Unit 1

introduction to computer
graphics & scan conversion

Computer graphics application &

software
CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Used in design of buildings, automobiles,
aircrafts, spacecrafts, computers, textiles,
etc.
Objects are displayed in a wireframe
structure

Con
Wireframe structure of a building

Con
Interior of the vehicle and Effects of
adjustments in design are visible
Behavior of the inner components during
motion can be seen
Multi-window environment
After the completion of design realistic
lighting applied to produce final product

Con
Animation in VR environments are used to
determine how vehicle operators are affected
by certain motions.
Standard shapes for electrical, electronic and
logic circuits are supplied. Eg: diode, resistor
Architects used to design the buildings.
Electrical designer design the arrangements
of wiring, electrical layout, etc

 Presentation graphics
Produce illustration for reports
Eg: charts (bar,pie), graphs
(line,surface,2D,3D)

Computer art
Fine art and commercial art

Entertainment
Making motion pictures, music videos
CG works in movies

Education and training

Flight simulator, military tank simulator

 Flight simulator

 Visualization
Scientists, engineers, medical personnel
business analysts using large set of
information to study a behavior of certain
process
Super computer gives million data files after
its computation.
To study and analyze large set of data is
difficult, so data are converted into visual form
2 types of visualization

 Scientific visualization
Produce graphical representations for
scientific engineering and medical data
sets.

Business visualization
Produce graphical representations for
data sets related to commerce, industry
and other nonscientific areas

Methods for visualization

Color coding, graphs, charts, etc

 Image processing
Used to modify or interpret the existing
picture
2 Principles
Improve picture quality
Machine perception of visual information which is
used in robotics

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Window manager allows a user to display
multiple window areas.
Each window contain different process that
contain graphical or nongraphical displays
Icon is a graphical symbol that is designed
to look like the processing option it
represents

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

Con
Electron gun emits the beam of electrons which passes through focusing and
deflection system and reaches phosphor-coated screen.
Phosphor-coated screen emits small spot of light at each position which is
contact with electron beam
Refresh CRT
Redraw the picture repeatedly by quickly directing the electron beam back
over the same points .
Refresh rate of CRT
No. of times per second the image is redrawn

Con

Con
Electron gun is heated metal cathode and
control grid
Heat is supplied to the cathode by directing
a current through coil of wire called
filament and the electron beam is emitted
Intensity of the electron beam is controlled
by setting voltage levels on control grid
High ve voltage will shut off the beam
Small ve voltage will decreases no. of
electrons passes through.

Con
Amount of light emitted by the phosphor coating
depends on the no. of electrons striking the
screen
Control the brightness of the display by varying
the voltage on control grid
Focusing system force the electron beam to
converge into a small spot as it strikes the
phosphor, otherwise electrons would repel each
other and beam would spread out
Focusing , deflection of the electron beam can
be controlled either using electric or magnetic
fields, CRT commonly use magnetic deflection
coils

Con

Con
2 pairs of coils used, one pair mounted on
the top and bottom of the neck, and another
pair is mounted on the opposite sides of the
neck
Horizontal deflection made by one pair and
vertical deflection by another pair of coils
In electrostatic deflection is used, 2 pairs of
parallel plates are mounted inside the CRT
envelope

 Persistence

Con

How long phosphor continue to emit light after the

CRT beam is removed

Resolution
Maximum no. of points that can be displayed without
overlap on a CRT
No. of points per centimeter that can be plotted
horizontally and vertically

Aspect Ratio
Ratio of vertical points to horizontal points necessary
to produce equal-length lines in both directions

Con

Storage Tube Graphics

Displays
A CRT with a long
persistence phosphor

Line or character will remain visible up to a hour

until erased
Intensity of electron beam is increased
sufficiently to cause the phosphor to assume its
permanent bright storage
Display is erased by flooding the entire tube with
a specific voltage which causes the phosphor to
assume its dark state

Con
Features
It is flicker free
Resolution is 10241024
Display of dynamic motion or animation is not
possible
Easier to program than calligraphic or raster
scan refresh display
Level of interactivity is lower than with either
a refresh or raster scan display

Raster Scan or Calligraphic

Refresh Graphics Displays

Con
Electron beam swept (move) across the screen, one
row at a time from top to bottom
Picture definition is stored in a memory area called
refresh buffer or frame buffer
Memory area holds intensity values for all screen
points
Stored intensity values retrieved and painted
Each screen point referred as pixel

Cont

In black and white system each pixel is

represented as either 0 or 1, so one bit
required to store pixel value in frame
buffer which is called bitmap
Bit value 1-> Electron beam on
Bit value 0-> Electron beam off
Frame buffer which requires multiple bits
to represent one pixel called pixmap

Con
Horizontal retrace
After refreshing each scan line , electron
beam returns to left end of the screen

Vertical retrace
At end of each frame electron beam returns
to the top of the screen to begin next frame

Con
Interlaced refresh procedure
Display each frame in two passes
1st pass even numbered (solid) lines are
displayed
2nd pass odd numbered (doted) lines are
displayed

Random-Scan Displays

Con
Electron beam is directed to only the parts
of the screen where a picture is to be drawn
Picture components can be drawn in any
order
Refresh display file
Picture definition is stored as a set of line
drawing commends in an memory called refresh
display file or display list or display program