Computer Graphics

Chapter 2
Computer Graphics
Hardware
 Outline

 Video Display Devices

 CRT
 LDC
 Input Devices

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 Video Display Devices
 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT, 陰極射綫管) display
 High resolution
 Good color fidelity The focusing and
deflection systems
 High contrast (400:1)
 High update rates

 A beam of electrons (電子束) emitted

by an electron gun, passes through
focusing and deflection systems that
direct the beam toward specified
positions on the phosphor(磷)-coated
screen.

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 Focusing and Deflection of CRT
 The focusing system: forces the electron beam to converge to a
small cross section as it strikes the phosphor
 The deflection system: forces the electron beam spread out as it
is near to the screen
 They can be controlled with either electric or magnetic fields.

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 Refresh CRT
 Refresh - Redrawing the picture repeatedly
 Because the light emitted by the phosphor fades very rabidly,
the refresh process is needed to maintain the picture.
 Implemented by quickly directing the electron beam back over
the same screen points.

 Refresh rate (frame/sec. or Hz): the number of a picture

(or a frame) is redrawn on the screen per second.
 E.g.: a refresh rate of 60Hz means 60 frames per sec.

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 Raster-Scan Displays
 Raster scan methods have became the dominant technology
since about 1975.
 The electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a time
a scan line

 Frame: the total screen area

 Pixels or pels (picture elements): the screen consists of a regular
grid of spots.
 Resolution: the maximum number of points that can be displayed
without overlap on the screen.
6  Aspect ratio: the width divided by the height.
 Raster-Scan Displays
Electron beam sweeping:
 Horizontal retrace: after refreshing each row, the electron beam
returns to the left of the screen.

 Vertical retrace: after refreshing the whole screen, the electron

beam returns to the top left corner of the screen for the next new
frame.

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 Raster-Scan Displays
 Interlacing: each frame is displayed in two passes
non-interlaced interlaced, cycle 1 interlaced, cycle 2 interlaced,
2 cycles

 Avoid noticeable flicker with

slower refresh rates.
E.g: actually 25Hz, if interlaced 50Hz
to see the entire screen displayed (in
half the time).
 Raster-Scan Displays
 Terms
 Pixel: each screen spot.
 Scan line: each row of the screen.
 Frame: the total screen.
 Resolution: the maximum number of pixels that can be displayed on a
screen without overlapping.
 Frame buffer (refresh/color buffer): the memory area which stores
the color value of one frame.
Frame buffer holds the contents of what will be displayed.

What goes on inside the computer to generate

something (e.g.: rectangle) on the screen?

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 Frame Buffer
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Questions:
What
How How
is themany
much largest
memorypixels
image
doare
weyou
there?
cantodisplay?
need allocate
for the frame buffer?
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 Frame Buffer
 Black-and-white system: one bit for each pixel
 More colors: n bits per pixel
0 1 … 1 0

e.g.: n = 8, 16, 24…

Terms
Bit depth: the number of bits per pixel in frame buffer.
Bitmap: the frame buffer with one bit per pixel.
Pixmap: the frame buffer with multiple bits per pixel.
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 Frame Buffer
 If we want a frame buffer of 640 by 480 pixels, we
should allocate:
Pixels in Frame buffer = 640 * 480

 How many bits should we allocate?

n * 640 * 480, n is the number of bits per pixel

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 Frame Buffer Bit Depth
 1 bit per pixel (bitmap)

1-bit
 16 bits per pixel (high color)
 5 bits for red, 5/6 bits for green, 5 bits for blue
 potential of 32 reds, 32/64 greens, 32 blues
 total colors: 65536 (216) 8-bit

 32 bits per pixel (true color)

 8 bits for red, green, blue, and alpha
 potential for 256 reds, greens, and blues
24+ bits
 total colors: 16777216 (224: more than the eye can distinguish)
13 (Pictures fromWiki)
 Graphic Card Memory
 How much memory is on our graphic card?
 640 * 480 * 32 bits = 1,228,800 bytes
 1024 * 768 * 32 bits = 3,145,728 bytes
 1600 * 1200 * 32 bits = 7,680,000 bytes

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 Random-Scan Displays
 Vector displays (or stroke-writing
displays)
Using a single gun to draw lines.
Think of having a VERY FAST drawing
pen.

 Advantages:
 Smooth and brighter lines, usually for line
drawing applications
 Higher resolution than raster scan systems

 Disadvantages:
 Cannot display realistic shaded scenes

Game: Vectrex
http://www.vectrex.co.uk/
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 Color CRTs
 Color pictures usually produced in CRT monitors by
using several kinds of phosphors that emit different-
colored light

 Two main methods

 Beam-Penetration method
 Shadow-mask method

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 Color CRTs
 Beam-Penetration Method (for random-scan systems)
 The CRT screen coated from inside with two layers of
Phosphor
phosphor, usually Red and Green. layers
 Colors generated depend on how far the electron beam
penetrates into the phosphor layers.
 Red is produced by a slow electron beam;
 Green color is generated by a very fast electrons penetrates through the
red layer and excites the inner green layer;
 Orange and Yellow are generated by an intermediate beam speeds, as a
combination of red and green.
 Advantages: inexpensive;
 Disadvantages: a limited number of color; low quality.

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 Color CRTs
 Shadow-mask Method (for raster-scan displays)
 Generate more colors than the beam-penetration method.
 Each pixel of the screen is coated with three phosphor color
dots, red, green, and blue.

Each electron gun for activating

one of the three phosphor color
dots.
A shadow-mask grid are placed
behind the screen directing the
guns to each dot triangle.

CRT HowTo
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 Flat-Panel Displays
 Advantages:
 Small Volume.
 Light Weight.
 Low Power Consumption.

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 Flat-Panel Displays
 FPDs are divided into two main categories:
1. Emissive Displays: convert electrical energy into light.
Examples:
 Plasma panels (等離子體顯示屏)
 Thin-Film Electroluminescent Displays (薄膜電發光)
 Light Emitting Diodes (LED:發光二極管)
 Flat CRTs

2. Non-Emissive Displays: use optical effects to convert the

light from surroundings or from an internal light source to
produce a picture.
Example: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
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 Liquid Crystal Display
 Glass plates: contain a light
polarizer (偏光器)
 Liquid crystal: crystals
liquefy when excited by
heat or electronic field.
 Liquid crystal can be
aligned to either block or
transmit the light.
 Image produced by passing
polarized light through a
liquid-crystal material. Figure 2-13 The light-twisting, shutter effect
used in the design of most LCD devices.
21 LCD HowTo
 Displays in Virtual Reality
 Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs)
 The display and a position tracker are attached to the
user’s head.Two small TV screens are embedded in a
rack and placed in front of the two eyes.
 A track system is used to report the position of HMD in
3D space.
 It allows full-freedom head movement,
and gives the feel of immersion.

 Applications of HMDs
 Portable entertainment, private movie watching
 PC game lightweight i-glasses
 Virtual flight simulator

Example Intro. Video: Virtual Reality Helmet for Flight Simulator

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 Displays in Virtual Reality
 Head-Tracked Displays (HTDs)
 Display is stationary, tracker tracks the user’s head relative to the
display.
 Example: CAVE, Stereo monitor

Birth of CAVE:
Pocket Cathedral
(The CAVE, from Wiki) (1991)

• Stereoscopic viewing glasses

• Users wear them to perceive the stereoscopic view of 3D scenes
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displayed on the screen
 3D Glasses

3D Display

3D Object

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 Input Devices
 Keyboard
 Mouse (2D and 3D)
 Trackball: a 2D input device, usually used on a mouse
or a lap-top computer.
 Space ball: hand held, non-movable. It uses a strain
gauge to detect pull, push, and twist applied to the ball,
and translate them into 3D locations. Used for
navigation in virtual environments, CAD, etc.
 Head Mounted Display: Although it is primarily a
display device, it can also track position and orientation
 Joystick: similar to the space ball. Can be movable
and non-movable.

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 Input Devices
 Data glove: a glove with sensors. Used to control
a virtual hand for grasping, dropping, and moving
an object in a virtual environment.
 Image scanner: input still picture, photo, or
slides as images into computer.
 Touch panel: highly transparent and embedded
over a display surface.
 Digital camera: directly stores photo shots as
images on a diskette.
 Digital video recorder: input a video clip in
digital form; often used for tele-conferencing.
 Laser range scanner: input discrete and
scattered points on a 3D surface model from
which a digital one can be built.

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 Input Devices
 Motion Capture: input full-body, facial,
hand movements
Bring Gollum to Life

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 Graphics Systems
 Interactive raster-graphics systems naturally use several
processing units.
 CPU
 Video controller (display controller): a special-purpose
processor, used to control the operation of the display device.

 A simple raster system

 Frame buffer can be anywhere in the system memory.
 The video controller only accesses the frame buffer to refresh the screen.
(see the figure in the next slide)

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 Graphics Systems
 Architecture of a simple raster-graphics system in old days
Video controller just
accesses the frame buffer Frame buffer can
to refresh the screen. be anywhere in the
system memory.

CPU System Video

Memory Controller
Monitor
System Bus

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I/O Devices
 Graphics Systems
 Architecture of a raster-graphics system with a fixed
portion of the system memory for the frame buffer
I/O device

CPU System Frame Video

Memory Buffer Controller Monitor

 Graphics work is done by CPU -- slow

 As refresh cycle increased, memory cycles used by video controller
increases – less memory for other work to CPU
 Solution: Graphics Display Processor
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 Raster-Scan Display Processor
 Graphics controller (display coprocessor): a separate display
processor.
 Purpose: to free the CPU from the graphics work.
 A separate display-processor memory area can be supplied.
I/O device Scan conversion

Draw primitives

Transformation
CPU Display System Rendering
Processor Memory …

Display Frame Video

Processor Buffer Controller Monitor
Memory
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 End of Chapter 2

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