Computer Graphics

Learning Objectives
To understand basics of computer graphics. To give more emphasis on implementation aspect of Computer Graphics Algorithm. To prepare the student for advance courses like multimedia/ Computer Vision.

Introduction to Computer Graphics

The computer is an information processing machine. It is a tool for storing, manipulating and correlating data. There are many ways to communicate the processed information to the user. The computer graphics is one of the most effective and commonly used way to communicate the processed information to the user. It displays the information in the form of graphics objects such as pictures, charts, graphs and diagrams instead of simple text. Thus we can say that computer graphics makes it possible to express data in pictorial form. The picture or graphics objects may be an engineering drawing, business graphs, architectural structures, a single frame from an animated movie or machine parts illustrated for a service manual.

In Computer Graphics, pictures or graphics objects are presented as collection of discrete picture elements called pixels. The pixel is the smallest addressable screen element. It is the smallest piece of the display screen which we can control. The control is achieved by setting the intensity and color of the pixel which compose the screen. Each pixel on the graphics display does not represent mathematical point. Rather it represents a region which theoretically can contain an infinite number of points. For example, if we want to display point P1 whose coordinates are (4.2, 3.8) and point P2 whose coordinates are (4.8, 3.1) then P1 and P2 are represented by only one pixel(4,3), as shown in figure 1.

4 Y pixel row 3 3
P1 P2

2
1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5

X pixel row 4

Figure 1: Pixel display area of 6 X 5

In general, a point is represented by the integer part of x and integer part of y i.e, pixel(int (x), int (y)). The process of determining the appropriate pixels for representing picture or graphics object is known as rasterization. The process of representing continuous picture or graphics objects as a collection of discrete pixels is called scan conversion. The computer graphics allows rotation, translation, scaling and performing various projections on the picture before displaying it. It provides user the control to modify contents, structure, and appearance of pictures or graphics objects using input devices such as keyboard, mouse or touchsensitive panel on screen.

Advantages of Computer Graphics

It has an ability to show moving pictures and thus it is possible to produce animations with computer graphics. With computer graphics, we can also control the animation by adjusting the speed, the portion of the total scene in view, the geometric relationship of objects in the scene to one another, the amount of details shown and so on. The computer graphics provides facility called update dynamics. With update dynamics it is possible to change the shape, color or other properties of the objects being viewed. Computer graphics permits extensive high bandwidth usercomputer interaction. It significantly enhances the ability to understand information to perceive trends and to visualize real or imaginary objects either moving or stationary in a realistic environment.

Applications of Computer Graphics

It is used in various areas such as industry, business, government organizations, education, entertainment. 1)User Interfaces: Graphical interfaces provide an attractive and easy interaction between users and computers. The built-in graphics provided with user interfaces use visual control items such as buttons, menus, icons, scroll bar etc, which allows user to interact with computer only by mouse click. 2) Plotting of graphics and charts: In industry, business, government and educational organizations, computer graphics is most commonly used to create 2D and 3D graphs of mathematical, physical and economic functions in form of histograms, bars and pie charts.

3) Office automation and Desktop Publishing. 4) Computer-aided Drafting and Design. 5) Simulation and Animation. 6) Cartography.