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St. Josephs College of Engineering & Technology Palai Department of Computer Science & Engineering S7 CS RT702 Computer Graphics Module 1 Website: http://sites.google.com/site/sjcetcssz

Computer Graphics - Module 1

Syllabus
Introduction to Computer Graphics: Basic concepts in Computer Graphics Applications of Computer Graphics, Interactive Graphics system Raster scan and Random scan systems Generating a raster image, Application of raster scan graphics. Video Display Devices, Display processors Display les graphical input & output devices

Contents

Applications of Computer Graphics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Computer Aided Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Presentation graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Computer Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graphical User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 6

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Raster Scan Displays 9 10 11 12 Refresh buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Raster Scan Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7 8 8 8

Raster Scan Display Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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Random Scan Displays 13 14

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Random Scan Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Display les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

14.1 Display File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2

IV

Video Display Devices 15 16 17 18

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Refresh Cathode Ray Tubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Color CRT monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Direct view Storage Tubes (DVST) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Flat Panel Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

18.1 Liquid Crystal Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 18.2 Plasma Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 18.3 Thin lm Electroluminiscent displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Input Devices 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

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Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Trackball and Spaceball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Joystick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Data Glove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Digitizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Image Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Touch Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Light Pens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Voice system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Hardcopy devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Part I. Applications of Computer Graphics

[Hearn2009] Computer graphics is used in a lot of areas such as science, engineering, medicine, business, industry, government, art, entertainment, advertising, education and training. The different applications of computer graphics discussed below are Computer aided design, Presentation graphics, Computer art, Entertainment, Education and training, Visualization, Image processing and,

1 Computer Aided Design

Graphical user interfaces.

Computer Aided Design

Computer graphics is used in the design of engineering and architectural systems such as buildings, automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, computers, textiles etc.. In the rst stage of design, objects are displayed in wireframe format that shows the overall shape and internal details of the object as shown below.

When object designs are complete, ligting and shading models are applied to produce displays the nal product. Networks for communication and water supply can be designed using graphics packages. The manufacturing process also can be computerised which will automate the construction of the product. Some mechanical parts are manufactured by describing how surfaces are are formed with machine tools using CNC lathe machines.

Presentation graphics

It is an area of computer graphics in which slides are designed to be used with projectors. It is used to summarise nancial, statistical, mathematical, scientic and economic data for reports. The data can be represented in the form of bar charts and graphs.

Computer Art

Computer graphics techniques are used in ne art and commercial art applications. Artists use a variety of techniques such as paint packages, special hardware, CAD packages and animation packages for designing objects. Some examples softwares are Paint and Photoshop. Also artists can use a digitizer and stylus which can be used to paint pictures. An example picture generated using this way is shown below.

4 Entertainment

Entertainment

Computer graphics methods are used in making motion pictures and television shows. For example movies such as Jurassic park. Music videos use graphics in several ways. Graphics objects can be combined with live action.

Education and Training

Computer generated models are used as nancial aids. Virtual reality systems are used for training ship captains, aircraft pilots and heavy equipment operators. Flight simulators are used for training aircraft pilots.

6 Visualization

Visualization

Scientists, engineers often need to analyze large amount of information to analyze certain processes. Satellite cameras collect thousands and even millions of images faster than they can be interpreted by human beings. But if these data are converted to visual form, trends can be analyzed. This is referred to as visualization.

Mathematicians, scientists use graphical representations of mathematical functions or processes.

Image Processing

Image processing apply techniques to modify or interpret existing pictures. Two applications of image processing are improving picture quality and machine perception of visual information. To apply image processing techniques, a photograph is digitized rst using a scanner. Then digital methods are applied to rearrange picture parts, to enhance colors and improve the shading. Medical applications widely use image processing techniques for surgery, tomography and for picture enhancements. Tomography is used to reconstruct cross sections from digital data. They are used to monitor internal functions and show cross sections during surgery. Other image processing techniques in medical eld are ultrasonics and nuclear medicine scanners. In ultrasonics, high frequency sound waves are used to generate digital data. Nuclear medicine scanners collect data from radiations. Image processsing and computer graphics can be used in computer aided surgery. Cross sections of the body are obtained using imaging techniques.

Graphical User Interfaces

Nowadays all operating systems provide graphical interfaces. They contain a number of windows. User can interact with the computer system by making some clicks instead of typing commands.

Part II. Raster Scan Displays

[Hearn2009] The most common type of display used in a graphics monitor that uses CRT is raster scan display. In a raster scan system the electron beam is swept across the screen one row at a time from the 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 denition is stored in a memory area called refresh buffer or frame buffer. This memory area holds the set of intensity values for all the screen points. Stored intensity values are retrieved from the refresh buffer and pointed on the screen one row ( scan line) at a time as in the above gure. Each screen point is referred to as a pixel. (picture element)

9 Refresh buffer

Refresh buffer

Home television sets and printers are examples of systems that uses raster scan methods. Intensity range for pixel positions depends on the capability of the raster scan system. In a black and white system each point is either on or off. So noly one bit per pixel is needed to control the intensity of screen positions as in the above g that shows a refresh buffer that stores one bit per pixel. When color and intensity variations are to be displayed, additional bits are needed. Upto 24 bits per pixel are included in higher quality systems. For eg. A system with 24 bits per pixel and a screen resolution of 1024 by 1024 requires (24/8 * 1024*1024) bytes ie. 2 megabytes of storage for frame buffer. On a black and white system with one bit per pixel the frame buffer is called a bit map. For systems with multiple bits per pixel the frame buffer is referred to as a pixmap. Refreshing on raster scan displays is done at the rate of 60 to 80 frames per second. Refresh rates are commonly described in units of cycles per second, Hertz where a cycle corresponds to one frame. Thus a refresh rate of 60 frames/sec means 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 side of the screen after refreshing each scan line is called the horizontal retrace of the electron beam. At he end of each frame (displayed 1/80 th to 1/60 th of a second) the electron beam returns (vertical retrace) to the top left corner of the screen to begin the next frame.

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Raster Scan Systems

Interactive raster graphics systems employ several processing units. In addition to the CPU a special processor called video controller or display controller is used to control the operation of the display device. Organization of a simple raster scan system is shown below.

The frame buffer or refresh buffer can be anywhere in the system memory. Video controller accesses the frame buffer to refresh the screen.

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Video Controller

The above g shows a commonly used organization for rater scan systems. A xed area of the system memory is reserved for the frame buffer. Video controller is given direct access to the frame buffer memory.

11 Video Controller

Frame buffer locations and screen positions are referenced in Cartesian coordinates (x,y) . In some monitors, the coordinate origin is dened at the lower left screen corner.

(In many Personal computer systems, the coordinate origin is referenced a the upper left corner of the screen.) Scan lines are labeled from Ymax at the top of the screen to 0 at the bottom. Along each scan line screen pixel positions are labeled from 0 to Xmax . In the following gure, the basic refresh operations of the video controller are shown.

Two registers are used to store the coordinates of screen pixels. Initially x register is set to 0 and y register is set to Ymax . The value stored in the frame buffer for this pixel position is retrieved and used to set the intensity of the CRT beam. Then the x register is incremented by 1 and the process is repeated for the next pixel on the top scan line. After the last pixels on the top scan line has been processed, the x register is reset to 0 and y register is decremented by 1. Pixels along this scan line are then processed and the procedure is repeated for each successive scan line. After cycling through all pixels along the bottom scan line the video controller resets the registers to the rst pixel position on the top scan line and the refresh process starts over. Since screen must be refreshed at the rate of 60 frames per second, the above procedure will not work with typical RAM. This is because the cycle time is too slow. To speed up pixel processing video controller can retrieve multiple pixel values from the refresh buffer. These values are stored in a separate register and can be used to control the CRT beam intensity for a group of adjacent pixels . When that group of pixels has been processed, the next block of pixel values is retrieved from the frame buffer.

12 Raster Scan Display Processor

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Raster Scan Display Processor

Fig shows a way to set up the organization of a raster system, which contains a separate display processor. This display processor is referred to as graphics controller or display coprocessor. The purpose of the display processor is to free the CPU from graphics chores. A separate display processor memory area can also be provided in addition to system memory.

The task of the display processor is to digitize a picture denition given in an application program into a set of pixel intensity values for storage in the frame buffer. This digitization process is called scan conversion. Graphics commands specifying straight lines and other geometric objects are scan converted into a set of discrete intensity points. For eg. Scan converting a straight-line segment means that we have to locate the pixel positions closest to the line path and store the intensity for each position in the frame buffer. Display processors can perform a number of other operations such as generating various line styles, displaying color areas, and performing certain transformations and manipulations on displayed objects. Here our simple graphics display processor performs only some of the graphics related operations. The task of the system designer is to free the main CPU more and more by adding functionality to the display processor. That means functions such as clipping, window to viewport transformation, using its local memory to store list of display instructions etc. Now there are 2 processors. The main CPU and special purpose display processor. Now there are 3 memory areas. The main memory, display processor memory and frame buffer. The main memory contains data plus programs that execute on CPU, ie. the application program, graphics package and operating system. The display processor memory holds data plus programs that perform scan conversion and raster operations. The frame buffer contains the displayable image created by the scan conversion and raster operations. In most systems, the frame buffer is 1024 by 1024 pixels. There are 8 bits per pixel. There is 256 entry look up table. Each contains 12 bits. That is 4 each for red, green, and blue. An eg. for various instructions in a raster displays is below. Move (x, y): The current position CP is set to x and y. Move R (dx, dy): The value of dx and dy are added to x and y register. Line (x, y) : A line is drawn from CP to (x,y) . This position is the new CP.

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Line R (dx,dy) : The line is drawn from CP to CP + (dx, dy). This position is the new CP. Point(x, y) : The pixel at (x, y) is set. This is the new CP. Point r(dx,dy) : The pixel at CP + (dx, dy) is set. This position is the new CP. Rect (x,y) : A rectangle is drawn between CP and (x, y) Text(n, address) : The n character at memory location address are displayed. Circle(radius) : A circle is drawn centered at CP LuT(index, red, green, blue) : Entry index in the look up table is loaded with the given color specication. There are more commands. There is a queue (FIFO) buffer placed in between the display processor and graphics package. The graphics package places commands in to the queue and display processor accesses the instructions/commands from the queue and executes them. Eg: programming the display processor is similar to using a graphics package. A white line on a complete background is created as follows LuT 5,0,0,0 ;Look up table entry 5 is black LuT 6,ZF,ZF,ZF ;Look up table entry 6 is white Wmode replace AreaFill true ;Turn on the FILL ag Pattern 32ZFF ;32 bytes of all 1s for solid pattern Mask ZFF ; Enable writing to all planes Pixelvalue 5 ;Scan convert using pixel value of 5 Move 0,0 Rect 1023, 767 ;visible part of frame buffer now black Pixelvalue 6 ;Scan convert using pixel value of 6 Move 100,100 Line R 500,400 ;Draw the line The above program uses many instructions that we have not discussed.

Part III. Random Scan Displays

[Hearn2009] When a display monitor that uses CRT is operated as a random scan display unit, the electron beam will be directed only to the parts of the screen where the picture is to be drawn. Random scan monitors draw a picture one line at a time and for this reason they are called vector displays or stroke writing or calligraphic displays. In this a picture will be interpreted as a number of lines. The component lines of a picture are drawn as in the following g.

13 Random Scan Systems

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Picture denition is stored as a set of line drawing commands in the memory called as display list or display program or refresh buffer. To display a specied picture, the system cycles through a set of commands in the display le, drawing each component line in turn. After all line drawing commands in the display le is processed the system cycles back to the rst 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. Random scan systems are designed for line drawing applns and cannot display realistic shaded scenes. Random scan systems produce smooth line drawings because the CRT beam directly follows the line path.

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Random Scan Systems

The organization of a simple random scan system is shown below.

An application program is input and stored in the system memory along with a graphics package. Graphics commands in the application program are translated by the graphics package into a display le stored in the system memory. This display le is accessed by the display processor to refresh the screen. The display processor cycles through each command in the display le program once during every refresh cycle. Display processor in a random scan system is also called as a display processing unit or a graphics controller. Graphics patterns are drawn on a random scan system by directing the electron beam along the component lines of the picture. Lines are dened by the values for their coordinate end points and these i/p coordinate values are converted to x and y deection voltages. A scene is drawn one line at a time by positioning the beam to ll the line between specied end points.

13 Random Scan Systems

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Architecture of Random Scan display Processor [Foley2001]

A large number of hardware and sofware systems are now available. We can use a wide variety of input devices and graphics software packages with personal computers. The random scan graphics display processor is also called a display processing unit (DPU) or a graphics controller. The DPU has an instruction set and instruction register. It goes through the instruction fetch, decode execute cycle as in any Computer. Since there is no pixmap, the display processor must execute its program in 30 to 60 times per second in order to provide a icker free display. The program executed by DPU is in main memory. The main memory is shared by CPU and DPU. The appln program and graphics package also resides in main memory. They are executed by the main CPU. The graphics package creates a display program of DPU instructions and also tells DPU where to start program. The DPU then executes the display program until it is told to stop by the graphics package. A JUMP instruction at the end of the display program transfers control back to its start so that the display continued to be refreshed without CPU intervention. The following shows a set of instructions and mnemonics for a simple random scan DPU. The processor has X,Y registers and an instruction counter. Mnemonic Meaning LD {X/Y} {R/A }M Load and move LD {X/Y} {R/A }P Load and point LD {X/Y} {R/A }L Load and line LD {X/Y} {R/A } Load JUMP {R/A} L1 R->Relative

13 Random Scan Systems

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A->Absolute The following shows a simple DPU program that uses the above instruction. The program generates a square and diamond as in the g. SQUARE: LDXA 100 LDYAM 100 ;move to (100,100) LDXRL 800 ;Line to (900,100) LDYRL 700 ;Line to (900,800) LDXRL -800 ;Line to (100,800) LDYRL -700 ;Line to (100,100) POINT: LDXA 300 LDYAP 450 ;point at (300,450) DIAMOND:LDXZ 100 LDYAM 450 ;moveto (100,450) LDXR 400 ; LDYRL -350 ;Linkto (500,100) LDXR 400 ; LDYRL 350 ;Lineto (900,450) LDYR 350 ; LDXRL -400 ;Lineto (500,800) LDXR -400 ; LDYAM 450 ;moveto (100,450), the starting point for diamond TEXT : LDXA 200 LDXA 200 LDYAM 900 ;Move to (200,900) for text CHAR DEMONSTRATION t ; t is terminate code JUMPRL SQUARE ;Regenerate picture, frame lock In the above program, the rst instruction LDXA 100is absolute. It means the x value is set as 100. LDYAM 100 means move to (100,100). (x has 100,now y has 100 then move to that point). LDXRL 800 means move relative to X (and draw line). That is add the current value of X that is 100 with 800. Then the value of X will be 900. That is draw a line from (100,100) to (900,100) . in this way the procedure follows. The nal instruction jumps back to the start of the program. The random display processor lacks area lling, bit manipulation and look up table commands. Random displays can work at higher resolutions than can raster displays and can draw smooth lines. The fastest random scan displays can draw about 100,000 short vectors in a refresh cycle allowing real time animation.

14 Display les

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Display les

[Newman1997] Display le is a part of memory used by a randon scan display system. It contains the program for graphics display. It contains line drawing and point plotting instructions as we saw in the previous section. The following gives the syntax of four different types of instructions that can be present in a display le.

The value for I=0 for unintensied and I=1 for intensied. The value of D is 1 to draw a line. For example, the instruction

will set the x x-cooordinate value to 40. Here the rst eld has value 2 which is for x position. The next eld is 0 whic hdenotes unintensied and the last eld is 40 which indicates the x position. Here relative endpoint coordinates are used. That is endpoints dened in terms of the current beam position. For example, the instructions

will display a line from (40,50) to (60,80).

Here the rst two instructions will set the beam position to (40,50). In the next two instructions, a line will be drawn to (40+20, 50+30), ie. to (60,80). Here the D value and I value for the last instruction is set to 1. In that case, the line will be displayed (intensied). Thus in a display le, the following instructions are present. An example for the content of a display le is shown below.

14 Display les

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This will display the following picture on the screen.

The picture is maintained on the screen by repeated regeneration from a stored display le, and this display le can be modied at any time. We can modify the display le selectively by grouping the instructions into different segments. The segment is a unit of display le. Segment is a collection of display le instructions representing different pictures that we can manipulate asa single unit. For example, the two pictures given below can be dened in two segments within the display le.

We may use the following statements in a high level language program. Initgraphics(); SetWindow (0, 0, 1024, 780); OpenSegment (t); Move To (100, 100); Line To (150,200); Line To (200,100); Line To (100,100); CloseSegment; OpenSegment (s); Move To (300, 100); Line To (300,200); Line To (400,200); Line To (400,100); Line To (300,100); CloseSegment;

14 Display les

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In the above program two segments s and t are dened; s for rwctangle and t for triangle. The display le will contain these two segments. T oerase a segment from the display le, the command DeleteSegment() can be used. DeleteSegment(t) will erase the triangle dened in the segment t. The following represents a three segment display le.

14.1

Display File Structure

One possible structure for a display le for storing segments is shown below. For easier manipulation, segments are stored as a linked list structure as shown below.

For example, a display le for our previous example will be represented as follows.

We can locate any segment by stepping along the linked list of segments. The head of the segment contains a pointer to the next segment. This is one possible structure for a display le.

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Part IV. Video Display Devices

[Hearn2009] Normally, the main output device in a graphics system is a video monitor. For eg. a computers monitor.

The operation of most video monitors is based on the standard Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) . Now several other technologies exist.

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Refresh Cathode Ray Tubes

The following gure shows the basic operation of a CRT.

The electron gun emits a beam of electrons called cathode rays. This electron beam passes through the focusing and deection systems. They direct the beam toward specied positions on the phosphor-coated screen. When the beam strikes a position on the screen, the phosphor emits a small spot of light at that position. Since the light emitted by phosphor disappears 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 positions. Such a type of display is called a refresh CRT. The primary components of electron gun in a CRT are the heated metal cathode and a control grid.

15 Refresh Cathode Ray Tubes

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A coil of wire called the lament is placed inside the cylindrical cathode structure. A current is passed through this coil of wire then heat will be produced. Then cathode will get this heat. This heat provided from the lament causes electrons to be boiled off the hot cathode surface. The inside od CRT envelope is vacuum. An accelerating anode is placed inside the CRT envelope. This free negatively charged electrons produced from the cathode are accelerated toward the phosphor coating by a high positive voltage generated from accelerating anode. Control grid is used for controlling the intensity of this electron beam. Control grid is a metal cylinder that ts over the cathode. The intensity can be controlled by setting voltage levels on the control grid. It will stop the beam from passing through the small hole at the end of the control grid by repelling the electrons. Thus as the amount of ve voltage applied to the control grid is increased the intensity of electron beam can be reduced. The amount of light emitted by the phosphor coating depends on the number of electrons striking the screen. The brightness of the display can be controlled by varying the voltage levels on the control grid. The focusing system is placed in the CRT. Its function is to make the electron beam to converge into a small spot in the screen as it strikes the phosphor. Otherwise the electrons in the beam will repel each other and beam will spread out as it approaches the screen. Focusing can be done by either electric or magnetic eld. Normally, in tv and computer monitors electrostatic focusing is commonly used. With electrostatic focusing electron beam passes through a positively changed metal cylinder. The action of focusing anode focuses the electron beam at the center of the screen. The deection of the electron beam is controlled by either magnetic or electric elds. CRT are now constructed with magnetic deection coils mounted o the outside of the CRT envelope. Two pairs of coils are used. Coils in each pair are mounted on opposite sides of the neck of the CRT envelope. One pair is mounted on the top and bottom of the neck and the other pair is mounted on the opposite sides of the neck. The magnetic eld produced by each pair of coils results in a transverse deection force. Horizontal deection is accomplished with one pair of coils and vertical deection by the other pair. The proper deection amounts are attained by adjusting the current through the coils. 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. The remaining beam energy causes electrons in the phosphor atoms to move upto 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 quantums of light

16 Color CRT monitors

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energy. We are seeing the combined effect of all the electron light emissions. The frequency or the color of the light emitted by the phosphor is proportional to the energy difference b/w the excited quantum state and the ground state. Different kinds of phosphors are available for use in a CRT. Besides color a major difference <> phosphors is their persistence. That is how long they will continue to emit light after the CRT beam is removed. Lower persistence phosphors require higher refresh rates to maintain a picture o the screen without icker. Some phosphors have persistence greater than 1 second. Graphics monitors are usually constructed with persistence in the range from 10 to 60 microseconds. The maximum number of points that can be displayed without overlap on a CRT is referred to as the resolution . Resolution is the number of points per centimeter that can be plotted horizontally and vertically. Thus two adjacent spots should appear distinct. As the number of electrons in the beam increases or the intensity of beam increases more electrons will strike a spot, the size of spot will increase. Thus resolution of a CRT is dependent on the type of phosphor, the intensity to be displayed and the focusing and deection systems. Typical resolution in high quality systems is 1280 by 1024. The physical size of a graphics monitor is given as the length of the screen diagonal with size varying from 12 inches to 27 inches or more. Another property of video monitors is aspect ratio. This 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 means that a vertical line plotted with 3 points has the same length as a horizontal line plotted with 4 points.

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Color CRT monitors

A CRT monitor displays color pictures by using a combination of phosphors that emit different coloured light. By combining the emitted light from the different phosphors a range of colors can be generated. Two methods for producing color displays with a CRT are the beam penetration method and 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 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 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. Beam penetration has been an inexpensive way to produce color in random scan monitors, but only 4 colors are possible. The quality of the picture is also not good. Shadow mask methods are usually used in raster scan systems bse they produce a much wide range of colors than the beam penetration method. A shadow mask CRT has 3 phosphor color dots at each pixel position. One phosphor dot emits red light another has 3 guns one for each color dot and a shadow mask grid just behind the phosphor coated screen. Fig below shows the shadow mask used in color CRT systems.

17 Direct view Storage Tubes (DVST)

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The 3 electron beams are deected and focused as a group on to the shadow mask. Shadow mask contains a series of holes aligned with the phosphor dot patterns. When the 3 beams pass through a hole in the shadow mask they activate a dot triangle that 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 colour dot when it passes through the shadow mask. We obtain colour variations in a shadow mask CRT by varying the intensity levels of the 3 electron beams. By turning off the red and green guns we get only the colour coming from the blue phosphor. Other combinations of beam intensities produce a small light spot for each pixel position, since our eyes tend to merge the 3 colours into one composite. The colour we see depend on the amount of excitation of the red, green and blue phosphors. A white area is the result of activating all the 3 dots with equal intensity. Yellow is produced with the green and red dots only. Magenta is produced with the blue and red dots. Also, by setting intensity levels of the electron beams, several million colors can be generated. 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,blue) directly from the computer system without any immediate processing. High quality raster 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 a 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.

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Direct view Storage Tubes (DVST)

[Newman1997] Another 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 stores the picture information as a charge distribution just behind the phosphor coated screen. Two electron guns are used in a DVST. One called the primary gun is used to store the picture pattern. The second, the ood gun, maintains the picture display.

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A DVST monitor has both advantages and disadvantages. Because no refreshing is needed, very complex pictures can be displayed at very high resolutions without icker. 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 modied picture redrawn. The erasing and redrawing process can take several seconds for a complex picture. These are devices with inherent image storage capability. DVST can be compared with a CRT having an extremely long persistence phosphor. A line written on the screen will remain visible for upto an hour before it fades from sight. The beam writes on a ne mesh wire grid coated with dielectric and mounted just behind the screen. A pattern of positive charge is deposited on the grid. A separate ood gun issues a ood of electrons and as a result this pattern is transferred to the phosphor. A second grid called the collector is placed just behind the storage mesh. Its main purpose is to smooth out the ow of ood electrons. These electrons pass through the collator at a low velocity and are attracted to the positively charged portions of the storage mesh, but repelled by the rest. Electrons not repelled by the storage mesh pass through it and strike the phosphor. One of the problems with the DVST is in fact the difculty in removing the storage charge to erase the picture. The normal erasing method is to apply a +ve voltage to the storage mesh for one second or more. This removes all the charge but generates an unpleasant ash over the screen surface.

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Flat Panel Displays

[Foley2001] Liquid Crystal displays (LCD), Plasma Panel, Thin lm electroluminiscent displays are examples of at panel displays. They are thin, have less weight, can be hanged on walls and they consume less power compared to CRT monitors. They are classied into Emissive displays and Non- emissive displays.

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Emissive displays convert electric energy into light. eg. Plasma panel, thin lm electroluminiscent displays. Non emissive displays convert sunlight or light from some other source into graphics patterns. eg. LCD displays.

18.1

Liquid Crystal Displays

Nowadays, LCD display screens are becoming dominant. They started replacing traditional CRT monitors. LCD dsiplays contains liquid crystal material. These liquid crystal materials are made up of long crystalline molecules. The individual molecules are normally arranged in a spiral fashionsuch that the direction of polarisation of polarised light passing through is rotated 900 .

A liquid crystal display is made up of six layers as shown below. the front layer is a vertical polariser plate. Next is a layer with thin grid wires. Next is a thin liquid crystal layer. Next is a horizontal grid wire next , then a horizontal polarizer, then a reector.

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Light entering through the front layer (vertical polarizer) is polarized vertically. as the light passes through the liquid crystal, the polarization is rotated 900 through the horizontal, so the light now passes through the rear polarizer (horizontal polarizer), is reected from the reective layer and returns through the 2 polarizers and crystal. In the normal or in the ON state, this happens. When electricity is applied to liquid crystal materials, they all line up in the same direction, and thus will have no polarizing effect. In this, liquid crystals in the electric leld do not change the polarization of transmitted light, so the light remains vertically polarized and does not pass through the rear horizontal polarizer. The light is absorbed, so the viewer sees a dark spot on the display. A pixel is dened by the intersection of horizontal and vertical grid wires.

18.2

Plasma Panel

Plasma panel consists of two glass plates. Neon gas is lled in between the glass plates. A set of horizontal conducting electrodes are attached to one glass plates. A set of vertical conducting electrodes are attached to the other glass plate.

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The intersection of horizontal and vertical conductors denes a pixel position. When electricity (ring voltages) is applied to pair of horizontal and vertical conductors, the gas between that pixel position will glow. Thus the plasma panel is an array of tiny neon bulbs.

18.3

Thin lm Electroluminiscent displays

Electroluminiscent displays has the same grid structure as in the plasma panel discussed above. But in this, the space between the glass plates is lled with a layer of electroluminiscent material, such as zinc sulphide doped with manganese instead of neon gas. This will emit light when in an electric eld (100,000V).

Part V. Input Devices

[Hearn2009] In order to input data on graphics workstations, various devices are available. We know that most Compter systems have a keyboard and one or more additional devices For interactive input, some devices are mouse, trackball, spaceball, joystick, digitizers, dials, button boxes, data gloves, touch panels, image scanners and voice systems.

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Keyboard

Graphical system uses a keyboard to enter text strings. A keyboard is an efcient device for inputting data such as picture labels associated with a graphics display. In keyboards, cursor control keys and function keys are provided. Function keys allows users to enter commonly used operations in a single key stroke. Cursor control keys are used to select displayed objects or coordinate positions by positioning the cursor. Sometimes a trackball or a spaceball are included on the keyboard. A numeric keypad is often included on the keyboard for fast entry of numeric data.

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Mouse

Mouse is a small box used to position the screen cursor. At the bottom of mouse, wheels or rollers are provided which record the amount and direction of movement. Instead of this an optical sensor can be used to detect mouse motion. For these 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. The mouse is used for making relative changes in the position of screen cursor 1, 2 or 3 buttons are provided on the top of the mouse for signaling the execution of some operation. Addition devices can be included in the basic mouse design. The Z mouse includes 3 buttons, a thumbwheel on the side, a trackball on the top and a standard mouse ball at the bottom. This design provides 6 degrees of freedom to select positions, rotations and other parameters. With a m Z mouse we can pick up an object, rotate it, and move it in any direction. Z mouse is used in virtual reality, CAD and animation.

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Trackball and Spaceball

Trackball is a ball that can be rotated with the palm of the hand to produce a screen cursor movement. Potentiometers attached to the ball measure the amount and direction of rotation. Trackballs are often mounted on keyboards or Z mouse. It is a 2 dimensional positioning device. A spaceball provides 6 degrees of freedom. Spaceball does not actually move. Strain gauges measure the amount of pressure applied to the spaceball to provide i/p for spatial positioning and orientation as the ball is pushed or pulled in various directions. Spaceballs are used in 3 dimensional positioning and selection operations.

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Joystick

A joystick consists of a small, vertical lever mounted on base that is used to steer the screen cursor around. Joystick select screen positions with actual stick movement. Some joystick respond to pressure on the stick. The distance that the stick is moved in any direction from its center position corresponds to screen cursor movement in that direction. Potentiometer mounted a thte base of the joystick measure the amount of movement and springs return the stick to the center position when it is released. In one type of joystick, the stick is used to activate switches that cause the screen cursor to move at a constant rate in the direction selected.

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Data Glove

Data glove can be used to grasp a virtual object. The glove is constructed with a series of sensors that detect hand and nger motions. Electromagnetic coupling between transmitting and receiving antennas is used to provide information about the position and orientation of hand. Input from the glove can be used to position or manipulate objects in a virtual scene. A 2 dimensional projection of the scene can be viewed on a video monitor.

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Digitizers

Digitizer is a device for drawing, painting or interactively selecting coordinate positions on an object. These are used to i/p coordinate values in either a 2d or a 3d space. Graphics tablet is a type of digitizer. It is used to i/p 2d coordinates by activating a hand cursor or stylus at selected positions on a at surface. A hand cursor contains cross hairs for sighting positions. A stylus is a pencil shaped device that is pointed at positions on the tablet. The artists digitizing system uses electromagnetic resonance to detect the 3d position of the stylus. This allows an artist to produce different brush strokes with different pressures on the tablet surface. Graphics tablets provide a highly accurate method for selecting coordinate position. Many graphics tablets are constructed with a rectangular grid of wires embedded in the tablet surface. Electromagnetic pulses are generated in sequence along the wires and an electric signal is induced in a wire coil in an actuated stylus or hand cursor to record a tablet position. Acoustic tablets use sound waves to detect a stylus position. Strip microphones or point microphones are used to detect the sound emitted by an electrical spark from a stylus tip. . The position of the stylus is calculated by timing the arrival of the generated sounds at the different microphone position. An advantage of 2 dimensional acoustic tablets

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is that the microphones can be placed on any surface to form the tablet work area. Three-dimensional digitizers use sonic or electromagnetic transmissions to record positions. A coupling between the transmitters and receiver is used to compute the location of a stylus as it means over the surface of an object. A s the points are selected on a real world object, a wire frame outline of the surface is displayed on the computer Screen.

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Image Scanners

If we have drawings, graphs recorded in a paper and also color and b/w photos or text, we can store these in a Computer for processing with an image scanner. Image scanner contains an optical scanning mechanism that moves over the information to be stored. The gradations of gray scale or color are then recorded and stored in an array. Once we have an internal representation of a picture, we can process that picture.

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Touch Panels

Touch panels allow displayed objects or screen positions to be selected with the touch of a nger. One appln of touch panels is for the selection of processing options that are represented with graphical icons. Touch input can be recorded using optical, electrical or acoustical methods. Optical touch panels employ a line of infrared LEDs along one vertical edge and along one horizontal edge of the frame. The opposite vertical and horizontal edges contain light detectors. These detectors are used to record which

27 Light Pens

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beams are interrupted when the panel is touched. The 2 crossing beams that are interrupted identify the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the screen position selected. An electrical touch panel is constructed with 2 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 screen position. In acoustical touch panels, high frequency sound waves are generated in the horizontal and vertical directions across a glass plate. Touching the screen causes part of the each wave to be reected from the nger to the emitters. The screen position at the point of contact is calculated from a measurement of time interval b/w the transmission of each wave and its reection to the emitter.

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Light Pens

It is a pencil shaped device. It is 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. An activated lightpen 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. These recorded light pen coordinates can be used to position an object or to select a processing option.

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Voice system

Speech recognizers are used in some graphics work stations as i/p devices to accept voice commands. The voice system i/p can be used to initiate graphics operations. These systems operate by matching an i/p against a predenes dictionary of words and phrases. A dictionary is set up for a particular operator by having the operator speak the command word to be used into the system. Each word is spoken several times and the system analyses the word and form a frequency pattern for the word in the dictionary along with the function to be performed. Later when a voice command is given, the system searches the dictionary for a match. Voice i/p is typically spoken into a microphone mounted on a handset.

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Hardcopy devices

We can obtain hard copy o/p of images in several formats. For presentations, we need slides. We can send images to devices that will produce 35mm slides or overhead transparencies. We can put our pictures on paper by directing graphics o/p to a printer or plotter. The quality of the pictures obtained from a device depends on dot size and the no of dots / inch that can be displayed. Printers produce output by either impact or non impact methods. Impact printers press formed character faces against an inked ribbon o to the paper. Eg. a line printer.

Non impact printers and plotters use laser techniques, inkjet sprays, xerographic processes to get images on to the paper. Character impact printer have a dot matrix print head containing a rectangular array of wire pins with the no of pins depend on the quality of printer. Individual character or graphics patterns are obtained by retracing certain pins so that the remaining pins form the pattern to be printed. In a laser device a laser beam creates a charge distribution on a rotating drum coated with photoelectric material. Toner is applied to the drum and the transferred to the paper. Inkjet methods produce output by squirting ink in horizontal rows across a roll of paper wrapped on a drum. The

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electrically charged ink stream is deected by an electric eld to produce dot matrix pattern. An electrostatic device places a negative charge on the paper one complete row at a time along the length of the paper. Then the paper is exposed to a toner. The toner is positively charged and is attracted to negatively charged areas where it adheres to produce the specied output. Electro thermal methods use heat in a dot matrix print head to output patterns on heat sensitive paper.

Questions
MGU/April2011 1. Explain a vector refresh system (4marks). 2. Enumerate the elds of application of computer graphics (4marks). 3a. Briey explain the working of any two interactive graphic input devices. What is the general structure of the input device? OR b. Compare the functions performed by display processors in random scan and in vector scan systems (12marks).

MGU/Nov2010 1. What is interactive graphics system? (4marks) 2. Distinguish between raster scan and vector scan display systems (4marks). 3. a. Explain the construction and working of graphics display unit. OR b. How will you classify the display devices used in computer graphics (12marks) ?

MGU/May2010 4. Explain the generation of a raster image in detail (4marks). 5. Explain the basic concepts of computer graphics (4marks). 6. a. Explain in detail the application of raster scan graphics. OR b. Explain in detail about the graphical input devices and output devices (12marks).

MGU/Nov2009 7. Discuss the applications of computer graphics (4marks). 8. Explain video display devices (4 marks). 9. a. Explain raster scan and random scan systems. OR b. Explain with neat diagram the display processor for a random scan display devices (12 marks).

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MGU/May2009 10. What is interactive graphics system (4marks)? 11. Give the applications of raster scan graphics (4marks). 12. a. Explain in detail the applications of ratser scan graphics. Or b. Explain the principles of graphical input and output devices with neat sketches (12marks).

MGU/Nov2008 13. Explain the basic concepts in computer graphics (4marks). 14. Explain the generation of a raster image (4marks). 15. a. Explain the principle of video display devices with neat sketches. OR b. Explain in brief about: display les, graphical input and output devices (12marks).

MGU/May2008 16. List some of the applications of computer graphics (4marks). 17. What are the classication of display devices used for computer graphics? (4marks) 18. a. Explain with neat diagram the display processor for a random scan display device. OR b. Explain the working of the following input devices: i) Mouse ii) Touch panel iii) Joysticks (12marks).

MGU/Dec2007 19. Write briey on the logical classication of input devices (4marks). 20. What are the basic concepts in computer graphics (4marks). 21. a. Explain with neat diagram the display processor for raster scan display device. OR b. Explain the different structures that can be used for display le representations (12marks).

MGU/Jan2007 22. Briey explain the different application areas of computer graphics (4marks). 23. With a neat schematic, explain the architecture of a raster scan graphics system (4marks). 24. a. Briey explain different graphical input devices and output devices. Or b. List different tpes of video display devices. Explain the operation of color CRT monitor wit hthe help of neat schematic (12marks).

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MGU/June2006 25. What is interatcive graphics system (4marks)? 26. Enumerate the applications of raster scan graphics (4marks). 27. a. Explain in detail the basic concepts in computer graphics. OR b. Explain the basic principles of graphical input and output devices (12marks).

MGU/Nov2005 28. Explain the potential applications of computer graphics (4marks). 29. What is raster scan graphics (4marks)? 30. a. Explain in detail the working principle of any two graphical input devices. Or b. Explain the following in detail: i) display processors ii) generation of a raster image. (12marks)

References
[1] Foley, J, D; VanDam, A; Feiner, S. K.; Hughes, J, F (2001). Computer Graphics. Pearson Education. [2] Hearn, D; Baker, M. P (2009). Computer Graphics, C Version. Pearson Education. [3] Newman, W. M; Sproull, R. F. (1997]. Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics. Tata McGraw-Hill