BCA SEM-V UNIT-1 Computer Graphics – US05DBCA21

 Computer Graphics :-
 Computer graphics methods are routinely applied in the design of most products, in
training simulators, in the production of music, videos and television commercials, in
motion pictures, in data analysis, in scientific studies, in medical procedures, and in other
applications.

 Major applications of Computer graphics :-

 Computer graphics are used routinely in such various areas as science,engineering,
medicine, business, industry, government, art, entertainment, advertising,education, and
training.
1. Graphs and Charts :
 Graphs and charts are commonly used to summarize financial, statistical, mathematical,
scientific, engineering, and economical data for research reports, managerial summaries,
consumer information bulletins, and other types of publications.
 Examples of data plots are line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and other displays showing
relationships between multiple parameters in two dimensions, three dimensions, or
higher-dimensional spaces.
2. Computer-Aided Design:
 A major useof computer graphics is in design processes-particularly for engineeringand
architectural systems.
 Computer-aided design(CAD) or computer-aided drafting and design(CADD) methods
are used in the design of buildings, automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft,
computers, textiles, and many other products.
 For some design applications, objects are first displayed in a wire-frame outline form that
shows the overall shape and internal features of the objects.
 CAD applications typically provide the designer with a multi-window environment.
Various window can be used to view the different View of object.
 Circuits and networks diagram for communications, water supply, or other utilities are
constructed with graphical shapes.
 The shapes used in a design represent the different network or circuit components.
 Standard shapes for electrical, electronic, and logic circuits are often supplied by the
design package.
 Animations are often used in CAD applications.
 Realistic displays are also generated for advertising of automobiles and other vehicles
using special lighting effects and background scenes.
3. Virtual-Reality Environments :
 A more recent application of computer graphics is in the creation of virtual-reality
environments.
4. Data Visualizations :
 Scientists, researchers, engineers, analysts, and others need to analyse large amounts of
information or to study the behaviour of highly complex processes.
 There are scientific visualization and business Visualization
 Producing graphical representations for scientific, engineering, and medical data sets and
processes is generally referred as scientific visualization.
 Data sets can be distributed over a two-dimensional region of space, a three-dimensional
region, or a higher-dimensional space.

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5. Education and Training :
 Computer-generated models of physical, financial, political, social, economic,and other
systems are often used as educational aids.
 Models of physical processes, physiological functions, population trends, or
equipmentcan help trainees to understand the operation of the system.
 For some training applications, special hardware systems are designed.
 Examples of such specialized systems are the simulators for practice sessions or training
of ship captains, aircraft pilots, heavy-equipment operators, and air traffic control
personnel.
6. Computer Art :
 Computer graphics methods are widely used in both fine art and commercial art
applications.
 Artists use a variety of computer methods and tools, including specialized hardware,
commercial software packages (such as Lumens), symbolic mathematics packages (such
as Mathematics), CAD packages, desktop publishingsoftware, and animation packages
that provide facilities for designing objectshapes and specifying object motions.
 Commercial art uses these painting techniques for generating logos and other designs,
page layouts combining text and graphics, TV advertising spots, and other applications.
 A common graphics method employed in manytelevision commercials is
morphing,where one object is transformed into another.
7. Entertainment :
 Computer graphics methods arenow commonly used in motion pictures,music videos,
and television productions.
 Sometimes graphics imagesarecombined with live actorsand scenes.
 Many TV series regularly use computer graphics methods to produce special effects.
 Some television programs also use animation techniques to combine computer-generated
figures of people, animals, or cartoon characters with the live actors in a scene or to
transform an actor’s face into another shape.
8. Image Processing :
 The modification or interpretation of existing pictures, such as photographs and TV
scans, is called image processing.
 In computer graphics, a computer is used to create a picture.
 Image-processing techniques are used to improve picture quality, analyse images.
9. Graphical User Interfaces :
 It is common now for applications software to provide a graphical user interface (GUI).
 A major component of a graphical interface is a window manager that allows a user to
display multiple-window area called display windows.
 Each window can contain a different process that can contain graphical or non-graphical
displays.

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 Video Display Devices :-

 The primary output device in a graphics system is a video monitor.
 The operation of most video monitors is based on the standard cathode-ray tube (CRT).
 Refresh Cathode-Ray Tubes :-

Fig. 1: Basic design and Opertion of a magnetic-deflection CRT.

 Figure illustrates the basic operation of a CRT.
 A beam of electrons (cathoderays) 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, some method is needed for
maintaining the screen picture.
 One way to keep the phosphor glowing is to redraw the picture repeatedly by quickly
directing the electron beam back over the same points.
 This type of display is called a refresh CRT, and the frequency at which a picture is
redrawn on the screen is referred to as the refresh rate.
 The primary components of an electron gun in a CRT are the heated metal cathode and a
control grid.
 Heat is supplied to the cathode by directing a current through a coil of wire, called the
filament, inside the cylindrical cathode structure.
 This causes electrons to be ”boiled off” the hot cathode surface.

Fig. 2: Operation of an electron gun with an accelerating mode.

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 In the vacuum inside the CRT envelope, the free, negatively charged electrons are then
accelerated toward the phosphor coating by a high positive voltage.
 The accelerating voltage can be generated with a positively charged metal coating on the
inside of the CRT envelope near the phosphor screen, or an accelerating anode can be
used.
 Sometimes the electron gun is built to contain the accelerating anode and focusing
system within the same unit.
 Intensity of the electron beam is controlled by setting voltage levels on the control grid,
which is a metal cylinder that fits over the cathode.
 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.
 The focusing system in a CRT is needed to force the electron beam to meet into a small
spot as it strikes the phosphor. Otherwise, the electrons would keep away each other, and
the beam would spread out as it approaches the screen.
 Focusing is accomplished with either electric or magnetic fields.
 Electrostatic focusing is commonly used in television and computer graphics monitors.
 With electrostatic focusing, the electron beam passes through a positively charged metal
cylinder that forms an electrostatic lens, as shown in figure 2.
 Magnetic lens focusing produces the smallest spot size on the screen.
 The distance that the electron beam must travel to different points on the screen varies
because the radius of curvature for most CRTs is greater than the distance from the
focusing system to the screen center.
 Therefore, the electron beam will be focused properly only at the center of the screen. As
the beam moves to the outer edges of the screen, displayed images become blurred.
 To compensate for this, the system can adjust the focusing according to the screen
position of the beam.
 Cathode-ray tubes are now commonly constructed with magnetic deflection coils
mounted on the outside of the CRT envelope as shown in fig-1.
 Two pairs of coils are used for this purpose.
 One pair is mounted on the top and bottom of the CRT neck, and the other pair is
mounted on opposite sides of the neck.
 Horizontal deflection is accomplished with one pair of coils, and vertical deflection by
the other pair.
 The proper deflection amounts are achieved by adjusting the current through the coils.
 When electrostatic deflection is used, two pairs of parallel plates are mounted inside the
CRT envelope.
 One pair of plates is mounted horizontally to control the vertical deflection, and the other
pair is mounted vertically to control horizontal deflection as shown in fig-3.

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Fig -3 : Electrostatic deflection of the electron beam in a CRT

 Spots of light are produced on the screen by the transfer of the CRT beam energy to the
phosphor.
 When the electrons in the beam collide with the phosphor coating, they are stopped and
their kinetic energy is absorbed by the phosphor.
 Part of the beam energy is converted by friction into heat energy, and the remainder
causes electrons in the phosphor atoms to move up to higher quantum-energy levels.
 After a short time, the “excited” phosphor electrons begin dropping back to their stable
ground state, giving up their extra energy as small quantum of light energy.
 The frequency (or color) of the light emitted by the phosphor is proportional to the
energy difference between the excited quantum state and the ground state.
 Different kinds of phosphors are available for use in a CRT. Besides color, a major
difference between phosphors is their persistence.
 Persistence means how long phosphor continue to emit light after the CRT beam is
removed.
 Persistence is defined as the time it takes the emitted light from the screen to decay to
one-tenth of its original intensity.
 Lower persistence phosphor is useful for animation; a high-persistence phosphor is
useful for displaying highly complex, static pictures.
 Resolution:Resolution can be defined as the number of points per centimeter that can be
plotted horizontally and vertically, simply the total number of points in each direction.
 In other words, the maximum number of points that can be displayed without overlap on
a CRT is referred to as the resolution.
 The resolution of a CRT is dependent on the type of phosphor, the intensity to be
displayed, and the focusing and deflection systems.
 High resolution systems are often referred to as high-definition systems.
 Thephysicalsize of a graphics monitor is given as the length of the screen diagonal.
 Aspect ratio is a property of video monitors. This number gives the ratio of vertical
points to horizontal points necessary to produce equal-length lines in both directions on
the screen.
 An aspect ratio of 3/4 means that a vertical line plotted with three points has the same
length as a horizontal line plotted with four points.
 Raster Scan Displays :-
 The most common type of graphics monitor employing a CRT is the raster-scan display,
based on television technology.

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 In a raster-scan system, the electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a time
from top to bottom.
 Each row is referred to as a scan line.
 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 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.
 Each screen point is referred to as a pixel or pel (picture element).
 Intensity range for pixel positions depends on the capability of the raster system.
 In a simple black-and-white system, each screen point is either on or off, so only one bit
per pixel is needed to control the intensity of screen positions.
 A bit value of 1 indicates that the electron beam is to be turned on at that position, and a
value of 0 indicates that the beam intensity is to be off.
 Additional bits are needed when color and intensity variations can be displayed (up to 24
bits per pixel).
 A system with 24 bits per pixel and a screen resolution of 1024 by 1024 requires 3
megabytes of storage for the frame buffer.
 On a black-and-white system with one bit per pixel, the frame buffer is commonly called
a bitmap.
 For systems with multiple bits per pixel, the frame buffer is often referred to as a
pixmap.
 Refreshing on raster-scan displays is carried out at the rate of 60 to 80 frames per second
or higher.
 Refresh rates are described in units of cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz), where a cycle
corresponds to one frame (i.e. 60 Hz).
 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.
 The return to the left of the screen, after refreshing each scan line, is called the
horizontal retrace of the electron beam. And at the end of each frame, the electron beam
returns to the top left corner of the screen to begin the next frame is called vertical
retrace.
 Interlaced Display :-
 On some raster-scan systems, each frame is displayed in two passes using an interlaced
refresh procedure.
 In the first pass, the beam sweeps across every other scan line from top to bottom.
 Then after the vertical retrace, the beam sweeps out the remaining scan lines.
 Interlacing of the scan lines in this way allows us to see the entire screen displayed in
one-half the time it would have taken to sweep across all the lines at once from top to
bottom.
 Interlacing is primarily used with slower refreshing rates.
 This is an effective technique for avoiding flicker, providing that adjacent scan lines
contain similar display information.
 Random Scan Displays :-
 When operated as a random-scan display unit, a CRT has the electron beam directed only
to the parts of the screen where a picture is to be drawn.

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 Random scan monitors draw a picture one line at a time and for this reason are also
referred to as vector displays (or stroke-writing or calligraphic displays).
 The component lines of a picture can be drawn and refreshed by a random-scan system
in any specified order.
 Refresh rate on a random-scan system depends on the number of lines to be displayed.
 Picture definition is now stored as a set of line drawing commands in an area of memory
referred to as the refresh display file. Sometimes the refresh display file is called the
display list, display program, or simply the refresh buffer.
 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 line drawing commands have been 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.
 When a small set of lines is to be displayed, each refresh cycle is delayed to avoid refresh
rates greater than 60 frames per second. Otherwise, faster refreshing of the set of lines
could burn out the phosphor.
 Random-scan systems v/s Raster-scan systems :-
 Random-scan systems are designed for line drawing applications and cannot display
realistic shaded scenes as raster-scan systems.
 Since picture definition is stored as a set of line drawing instructions and not as a set of
intensity values for all screen points, vector displays generally have higher resolution
than raster systems.
 Vector displays produce smooth line drawings because the CRT beam directly follows
the line path. A raster system, in contrast, produces jagged lines that are plotted as
discrete point sets.
 Color CRT Monitors :-
 A CRT monitor displays color pictures by using a combination of phosphors that emit
different-colored light.
 By combining the emitted light from the different phosphors, 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.
1. 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 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 colors, orange and yellow.
 The speed of the electrons, and hence the screen color at any point, is controlled by the
beam-acceleration voltage.

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 This method is inexpensive, but produces only four colors. The quality of pictures is not
as good as with other methods.
2. Shadow Mask Method :-
 Shadow-mask methods are 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.
 Figure shows the delta-delta shadow-mask method, commonly used in color 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 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 is an in-linearrangement in which the
three electron guns, and the corresponding red-green-blue color 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 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. Likewise, we can get different colors.
 Color CRTs in graphics systems are designed as RGB monitors.
 These monitors use shadow-mask methods and take the intensity level for each electron
gun (red, green, and blue) directly from the computer system without any intermediate
processing.

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 High-quality raster-graphics systems have 24 bits per pixel in the frame buffer, allowing
256 voltage settings for each electron gun and nearly 17 million color choices for each
pixel.
 An RGB color system with 24 bits of storage per pixel is generally referred to as a full-
color system or a true-color system.
 Direct-View Storage Tubes(DVST) :-
 An alternative method for maintaining a screen image is to store the picture information
inside the CRT instead of refreshing the screen.
 A direct-view storage tube (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.
 A DVST monitor has both disadvantages and advantages compared to the refresh CRT.
 Advantage: Because no refreshing is needed, very complex pictures can be displayed at
very high resolutions without flicker.
 Disadvantages of DVST systems are that they ordinarily do not display color and that
selected parts of a picture cannot be erased. To eliminate a picture section, the entire
screen must be erased and the modified picture redrawn.
 The erasing and redrawing process can take several seconds for a complex picture. For
these reasons, DVST are largely replaced by raster systems.
 Flat-Panel Displays :-
 The term flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume,
weight, and power requirements compared to a CRT.
 We can separate flat-panel displays into two categories: emissive displays and non-
emissive displays.
 The emissive displays (or emitters) are devices that convert electrical energy into light.
Plasma panels, thin-film electroluminescent displays, and Light-emitting diodes are
examples of emissive displays.
 Non-emissive displays (or non-emitters) use optical effects to convert sunlight or light
from some other source into graphics patterns. The example of a non-emissive flat-panel
display is a liquid-crystal device (LCD).
 Plasma Panels :-

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Fig. : Basic Design of a plasma-panel display device

 Plasma panels, also called gas-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 built into the other glass panel.
 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 is 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 methods are used to provide faster application of the firing voltages,
and thus brighter displays.
 Separation between pixels is provided by the electric field of the conductors.
 One disadvantage of plasma panels has been that they were strictly monochromatic
devices, but systems are now available with multicolor capabilities.
 Thin-film Electroluminescent Displays :-
 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 as
zinc sulfide doped with manganese, instead of a 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 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 panels, and good color and
gray scale displays are hard to achieve.

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Fig. : Basic design of a thin-film electroluminescent displays device

 Light Emitting Diode(LED) :-
 In 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 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 Displays (LCD) :-
 Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are commonly used in small systems, such as
calculators and portable, laptop computers.
 These non-emissive devices produce a picture by passing polarized light from the
surroundings 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
crystallinearrangement of molecules, yet they flow like a liquid.
 Flat-panel displays commonly use nematic (threadlike) liquid-crystal compounds that
tend to keep the long axes of the rod-shaped molecules aligned.
 A flat-panel display can then be constructed with a nematic liquid crystal, as
demonstrated in Fig.

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Fig. : The light-twisting, shutter effect used in the design of most liquid-crystal display
devices.
 Two glass plates, each containing a light polarizer that is aligned at right angle to the
other plate, sandwich the liquid-crystal material.
 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". 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 to as a passive-matrix LCD.
 Back lighting is also commonly applied using solid-state electronic devices, so that the
system is not completely dependent on outside light sources.
 Picture definitions are stored in a refresh buffer, and the screen is refreshed at the rate of
60 frames per second.
 Colors canbe displayed by using different materials or dyes and by placing a triad of
color pixels at each screen location.
 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 locations and to prevent charge
from gradually leaking out of the liquid-crystal cells.
 These devices are called active-matrix displays.

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 Input Devices :-
1. Keyboards :
 An alphanumeric keyboard on a graphics system is used primarily as a device for
entering text strings, issuing certain commands, and selecting menu options.
 The keyboard is an efficient device for inputting such non-graphic data as picture labels
associated with a graphics display.
 Keyboards can also be provided with features to facilitate entry of screen coordinates,
menu selections, or graphics functions.
 Cursor-control keys and function keys are common features on general purpose
keyboards.
2. Mouse :
 A mouseis small hand-held unit that is usually moved around on a flat surface 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.
 The optical sensor detects movement across the lines in the grid.
3. Trackball :
 A trackball is a ball that can be rotated with the fingers or palm of the hand to produce
screen-cursor movement.
 Potentiometers, connected to the ball, measure the amount and direction of rotation.
 A trackball can be mounted on keyboards.
4. Spaceball :
 Spaceballs are used for three-dimensional positioning and selection operations in virtual-
reality systems, modeling, animation, CAD, and other applications.
5. Joysticks :
 A joystick consists of a small, vertical lever (called the stick) mounted on a base that is
used to select screen positions with actual stick movement.The stick is used to activated
the screen cursor to move at a constant rate in the direction selected.
6. Data Gloves :
 The glove is constructed with a series of sensors that detect hand and finger motions.
 Electromagnetic coupling between transmitting antennas and receiving antennas is used
to provide information about the position and orientation of the hand.

7. Digitizers :
 A common device for drawing, painting, or interactively selecting coordinate positions
on an object is a digitizer. These devices can be designed to input coordinate values in
either a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional space.
 Graphics Tablet :
 One type of digitizer isthe graphics tablet , which is used to input two-dimensional
coordinates by activating a hand cursor at selected positions on a flat surface.
8. Image Scanners :
 Drawings, graphs, 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 gradations of gray scale or color are then recorded and stored in an array.

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 Once we have the internal representation of a picture, we can apply transformations to
rotate, scale, or crop the picture to a particular screen area.
 We can also apply various image-processing methods to modify the array representation
of the picture.
9. Touch Panels :
 Touch panels allow displayed objects or screen positions tobe selected with the touch of
a finger.
 The touch panel is used to select the processing option that are represented with
graphical icon.
 Optical touch panels employ a line of infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs)along one
vertical edge and along one horizontal edge of the frame. Light detectors are placed
along the oppositevertical and horizontal edges.
 These detectors are used torecord whichbeams are interrupted when the panel is touched.
 The two crossing beams that areinterrupted identify the horizontal and vertical
coordinates of thescreen position selected.
 Positions can be selected with an accuracy of about ¼ inch. The LEDs operate at infrared
frequencies, so thatthe light is not visible to a user.
 An electrical touch panel is constructed with two transparent plates separated by a small
distance.
 One of the plates is coated with a conducting material, and the other plate is coated with
a resistive material.
 When the outer plate is touched, it is forced into contact with the inner plate. 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 aregenerated inthe horizontal
and vertical directions across a glass plate.
10. Light Pens :
 Light pens are pencil-shaped devices,used to select screen positions by detecting the light
coming from pointson the CRT screen.
 They are sensitive to theshort burst of light emitted from thephosphor coating at the
instant the electron beam strikes a particular point.
 An activated light pen, pointed at a spot on the screen as the electronbeam lights up that
spot, generates an electrical pulse that causes the coordinateposition of the electron beam
to be recorded.
 There are some disadvantages of light pen.
i. When a light pen is pointed at the screen, part of the screen image is obscured
(hidden) by the hand and pen.
ii. Long use of the light pen can cause arm fatigue.
iii. Light pens require special implementations for some applications sincethey
cannot detect positions within black areas.
iv. Light pens sometimes give false readings due to background lighting in a room.
11. Voice Systems :
 Speech recognizers are used with some graphics workstations as input devices for voice
commands.
 The voicesystem input can be used to initiate graphics operations or to enter data. These
systems operate by matching an input against a predefined dictionary of words and
phrases.
 A dictionary is set up by speaking the command words several times.

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 The system then analyzes each word and establishes a dictionary of word frequency
patterns, along with the corresponding functionsthat are to be performed.
 Later, when a voice command is given, the system searches the dictionary for a
frequency-pattern match.
 A separate dictionary is needed for each operator using the system. Input for a voice
system is typically spoken into a microphone mounted on a headset.
 Voice systems have some advantage over other input devices, since the attention of the
operator need not switch from one device to another to enter a command.

 Hard-Copy Devices :-
 We can obtain hard-copy output for our images in several formats.
 For presentations or archiving, we can send image files to devices or service bureaus that
will produce 35-mm slides, overhead transparencies or film. And we can put our pictures
on paper by directing graphics output to a printer or plotter.
 The quality of the pictures obtained from an output device depends on dot size and the
number of dots per inch, or lines per inch, that can be displayed.
 To produce smooth patterns, higher-quality printers shift dot positions so that adjacent
dots overlap.
 Printers produce output by either impact or non-impact methods.
 Impact printers press formed character faces against an inked ribbon onto the paper. A
line printer is an example of an impact device, with the typefaces mounted on bands,
chains, drums, or wheels.
 Non-impact printers and plotters use laser techniques, ink-jet sprays, xerographic presses
(as used in photocopying machines), electrostatic methods, and electrothermal methods
to get images onto paper.
 Character impact printers often have a dot-matrix print head containing arectangular
array of protruding wirepins, with the number of pins depending onthe quality of the
printer.
 Individual characters or graphics patterns are obtained by retracting certain pins so that
the remaining pins form the pattern to beprinted.
 In a laser device, a laser beam creates a charge distribution on a rotatingdrum coated with
a photoelectric material, such as selenium. Toner is applied to the drum and then
transferred to paper.
 Ink-jet methods produce output by squirting ink in horizontal rows across aroll of paper
wrapped on a drum. The electrically charged ink stream is deflectedby an electric field to
produce dot-matrix patterns.
 An electrostatic device places a negative charge on the paper, one completerow at a time
along the length of the paper. Then the paper is exposed to a toner.
 The toner is positively charged and so is attracted to the negatively chargedareas, where
it adheres to produce the specified output.
 Electrothermal methods use heat in a dot-matrixprint head to output patterns on heat-
sensitive paper.
 We can get limited color output on an impact printer by using differentcoloredribbons.
 Non-impact devices use various techniques to combine threedifferent color pigments
(cyan, magenta, and yellow) to produce a range of color patterns.
 Laser and electrostatic devices deposit the three pigments on separate passes;ink-jet
methods shoot the three colors simultaneously on a single pass along eachprint line on
the paper.
 Drafting layouts and other drawings are typically generated with ink-jet orpen plotters.

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 Apen plotter has one or more pens mounted on a carriage, or crossbar,that spans a sheet
of paper.Pens with varying colors and widths are used toproduce a variety of shadings
and line styles. Wet-ink, ball-point, and felt-tip pens are all possible choices for use with
a pen plotter.
 Plotter paper can lie flat orit can be rolled onto a drum or belt. Crossbars can be either
movable or stationary,while the pen moves back and forth along the bar. The paper is
held in position using clamps, a vacuum, or an electrostatic charge.

 Graphics Software :-
 There are two general classifications for graphics software: general programming
packages and special-purpose applications packages.
 General programming packages:A general graphics programming package provides an
extensive set of graphics functions that can be used in a high-level programming
language, such as C or FORTRAN. An example of a general graphics programming
package is the GL (Graphics Library) system. Basic functions in a general package
include those for generating picture components (straight lines, polygons, circles, and
other figures), setting color and intensity values, selecting views, and applying
transformations.
 Applications packages: Application graphics packages are designed for
nonprogrammers, so that users can generate displays without worrying about how
graphics operations work. The interface to the graphics routines in such packages allows
users to communicate with the programs in their own terms. Examples of such
applications packages are the artist's painting programs and various business, medical,
and CAD systems.
 Coordinate Representations :-
 Several different Cartesian reference frames are usedto construct and display a scene.
 We can construct the shape of individual objects, such as trees or furniture,in a scene
within separate coordinate reference frames called modeling coordinates, or sometimes
local coordinates or master coordinates.
 Once individual object shapes have been specified, we can place the objects into
appropriate positions within the scene using a reference frame called world coordinates.
 Finally, the world-coordinate description of the scene is transferred to one or more
output-device reference frames for display. Thesedisplay coordinate systems are referred
to as device coordinates or screen coordinates in the case of a video monitor.
 A graphics system first converts world-coordinate positions to normalized device
coordinates, in the range from 0 to 1, before final conversion to specific device
coordinates.
 This makes the system independent of the various devices that might be usedat a
particular workstation.
 The sequence of coordinate transformations from modeling coordinates to device
coordinates for a two-dimensional application.
 An initial modeling-coordinate position (xmc, ymc) in this illustration is transferred to a
device coordinate position (xdc, ydc) with the sequence:
(xmc, ymc) --> (xwc, ywc) --> (xnc, ync) --> (xdc, ydc)
 Graphics Functions :-
 A general-purpose graphics package provides users with a variety of functions for
creating and manipulating pictures. These routines can be categorized according to

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whether they deal with output, input, attributes, transformations, viewing, or general
control.
 The basic building blocks for pictures are referred to as output primitives. They include
character strings and geometric entities, such as points, straight lines, curved lines,filled
areas (polygons, circles, etc.), and shapes defined with arrays of color points.
 Routines for generating output primitives provide the basic tools for constructing
pictures.
 Attributes are the properties of the output primitives; that is, an attribute describes how
a particular primitive is to be displayed. They include intensity and color specifications,
line styles, text styles, and area-filling patterns.
 Functions within this category can be usedto set attributes for an individual primitive
class or for groups of output primitives.
 We can change the size, position, or orientation of an object within a scene using
geometric transformations.
 Similar modeling transformations are used to construct a scene using object
descriptions given in modeling coordinates.
 Given the primitive and attribute definition of a picture in world coordinates, a graphics
package projects a selected view of the picture on an output device.Viewing
transformations are used to specify the view that is to be presented and the portion of
the output display area that is to be used.
 Pictures can be subdivided into component parts, called structures or segments or
objects, depending on the software package in use. Each structure defines one logical
unit of the picture.
 A scene with several objects could reference each individual object in aseparate named
structure.
 Routines for processing structures carry out operations such as the creation,
modification, and transformation of structures.
 Interactive graphics applications use various kinds of input devices, such as a mouse, a
tablet, or a joystick. Input functions are used to control and process the data flow from
these interactive devices.
 A graphics package contains a number of housekeeping tasks, such as clearing a display
screen and initializing parameters. We can lump the functions for carrying out these
chores under the heading control operations.
 Software Standards :-
 The primary goal of standardized graphics software is portability.
 When packages are designed with standard graphics functions, software can be moved
easily from one hardware system to another and used in different implementations and
applications.
 Without standards, programs designed for one hardware system often cannot be
transferred to another system without extensive rewriting of the programs.
 International and national standards planning organizations in many countries have
cooperated in an effort to develop a generally accepted standard for computer graphics.
 After considerable effort, this work on standards led to the development of the
Graphical Kernel System (GKS). This system was adopted as the first graphics
software standard by the InternationalStandards Organization (ISO) and by various
national standards organizations, including the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI).
 Although GKS was originally designed as a two-dimensional graphics package, a three-
dimensional GKS extension was subsequently developed.

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 The second software standard to be developed and approved by the standards
organizations was PHIGS (Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics
Standard), which is an extension of GKS.
 Increased capabilities for object rnodeling, color specifications, surface rendering, and
picture manipulations are provided in PHIGS.
 Subsequently, an extension of PHIGS, called PHIGS+, was developed to provide three-
dimensional surface-shading capabilities not available in PHIGS.
 Standard graphics functions are defined as a set of specifications that is independentof
any programming language.
 Alanguage binding is then definedfor a particular high-level programming language.
This binding gives the syntaxfor accessing the various standard graphics functions from
this language.
 Although PHIGS presents a specification for basic graphics functions, it does not provide
a standard methodology for a graphics interface to output devices. Nor does it specify
methods for storing and transmitting pictures.
 Separate standards have been developed for these areas. Standardization for device
interface methods is given in the Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) system.
 And the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) system specifies standards for archiving
and transporting picturesand transporting pictures.

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