Fundamentals of Graphics

System (Ch.2)
 Graphics Workstation

 Refer to Figure 2.1 for a typical example

 A complete computer system consists of
many components
 We shall focus on
video display devices
 Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs)

 Refer to Figures 2.2, 2.3, 2.4

 Complicated Physics Principles
{ electricity, magnetism, optics, etc.
 We are focusing on the logical functionalities
{ electron gun
{ electron focusing (lens) system
{ horizontal de ection ampliers (plates)
{ vertical de ection ampliers (plates)
{ electron beam
{ phosphor-coated screen
 Brightness comes from
{ uorescence (give out white bright light when
electronic waves are passed through, short,
fraction of microsecond)
{ phosphorescence (light emission with little or no
heat, long, 10-60 microseconds)
 When excited by radiation, dierent phosphors (a
phosphorescent substance that emits light) have
dierent
{ color
{ persistence
 Refresh CRTs
{ image needs to be refreshed to avoid icker
{ how often?
exact number depends on: image intensity,
ambient lighting, wave length, size of screen,
observer, resolution, etc.
{ typically, need at least 60Hz
 Calligraphic Displays

 Refer to Figure 2.9

 Also called vector, stroke, random-scan
 Principles
 A set of line drawing instructions are stored in
memory
 Used in earlier graphics systems
 Pros and cons!!!
 Raster Displays

 Refer to Figure 2.7

 The screen is divided into many scan lines
 Electron beam traced in \raster-scan order"
from left to right
 Horizontal retrace
 Vertical retrace
 Beam intensity modulated according to the
contents in framebuer
 Each element of framebuer associated with
a pixel on the screen (pictorial element)
 Framebuer: 2D array of (m  n), 1, 4, 8, 24, or 96
bits per pixel
 Note: framebuers require lots of memory!
1024  1280  24 = 3Mbytes
 Resolution determined by
{ number of scan lines
{ number of pixels per scan line
{ number of bits per pixel
 Examples
{ SGI 19' monitor: 1280  1024
{ Apple 16' monitor: 832  624
{ PCs,
{ In general, high-res monitors: 1280  1024
{ TV: about 478 scan lines
{ what is the resolution of your own computer?
 Physical resolutions
{ require signal processing techniques, physics
knowledge
{ enumerated in line-pairs per inch
{ using a shrinking raster
{ determined at the threshold of discrimination
{ underlying physics for limiting factors: spot size
 Pros and cons!!!
 Color CRT Monitors

 Refer to Figure 2.10

 Shadow mask (shadow grid) technology
 Use triads of red, green, and blue phosphors at
each pixel
 Use three electron guns, one for each color
 Use dierent combinations to get dierent color
 We use popular RGB color model (additive color
mixing) more complicated color models can be
found in Ch.15
 All colors on a monitor are produced using
combinations of red, green, and blue
 Color Specication: the number of color choices
depends on the amount of framebuer storage
allocated per pixel
 Bit-map: 1 bit per pixel
 Grey-scale: 8 bits per pixel
 Full-color (true-color) system: 24 bits per pixel
 Questions
{ how many colors can be displayed using:
3 bits per pixel,
8 bits per pixel,
24 bits per pixel?
 Color Map

 Color table
 Now if we only have a few bits per pixel,
how can we represent more color?
 For example, 8 bits per pixel
 Each element of framebuer stores only an index
for a color table
 The actual color is stored in the color table
 Color map is indirect process
 Can be changed in software
 Examples
 Pros and cons!
 System Architecture

 Basic display architecture

 Color display
 Raster display systems
 Refer to Figure 2.29
 Random-scan systems
 Refer to Figure 2.32
 Other Devices

 Refer to Section 2.1

 Passive liquid crystal
 Active matrix
 Plasma panel
 Hardcopy devices
{ pen plotter
{ dot matrix printer
{ laser printer
{ electrostatic plotter
{ lm recorder
{ dye sublimation color printer
{ thermal transfer color printer
 Other input/output devices
 Read the entire Ch.2 for the overview of graphics
system
 Color Models

 Popular RGB model

 CMY (cyan, magenta, and yellow) model
2 3 2 3 2 3
6
C 1 R
4 M 75 = 64 1 75 64 G 75
Y 1 B
 Other models:
{ HSV (hue, saturation, value), hexcone
{ HLS (hue, lightness, saturation), doublecone
 Detailed color theory in Ch.15
 Optics, frequency, wavelength
 Read Ch.15
 Software Packages

 Application-oriented package
 Programming (general) package
 Basic functionalities
{ dene primitives
{ generate picture components
{ set color or intensity values
{ select view
{ apply transformation
 Summary

 Basic graphics components

 From vector display to raster display
 Black-white and color CRTs
 Useful terminology
 Simple RGB color theory
 Software routines