CS C-471 Computer Graphics

Introduction To Computer Graphics Dr. Tathagata Ray

Luxo Jr
Luxo Jr. is one of the first fully three-dimensional computer animated independent shorts made by John Lasseter of PIXAR in 1986.

Lets discuss the hand out and motivation of the course

What is Computer Graphics

William Fetter coined term computer graphics in 1960 to describe new design methods he was pursuing at Boeing

Created a series of widely reproduced images on pen plotter exploring cockpit design, using 3D model of human body.

Perhaps the best way to define computer graphics is to find out what it is not. It is not a machine. It is not a computer, nor a group of computer programs. It is not the know-how of a graphic designer, a programmer, a writer, a motion picture specialist, or a reproduction specialist. Computer graphics is all these a consciously managed and documented technology directed toward communicating information accurately and descriptively. Computer Graphics, by William A. Fetter, 1966

Image processing vs Computer Graphics

CG-concerns the pictorial synthesis of real or imaginary objects from computer based models. IP- deals with analysis of scenes or reconstruction of 2D or 3D objects from their pictures. Examples: Aerial survelliance photographs, slow scan television images of the moon, X-rays, MRI Scan, Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT) scan. Optical Character Recognition Image processing has the sub-areas image enhancement, pattern detection and recognition, scene analysis and computer vision.

Scene Analysis and computer vision

Advantages of Interactive Graphics

Graphics provides one of the most natural means of communicating with a computer. A picture is worth ten thousand words-Chinese proverb. Interactive graphics is the most important means of producing pictures after invention of photography and TV. Can construct abstract objects and mathematical surfaces in 4D. Moving images are more powerful. (Flight simulators, video arcades, fly around buildings, etc.) Update dynamics is the actual change of the shape, color, or other properties of the objects being viewed. For instance, a system can display the deformations of an airplane in flight in response to the operators manipulation of graphical representation of the many control mechanisms.

Computer Graphics Applications

User Interface : Today most computers have user interface that rely on desktop window systems to manage multiple simultaneous activities and point-and-click facility.
Source: http://www.desksware.com/Screenshots.htm

Computer Graphics Applications

Presentation graphics

Source: http://www.threedgraphics.com/tdg/products/tools/pgsdk/pgsdk.php

Computer Graphics Applications

Computer Aided Designing (CAD)
Aeroplane Design (wireframe / rendered)

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2008/08/aviation-note/8731/

Computer Graphics Applications

CAD: Automobile and its component design

Source: http://www.brothersoft.com/2d-3d-cad-import-vcl-29580.html

Computer Graphics Applications

CAD: Architectural Design

Computer Graphics Applications

Scientific applications
Medical Imaging Simulation

Computer Graphics Applications

Entertainment
Animation (2D/3D) Movies Video Games

Computer Graphics Applications

Computer Art

Charles Csuri

Summary
Introduction to computer graphics Image processing vs CG. Interactive graphics Applications of CG.

CS C-471 Computer Graphics

Introduction To Computer Graphics Dr. Tathagata Ray

Classification of applications
Classification based on dimension of object and the kind of picture to be produced.

Dimension 2D 3D

Pictorial Representation Line Drawing, Gray scale image, color image Wireframe, wireframe with various shades, colored rendering with various effects

Classification of applications
Based on type of interaction
Offline plotting Interactive plotting Calculating the object and flying around it Interactive design

Based on the role of picture

In many applications such as cartography & drafting the drawing is the end product. In many CAD application after designing the model it is used for further post process.

Classification of applications
Based on Logical and temporal relationship between objects and their pictures.
Single picture Sequence of images to understand dynamics Assemble and subassembly drawings.

Development of H/W & S/W for graphics

The whirlwind computer developed in 1950 by MIT had computer driven CRT. This system was adopted by SAGE airdefence and for the first time it had command and control CRT display consoles on which operators identified targets with light pens. Ivan Sutherlands seminal doctoral work on sketchpad drawing was the beginning of interactive graphics.
Source of Picture: http://www.cedmagic.com/history/whirlwind-computer.html Source: http://design.cca.edu/graduate/project/show/741

Development of H/W & S/W for graphics

CAD/CAM was viewed with high potential. GM developed DAC for automobile system and Itek Digitek system for lens design were developed. Interactive graphics remained elusive for a while because
High cost of graphics h/w Expensive computing resources to support massive design databases, large suite of post-processing programs whose input came from the graphics design phase. Difficulty of writing large, interactive programs One-of-a-kind, non portable software written for a particular device caused moving to new system expensive and time consuming.

Advent of PC changed everything!

Output Technology
In mid-sixties vector display was developed.
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_display_ architecture.svg

In vector system beam is deflected from endpoint to endpoint as dictated by the arbitrary order of the display commands. It is called random scan.

Random display
Random Display: electron beam is directed to only that part of the
screen where the picture is to be drawn. In this system the picture is drawn as the sequence of line segments. It is also known as vector display.

Advantages:
Used for line drawing Resolution is higher Electron beam falls on only those part of the screen where a picture is to be drawn.

Disadvantages:
they cannot produce realistic looking pictures. Different colors are not possible with this approach.

Direct View Storage Tube (DVST)

Flood cathode produces free electrons. The electron beam now writes to (stores a charge on) the storage grid; this is semipermanent. The resultant charge on the grid attracts the electrons produced by the flood cathode and these will pass the grid and hit the phosphor.
Source: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/goa/hardware/output/lect2a1.html

Raster Display
Early seventies, raster graphics changed the field. Display controller could be a h/w or s/w as in PCs. Refresh buffers is just a piece of CPUs memory that can be read by the video controller.

Raster Display
Raster Scan Display:
The electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a time from top to bottom. Picture definition is stored in a memory area called the refresh buffer or frame buffer. It holds the set of intensity values of all the screen points. Each screen point is referred as a pixel (picture element). On a black and white system with one bit / pixel, the frame buffer is called a bitmap. For multiple bits / pixel, the frame buffer is called pixmap.

Raster Display
If the screen is a black and white screen then only 1 bit per pixel is needed to control the intensity of screen position. Thus an entire bitmap for a screen of resolution 1024x1024 will require 220 bits or about 128,000 bytes. Low-end color system have 8 bits/pixel allowing 256 colors simultaneously. Up to 24 bits per pixel are included in high-quality system. Thus for a screen of resolution 1024x1024 req 3 MB of storage for the frame buffer. This was possible because of the availability of inexpensive solid-state random access memory which made raster display as dominant technology.

Raster Display
Refreshing is carried out at a rate of 60 to 80 frames per second. The unit is fps, Hz, cycles per second. At the end of each scan line, the electron beam returns to the left side of the screen and start displaying the next line. This is called horizontal retrace. At the end of each frame the electron beam returns to the top left corner of the screen. This is called vertical retrace.

Video controller
The most important task of the video controller is constant refresh of the display. There are two fundamental types of refresh: interlaced and non-interlaced. Interlacing: On some raster scan systems, each frame is displayed in two passes using an interlaced refresh procedure.

Interlacing
In the first pass, the beam sweeps across every other scan line from top to bottom. Then the remaining lines are swept out. Allows the user to see the whole image in of the time. It is effective technique for avoiding flickering by working at 60 Hz rate.

Video controller
The output from video controller has 3 forms: RGB, monochrome, or NTSC. For RGB, separate cables carry the Red, Green, and Blue signals to control the three electron guns of a shadow mask CRT, and another cable carries the synchronization to signal the start of vertical and horizontal retrace. There are standards for the voltage, wave shapes, and synchronization timing of RGB signals. For example RS-170 is the standard for 480-scan line monochrome signals. Monochrome signals use the same standards but have only intensity and synchronization cables.

NTSC
NTSC: stands National Television System Committee ; is the video signal format used in North American commercial television. Color, intensity, and synchronization info is combined into a signal with a bandwidth of about 5 MHz, broadcast as 525 scan lines, in two fields of 262.5 lines each. European and Soviet television broadcast and videotape standards are two 625-scan line, 50 Hz standards, SECAM and PAL.

Pros and Cons of Raster Display

Advantage:
Lower cost Display filled polygons. Millions of colors can be displayed. Refresh process is independent of the complexity of scene. No flickers unlike vector graphics. Can create shadow. More realistic pictures.

Pros and Cons of Raster Display

Disadvantages:
Every primitive requires to be scan converted into their component pixels. This is computationally expensive. Low resolution, jagginess and aliasing problems. The electron beam has to sweeps across the whole screen even when only a dot has to be drawn.

Summary
Development of Hardware and software for graphics Vector Display and its architecture DVST Raster display and its architecture. Video controller (interlacing, RGB, NTSC, PAL) Pros and cons of raster display Graphics input devices

End of Lecture 2