends on the penetrated length of electrons
• Shadow mask
– Used in raster-scan systems
– Produce wide range of color with RGB color model
Color CRT Monitors

• Color CRTs are much more complicated

– Requires manufacturing very precise geometry
– Uses a pattern of color phosphors on the screen:

Delta electron gun arrangement In-line electron gun arrangement

http://www.udayton.edu/~cps/cps460/notes/displ
ays/
 Color CRT Monitors

• Operation of delta-delta, shadow mask CRT

Flat-Panel Displays

• A class of video devices that have reduced volume,

weight and power requirement compared with CRT
• Two main categories
– Emissive Displays
• Convert electrical energy to light energy
• e.g. Plasma panels
– Non-emissive Displays
• Use optical effects to convert light from other sources
into graphics patterns
• e.g. LCD monitors
Plasma Panel Display

• Plasma panels (gas-discharge display)

– Contracted by filling the region between two glass plates
with a mixture of gases
– Refresh buffer used to store picture information
– Firing voltages applied to refresh the pixel positions
Liquid-crystal Displays

• Liquid-crystal displays (LCD) commonly used in

small systems
– Liquid crystal, compounds have a crystalline arrangement
of molecules, flow like a liquid
– Passive-matrix LCD
To control light twisting, voltage applied to intersecting
conductors to align the molecules
– Active-matrix LCD
Using thin-film transistor technology, place a transistor at
each pixel location
Video Output Devices

• Immersive
– Head-mounted displays (HMD)
– Stereo shutter glasses
– Virtual Retinal Display (VRD)
– CAVE™

http://www.evl.uic.edu/research/template_res_project.php3?ind
i=27
 Video Output Devices

• Desktop
– Vector display
– CRT
– LCD flatpanel
– Plasma
– workstation displays(Sun Lab)
– PC and Mac laptops
– Tablet computers
– Wacom’s display tablet
– Digital Micromirror Devices (projectors)
– Field Emission Devices (FEDs)
– Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Arrays
Traditional Input Device (1/4)

• Commonly used today

• Mouse-like devices
– mouse
– wheel mouse
– trackball
• Keyboards
Traditional Input Device (2/4)

• Pen-based devices
– pressure sensitive
– absolute positioning
– tablet computers
• IPAQ, WinCE machines
• Microsoft eTablet coming soon
– palm-top devices
• Handspring Visor, PalmOS™
Traditional Input Device (3/4)

• Joysticks
– game pads
– flightsticks
– Touchscreens
• Microphones
– wireless vs. wired
– headset
Traditional Input Device (4/4)

• Digital still and video cameras,

scanners
• MIDI devices
– input from electronic
musical instruments
– more convenient than
entering scores with just a
mouse/keyboard
3D Input Device (1/2)

• Electromagnetic trackers
– can be attached to any head, hands, joints, objects
– Polhemus FASTRAK™(used in Brown’s Cave)

http://www.polhemus.com/ftrakds.htm
http://www.isense.com/products/prec/is900/index.htm
3D Input Device (2/2)

• Gloves
– attach electromagnetic tracker to the hand
• Pinch gloves
– contact between digits is a “pinch” gesture
– in CAVE, extended Fakespace PINCH™ gloves with extra
contacts

http://www.fakespacelabs.com/products/pinch.h
tml
Raster-Scan systems

• Organization of raster system

– Fixed area of system memory reserved for frame
buffer which can be directly accessed by video controller

Video
System Mon
CPU Controll
Memory itor
er

System Bus

I/O
Devices
Raster-Scan systems

• Video Controller
– Refresh operations
• X, Y register used to indicate pixel position
• Fix Y register and increment X register to generate
scan line
– Double buffering
• Pixel value can be loaded in buffer while
• Provide a fast mechanism for real-time animation
generation
Raster-Scan Systems

• Raster-Scan Display Processor

– Free the CPU from the graphics chores
– Provide separate display-processor memory
– Fig. Architecture of raster-scan display system with
display processor
Display
Processor Video Mo
memory Controll nito
(Frame Buffer) er r

Display System
CPU Proces Memor
sor y

System Bus

I/O Devices
Graphics Software

• Classifications
– Special purpose package
• Designed for non-programmers
• No graphics procedures involved
• Communicate with a set of menus
– General programming package
• Designed for programmers
• Provide library of graphics functions used in
programming language