What is computer Graphics?

Computer graphics is an art of drawing pictures, lines, charts, etc. using computers with
the help of programming. Computer graphics image is made up of number of pixels. Pixel is the
smallest addressable graphical unit represented on the computer screen.
Introduction

 Computer is information processing machine. User needs to communicate with computer

and the computer graphics is one of the most effective and commonly used ways of
communication with the user.
 It displays the information in the form of graphical objects such as pictures, charts, diagram
and graphs.
 Graphical objects convey more information in less time and easily understandable formats
for example statically graph shown in stock exchange.
 In computer graphics picture or graphics objects are presented as a collection of discrete
pixels.
 We can control intensity and color of pixel which decide how picture look like.
 The special procedure determines which pixel will provide the best approximation to the
desired picture or graphics object this process is known as Rasterization.
 The process of representing continuous picture or graphics object as a collection of discrete
pixels is called Scan Conversion.
Advantages of computer graphics

 Computer graphics is one of the most effective and commonly used ways of
communication with computer.
 It provides tools for producing picture of “real-world” as well as synthetic objects such as
mathematical surfaces in 4D and of data that have no inherent geometry such as survey
result.
 It has ability to show moving pictures thus possible to produce animations with computer
graphics.
 With the use of computer graphics we can control the animation by adjusting the speed,
portion of picture in view the amount of detail shown and so on.
 It provides tools called motion dynamics. In which user can move objects as well as observes
as per requirement for example walk throw made by builder to show flat interior and
surrounding.
 It provides facility called update dynamics. With this we can change the shape color and
other properties of object.
 Now in recent development of digital signal processing and audio synthesis chip the
interactive graphics can now provide audio feedback along with the graphical feed backs.
Application of computer graphics

 User interface: - Visual object which we observe on screen which communicates with user
is one of the most useful applications of the computer graphics.
 Plotting of graphics and chart in industry, business, government and educational
organizations drawing like bars, pie-charts, histogram’s are very useful for quick and good
decision making.
 Office automation and desktop publishing: - It is used for creation and dissemination of
information. It is used in in-house creation and printing of documents which contains text,
tables, graphs and other forms of drawn or scanned images or picture.
 Computer aided drafting and design: - It uses graphics to design components and
system such as automobile bodies structures of building etc.
 Simulation and animation: - Use of graphics in simulation makes mathematic models and
mechanical systems more realistic and easy to study.
 Art and commerce: - There are many tools provided by graphics which allows used to make
their picture animated and attracted which are used in advertising.
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  Process control: - Now a day’s automation is used which is graphically displayed on the
screen.
 Cartography: - Computer graphics is also used to represent geographic maps,
weather maps, oceanographic charts etc.
 Education and training: - Computer graphics can be used to generate models of physical,
financial and economic systems. These models can be used as educational aids.
 Image processing: - It is used to process image by changing property of the image.

Display devices

 Display devices are also known as output devices.

 Most commonly used output device in a graphics system is a video monitor.

Cathode-ray-tubes

Fig. 1.1: - Cathode ray tube.

 It is an evacuated glass tube.

 An electron gun at the rear of the tube produce a beam of electrons which is directed
towards the screen of the tube by a high voltage typically 15000 to 20000 volts.
 Inner side screen is coated with phosphor substance which gives light when it is stroked
bye electrons.
 Control grid controls velocity of electrons before they hit the phosphor.
 The control grid voltage determines how many electrons are actually in the electron beam.
The negative the control voltage is the fewer the electrons that pass through the grid.
 Thus control grid controls Intensity of the spot where beam strikes the screen.
 The focusing system concentrates the electron beam so it converges to small point when
hits the phosphor coating.
 Deflection system directs beam which decides the point where beam strikes the screen.
 Deflection system of the CRT consists of two pairs of parallel plates which are vertical and
horizontal deflection plates.
 Voltage applied to vertical and horizontal deflection plates is control vertical and horizontal
deflection respectively.
 There are two techniques used for producing images on the CRT screen:
i. Vector scan/Random scan display.
ii. Raster scan display.

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Vector scan/Random scan display:-

Fig. 1.2: - Architecture of a vector display.

 Vector scan display directly traces out only the desired lines on CRT.
 If we want line between point p1 & p2 then we directly drive the beam deflection circuitry
which focus beam directly from point p1 to p2.
 If we do not want to display line from p1 to p2 and just move then we can blank the beam
as we move it.
 To move the beam across the CRT, the information about both magnitude and direction is
required. This information is generated with the help of vector graphics generator.
 Fig. 1.2 shows architecture of vector display. It consists of display controller, CPU, display
buffer memory and CRT.
 Display controller is connected as an I/O peripheral to the CPU.
 Display buffer stores computer produced display list or display program.
 The Program contains point & line plotting commands with end point co-ordinates as well
as character plotting commands.
 Display controller interprets command and sends digital and point co-ordinates to a vector
generator.
 Vector generator then converts the digital co-ordinate value to analog voltages for beam
deflection circuits that displace an electron beam which points on the CRT’s screen.
 In this technique beam is deflected from end point to end point hence this techniques is
also called random scan.
 We know as beam strikes phosphors coated screen it emits light but that light decays after
few milliseconds and therefore it is necessary to repeat through the display list to refresh
the screen at least 30 times per second to avoid flicker.
 As display buffer is used to store display list and used to refreshing, it is also called refresh
buffer.

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Raster scan display

Fig. 1.3: - Architecture of a raster display.

 Fig. 1.3 shows the architecture of Raster display. It consists of display controller, CPU, video
controller, refresh buffer, keyboard, mouse and CRT.
 The display image is stored in the form of 1’s and 0’s in the refresh buffer.
 The video controller reads this refresh buffer and produces the actual image on screen.
 It will scan one line at a time from top to bottom & then back to the top.

Fig. 1.4: - Raster scan CRT.

 In this method the horizontal and vertical deflection signals are generated to move the beam
all over the screen in a pattern shown in fig. 1.4.
 Here beam is swept back & forth from left to the right.
 When beam is moved from left to right it is ON.
 When beam is moved from right to left it is OFF and process of moving beam from right to
left after completion of row is known as Horizontal Retrace.
 When beam is reach at the bottom of the screen. It is made OFF and rapidly retraced back
to the top left to start again and process of moving back to top is known as Vertical Retrace.
 The screen image is maintained by repeatedly scanning the same image. This process is
known as Refreshing of Screen.

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  In raster scan displays a special area of memory is dedicated to graphics only. This memory
is called Frame Buffer.
 Frame buffer holds set of intensity values for all the screen points.
 That intensity is retrieved from frame buffer and display on screen one row at a time.
 Each screen point referred as pixel or Pel (Picture Element).
 Each pixel can be specified by its row and column numbers.
 It can be simply black and white system or color system.
 In simple black and white system each pixel is either ON or OFF, so only one bit per pixel
is needed.
 Additional bits are required when color and intensity variations can be displayed up to 24-
bits per pixel are included in high quality display systems.
 On a black and white system with one bit per pixel the frame buffer is commonly called a
Bitmap. And for systems with multiple bits per pixel, the frame buffer is often referred as a
Pixmap.
Raster graphics systems
Simple raster graphics system

Fig. 1.14: - Architecture of a simple raster graphics system.

 Raster graphics systems having additional processing unit like video controller or display
controller.
 Here frame buffer can be anywhere in the system memory and video controller access this
for refresh the screen.
 In addition to video controller more processors are used as co-processors to accelerate the
system in sophisticated raster system.
Raster graphics system with a fixed portion of the system memory reserved for the frame
buffer

Fig. 1.15: - Architecture of a raster graphics system with a fixed portion of the system
memory reserved for the frame buffer.

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  A fixed area of the system memory is reserved for the frame buffer and the video controller
can directly access that frame buffer memory.
 Frame buffer location and the screen position are referred in Cartesian coordinates.
 For many graphics monitors the coordinate origin is defined at the lower left screen corner.
 Screen surface is then represented as the first quadrant of the two dimensional systems
with positive X- value increases as left to right and positive Y-value increases bottom to top.

Basic refresh operation of video controller

Fig. 1.16: - Basic video controller refresh operation.

 Two registers are used to store the coordinates of the screen pixels which are X and Y.
 Initially the X is set to 0 and Y is set to Ymax.
 The value stored in frame buffer for this pixel is retrieved and used to set the intensity of
the CRT beam.
 After this X register is incremented by one.
 This procedure is repeated till X becomes equals to Xmax.
 Then X is set to 0 and Y is decremented by one pixel and repeat above procedure.
 This whole procedure is repeated till Y is become equals to 0 and complete the one refresh
cycle. Then controller reset the register as top –left corner i.e. X=0 and Y=Ymax and refresh
process start for next refresh cycle.
 Since screen must be refreshed at the rate of 60 frames per second the simple procedure
illustrated in figure cannot be accommodated by typical RAM chips.
 To speed up pixel processing video controller retrieves multiple values at a time using more
numbers of registers and simultaneously refresh block of pixel.
 Such a way it can speed up and accommodate refresh rate more than 60 frames per second.

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Raster-graphics system with a display processor

Fig. 1.17: - Architecture of a raster-graphics system with a display processor.

 One way to designing raster system is having separate display coprocessor.

 Purpose of display processor is to free CPU from graphics work.
 Display processors have their own separate memory for fast operation.
 Main work of display processor is digitalizing a picture definition given into a set of pixel
intensity values for store in frame buffer.
 This digitalization process is scan conversion.
 Display processor also performs many other functions such as generating various line styles
(dashed, dotted, or solid). Display color areas and performing some transformation for
manipulating object.
 It also interfaces with interactive input devices such as mouse.
 For reduce memory requirements in raster scan system methods have been devised for
organizing the frame buffer as a line list and encoding the intensity information.
 One way to do this is to store each scan line as a set of integer pair one number indicate
number of adjacent pixels on the scan line that are having same intensity and second stores
intensity value this technique is called run-length encoding.
 A similar approach is when pixel. Intensity is changes linearly, encoded the raster as a set
of rectangular areas (cell encoding).
 Disadvantages of encoding is when run length is small it requires more memory then
original frame buffer.
 It also difficult for display controller to process the raster when many sort runs are involved.

Random- scan system

Fig. 1.18: - Architecture of a simple random-scan system.

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  An application program is input & 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 file stored in the system memory.
 This display file is used by display processor to refresh the screen.
 Display process goes through each command in display file. Once during every refresh cycle.
 Sometimes the display processor in random scan system is also known as display
processing unit or a graphics controller.
 In this system graphics platform are drawn on random scan system by directing the electron
beam along the component times of the picture.
 Lines are defined by coordinate end points.
 This input coordinate values are converts to X and Y deflection voltages.
 A scene is then drawn one line at a time.

Graphics input devices

Keyboards:- Keyboards are used as entering text strings. It is efficient devices for inputting such
a non-graphics data as picture label. Cursor control key’s & function keys are common features
on general purpose keyboards. Many other application of key board which we are using daily
used of computer graphics are commanding & controlling through keyboard etc.

Mouse:- Mouse is small size hand-held box used to position screen cursor. Wheel or roller or
optical sensor is directing pointer on the according to movement of mouse. Three buttons are
placed on the top of the mouse for signalling the execution of some operation. Now a day’s more
advance mouse is available which are very useful in graphics application for example Z mouse.

Trackball and Spaceball:- Trackball is ball that can be rotated with the finger or palm of the
hand to produce cursor movement. Potentiometer attached to the ball, measure the amount and
direction of rotation. They are often mounted on keyboard or Z mouse. Space ball provide six-
degree of freedom i.e. three dimensional. In space ball strain gauges measure the amount of
pressure applied to the space ball to provide input for spatial positioning and orientation as the
ball is pushed or pulled in various directions. Space balls are used in 3D positioning and selection
operations in virtual reality system, modelling, animation, CAD and other application.

Joysticks:- A joy stick consists of small vertical lever mounted on a base that is used to steer the
screen cursor around. Most joy sticks selects screen positioning according to actual movement of
stick (lever). Some joy sticks are works on pressure applied on sticks. Sometimes joy stick mounted
on keyboard or sometimes used alone. Movement of the stick defines the movement of the cursor.
In pressure sensitive stick pressure applied on stick decides movement of the cursor. This pressure
is measured using strain gauge. This pressure sensitive joy sticks also called as isometric joy
sticks and they are non-movable sticks.

Data glove:- Data glove is used to grasp virtual objects. The glow is constructed with series of
sensors that detect hand and figure motions. Electromagnetic coupling is used between
transmitter and receiver antennas which used to provide position and orientation of the hand.
Transmitter & receiver Antenna can be structured as a set of three mutually perpendicular coils
forming 3D Cartesian coordinates system. Input from the glove can be used to position or
manipulate object in a virtual scene.

Digitizer:- Digitizer is common device for drawing painting or interactively selecting coordinates
position on an object. One type of digitizers is graphics tablet which input two dimensional

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coordinates by activating hand cursor or stylus at selected position on a flat surface. Stylus is flat
pencil shaped device that is pointed at the position on the tablet.

Image Scanner:- Image Scanner scan drawing, graph, color, & black and white photos or text and
can stored for computer processing by passing an optical scanning mechanism over the
information to be stored. Once we have internal representation of a picture we can apply
transformation. We can also apply various image processing methods to modify the picture. For
scanned text we can apply modification operation.

Touch Panels:- As name suggest Touch Panels allow displaying objects or screen-position to be
selected with the touch or finger. A typical application is selecting processing option shown in
graphical icons. Some system such as a plasma panel are designed with touch screen. Other
system can be adapted for touch input by fitting transparent touch sensing mechanism over a
screen.
Touch input can be recorded with following methods.
1. Optical methods
2. Electrical methods
3. Acoustical methods

Optical method:- Optical touch panel employ a line of infrared LEDs along one vertical and
one horizontal edge. The opposite edges of the edges containing LEDs are contain light detectors.
When we touch at a particular position the line of light path breaks and according to that breaking
line coordinate values are measured. In case two line cuts it will take average of both pixel
positions. LEDs operate at infrared frequency so it cannot be visible to user.

Electrical method:- An electrical touch panel is constructed with two transparent plates
separated by small distance. One is coated with conducting material and other is coated with
resistive material. When outer plate is touch it will come into contact with internal plate. When
both plates touch it creates voltage drop across the resistive plate that is converted into
coordinate values of the selected position.

Acoustical method:- In acoustical touch panel high frequency sound waves are generated
in horizontal and vertical direction across a glass plates. When we touch the screen the waves
from that line are reflected from finger. These reflected waves reach again at transmitter position
and time difference between sending and receiving is measure and converted into coordinate
values.

Light pens:- Light pens are pencil-shaped device used to select positions by detecting light coming
from points on the CRT screen. Activated light pens pointed at a spot on the screen as the electron
beam lights up that spot and generate electronic pulse that causes the coordinate position of the
electron beam to be recorded.

Voice systems:- It is used to accept voice command in some graphics workstations. It is used to
initiate graphics operations. It will match input against predefined directory of words and phrases.
Dictionary is setup for a particular operator by recording his voice. Each word is speak several
times and then analyze the word and establishes a frequency pattern for that word along with
corresponding function need to be performed. When operator speaks command it will match with
predefine dictionary and perform desired action.

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Difference between random scan and raster scan

Color CRT monitors

 A CRT monitors displays color pictures by using a combination of phosphors that emit
different colored light.
 It produces range of colors by combining the light emitted by different phosphors.
 There are two basic techniques for color display:
i. Beam-penetration technique
ii. Shadow-mask technique
Beam-penetration technique

Fig. 1.5: - Beam-penetration CRT

 This technique is used with random scan monitors.

 In this technique inside of CRT coated with two phosphor layers usually red and green. The
outer layer of red and inner layer of green phosphor.
 The color depends on how far the electron beam penetrates into the phosphor layer.
 A beam of fast electron penetrates more and excites inner green layer while slow electron
excites outer red layer.
 At intermediate beam speed we can produce combination of red and green lights which emit
additional two colors orange and yellow.
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  The beam acceleration voltage controls the speed of the electrons and hence color of pixel.
 It is a low cost technique to produce color in random scan monitors.
 It can display only four colors.
 Quality of picture is not good compared to other techniques.

Shadow-mask technique

Fig. 1.6: - Shadow-mask CRT.

 It produces wide range of colors as compared to beam-penetration technique.

 This technique is generally used in raster scan displays. Including color TV.
 In this technique CRT has three phosphor color dots at each pixel position. One dot for
red, one for green and one for blue light. This is commonly known as Dot Triangle.
 Here in CRT there are three electron guns present, one for each color dot. And a shadow
mask grid just behind the phosphor coated screen.
 The shadow mask grid consists of series of holes aligned with the phosphor dot pattern.
 Three electron beams are deflected and focused as a group onto the shadow mask and
when they pass through a hole they excite a dot triangle.
 In dot triangle three phosphor dots are arranged so that each electron beam can activate
only its corresponding color dot when it passes through the shadow mask.
 A dot triangle when activated appears as a small dot on the screen which has color of
combination of three small dots in the dot triangle.
 By changing the intensity of the three electron beams we can obtain different colors in the
shadow mask CRT.

Direct-view storage tubes (DVST)

Fig. 1.7: - Direct-view storage tube.

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  In raster scan display we do refreshing of the screen to maintain a screen image.
 DVST gives alternative method for maintaining the screen image.
 DVST uses the storage grid which stores the picture information as a charge distribution
just behind the phosphor coated screen.
 DVST consists two electron guns a primary gun and a flood gun.
 A primary gun stores the picture pattern and the flood gun maintains the picture display.
 A primary gun emits high speed electrons which strike on the storage grid to draw the
picture pattern.
 As electron beam strikes on the storage grid with high speed, it knocks out electrons from
the storage grid keeping the net positive charge.
 The knocked out electrons are attracted towards the collector.
 The net positive charge on the storage grid is nothing but the picture pattern.
 The continuous low speed electrons from flood gun pass through the control grid and are
attracted to the positive charged area of the storage grid.
 The low speed electrons then penetrate the storage grid and strike the phosphor coating
without affecting the positive charge pattern on the storage grid.
 During this process the collector just behind the storage grid smooth out the flow of flood
electrons.
Advantage of DVST

 Refreshing of CRT is not required.

 Very complex pictures can be displayed at very high resolution without flicker.
 Flat screen.
Disadvantage of DVST

 They do not display color and are available with single level of line intensity.
 For erasing it is necessary to removal of charge on the storage grid so erasing and redrawing
process take several second.
 Erasing selective part of the screen cannot be possible.
 Cannot used for dynamic graphics application as on erasing it produce unpleasant flash
over entire screen.
 It has poor contrast as a result of the comparatively low accelerating potential applied to
the flood electrons.
 The performance of DVST is somewhat inferior to the refresh CRT.

Flat Panel Display

 The term flat panel display refers to a class of video device that have reduced volume, weight
& power requirement compared to a CRT.
 As flat panel display is thinner than CRTs, we can hang them on walls or wear on our wrists.
 Since we can even write on some flat panel displays they will soon be available as pocket
notepads.
 We can separate flat panel display in two categories:
1. Emissive displays:- the emissive display or emitters are devices that convert
electrical energy into light. For Ex. Plasma panel, thin film electroluminescent
displays and light emitting diodes.
2. Non emissive displays:- non emissive display or non-emitters use optical
effects to convert sunlight or light from some other source into graphics patterns.
For Ex. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display).

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Plasma Panels displays

Fig. 1.8: - Basic design of a plasma-panel display device.

 This is also called gas discharge displays.

 It is 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
ribbon is built into the other glass panel.
 Firing voltage is applied to a pair of horizontal and vertical conductors cause the gas at the
intersection of the two conductors to break down into 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, 60 times per second.
 Alternating current methods are used to provide faster application of firing voltages and
thus brighter displays.
 Separation between pixels is provided by the electric field of conductor.
 One disadvantage of plasma panels is they were strictly monochromatic device that means
shows only one color other than black like black and white.
Thin Film Electroluminescent Displays.

Fig. 1.9: - Basic design of a thin-film electro luminescent display device.

 It is similar to plasma panel display but region between the glass plates is filled with
phosphors such as Zink sulphide doped with magnesium instead of gas.
 When sufficient voltage is applied the phosphors becomes a conductor in area of
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 plasma panel.
 It requires more power than plasma panel.
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  In this good color and gray scale difficult to achieve.
Light Emitting Diode (LED)

 In this display a matrix of multi-color light emitting diode is arranged to form the pixel
position in the display. And the picture definition is stored in refresh buffer.
 Similar to scan line refreshing of CRT information is read from the refresh buffer and
converted to voltage levels that are applied to the diodes to produce the light pattern on the
display.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

 It is generally used in small system such as calculator and portable laptop.

 This non emissive device produce picture by passing polarized light from the surrounding
or from an internal light source through liquid crystal material that can be aligned to either
block or transmit the light.
 The liquid crystal refreshes to fact that these compounds have crystalline arrangement of
molecules then also flows like liquid.
 It consists of two glass plates each with light polarizer at right angles to each other sandwich
the liquid crystal material between the plates.
 Rows of horizontal transparent conductors are built into one glass plate, and column
of vertical conductors are put into the other plates.
 The intersection of two conductors defines a pixel position.
 In the ON state polarized light passing through material is twisted so that it will pass
through the opposite polarizer.
 In the OFF state it will reflect back towards source.
 We applied a voltage to the two intersecting conductor 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.
 In active matrix LCD transistors are used at each (x, y) grid point.
 Transistor cause crystal to change their state quickly and also to control degree to which
the state has been changed.
 Transistor can also serve as a memory for the state until it is changed.
 So transistor make cell ON for all time giving brighter display then it would be if it had to
be refresh periodically

Fig. 1.10: - Light twisting shutter effect used in design of most LCD.
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Advantages of LCD display

 Low cost.
 Low weight.
 Small size.
 Low power consumption.

Graphics software and standard:- There are mainly two types of graphics software:
1. General programming package
2. Special-purpose application package
General programming package:-

 A general programming package provides an extensive set of graphics function that can be
used in high level programming language such as C or FORTRAN.
 It includes basic drawing element shape like line, curves, polygon, color of element
transformation etc.
 Example: - GL (Graphics Library).
Special-purpose application package:-

 Special-purpose application package are customize for particular application which

implement required facility and provides interface so that user need not to vory about how
it will work (programming). User can simply use it by interfacing with application.
 Example: - CAD, medical and business systems.

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