Computer Graphics

Lecture 1
 Course Outlines
1. Introduction to Computer Graphics

2. Basic Concepts of Computer Graphics

3. Output Primitives

4. 2D Transformations

5. 3D Transformations

6. Clipping & Rasterization

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• Computer graphics is concerned with all aspects
of producing pictures or images using a
computer.

• The field began humbly 50 years ago, with the

display of a few lines on a cathode ray tube
(CRT).

• Currently, we can generate images by

computer that are indistinguishable from
photographs of real objects.
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 Applications of Computer Graphics

The applications of computer graphics are many

and varied; we can, however, divide them into four
major areas:
1.Display of Information

2.Design

3.Simulation and Animation

4.User Interfaces
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1- Display of Information

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• The field of scientific visualization provides
graphical tools that help researchers to interpret
the vast quantity of data that they generate.

• In fields such as fluid flow, molecular biology, and

mathematics, images generated by conversion of
data to geometric entities that can be displayed
have yielded new insights into complex
processes.

• The system used a mathematical model to generate the

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data.
Scientific Visualization 7
2- Design

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• Professions such as engineering an architecture
are concerned with design.

• Starting with a set of specifications, engineers

and architects seek a cost-effective solution that
satisfies the specifications.

• Design is an iterative process.

• Rarely in the real world is a problem specified
such that there is a unique optimal solution.

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• Design problems are either overdetermined,
such that they possess no solution that satisfies

all the criteria, or underdetermined, such

that they have multiple solutions that
satisfy the design criteria.

• The designer works in an iterative manner.

He/She generates a possible design, tests
it, and then uses the results as the basis

for exploring other solutions. 10

• Today, the use of interactive graphical tools in
computer-aided design (CAD) pervades fields
such as:

1. Architecture

2. The design of mechanical parts

3. Very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits.

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3- Simulation and Animation

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• Once graphics systems evolved to be capable of
generating sophisticated images in real time,
designers and researchers began to use them as
simulators.

• Graphical flight simulators have proved both to

increase safety and to reduce training expenses.

• The use of special VLSI chips has led to a

generation of arcade games as sophisticated as
flight simulators.
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F16 Fighter Simulator
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Driving Car Simulator
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4- User Interface

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• Our interaction with computers has become
dominated by a visual paradigm that includes
windows, icons, menus, and a pointing device,
such as a mouse.

• From a user’s perspective, windowing systems

such as Microsoft Windows, and the
Macintosh Operating System differ only in
details.

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• More recently, millions of people have
become users of the Internet.

• Their access is through graphical network

browsers, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari,
and Internet Explorer, that use these same
interface tools.

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• The GUI consists of different icons such as:

1. Program icons.

2. Object icons.

3. Menu icons.

4. Check-Box icons

5. Spinner icons.

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Program Icons 21
Object Icons 22
Menu Icons 23
Check-box Icons 24
Spinner Icons

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 Graphic System
• A computer graphic system is a computer
system; as such, it must have all the
components of a general-purpose computer
system.

• Let us start with the high-level view of a graphics

system, as shown in the following block diagram.

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A graphics system 27
• There are six major elements in our
system:

1. Input devices

2. Central Processing Unit

3. Graphics Processing Unit

4. Memory

5. Frame buffer

6. Output devices
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 Pixels and the Frame Buffer
• The image we see on the output device is an
array—the raster—of picture elements, or pixels,
produced by the graphics system.

• the pixels are stored in a part of memory called

the frame buffer

• The depth, or precision, of the frame buffer,

defined as the number of bits that are used for

each pixel. 29
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 These picture elements (known as pels or, more
commonly, pixels) can be either on or off, as in the 1-bit
bitmap.

 By using more bits to describe them, can represent

varying shades of color:

1. 4 bits for 16 colors;

2. 8 bits for 256 colors;
3. 15 bits for 32,768 colors;
4. 16 bits for 65,536 colors;
5. 24 bits for 16,772,216 colors. 31
• In full-color systems, there are 24 (or more) bits
per pixel. Such systems can display sufficient
colors to represent most images realistically.

Image of Yeti the cat && Detail of area

around one eye showing individual pixels. 32
 The CPU and the GPU
• In a simple system, there may be only one
processor, the (CPU) of the system, which
must do both the normal processing and the
graphical processing.

• The graphical function of the processor is to

take specifications of graphical primitives and
to assign values to the pixels in the frame
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buffer .
 Output Devices
• Until recently, the dominant type of display
(or monitor) was the cathode-ray tube (CRT).

• When electrons strike the phosphor coating

on the tube, light is emitted.

• The output of the computer is converted, by

digital to-analog converters, to voltages
across the x and y deflection plates.
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•Light appears on the surface of the CRT
when a sufficiently intense beam of electrons
is directed at the phosphor.

The cathode-ray tube (CRT). 35

 Input Devices
• Most graphics systems provide a keyboard
and at least one other input device

• The most common input devices are the

mouse, the joystick, and the data tablet.

• These devices allow a user to indicate a

particular location on the display.
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 Trackball
Mouse

Data tablet Joystick

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 Images: Physical and
Synthetic
• In modern systems, we want to exploit the
capabilities of the software and hardware to
create realistic images of computer-
generated three dimensional objects

• This task involves many aspects of image

formation, such as lighting, shading, and
properties of materials. 38
 Objects and Viewers
• Two basic entities must be part of any image-
formation Process: Object and Viewer.

• We form objects by specifying the positions in

space of various geometric primitives, such
as points, lines, and polygons.

• To form an image, we must have someone or

something that is viewing our objects.
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• It is the viewer that forms the image of
our objects.

Image seen by three different viewers.

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 Light and Images
• If there is no light source, the objects would
be dark, and there would be nothing visible
in our image.

• We must indicated how the color enters the

picture or what the effects of the surface
properties of the objects are.
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A camera system with an object and a
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light source
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• The visible spectrum, which has
wavelengths in the range of 350 to 780
nanometers (nm), is called (visible) light.

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The electromagnetic spectrum
 Imaging Systems
• We now introduce two imaging systems:

 The pinhole camera

 The human visual system.

 The pinhole camera: is a simple example of
an imaging system that will enable us to
understand the functioning of cameras and of

other optical imagers 45

 The pinhole camera
• A pinhole camera is a box with a small hole
in the center of one side of the box.

• The film is placed inside the box on the side

opposite the pinhole.

• The film plane is located a distance d from

the pinhole.

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Pinhole camera

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Side view of the pinhole camera

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 50
Camera Specifications
 Camera Specifications

• we can identify four types of necessary

specifications:

– Position

– Orientation

– Focal length

– Film plane
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 The Human Visual System
• Our extremely complex visual system has
all the components of a physical imaging
system, such as a camera or a microscope.

• Light enters the eye through the lens and

cornea

• The iris opens and closes to adjust the

amount of light entering the eye
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The human visual system

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• The lens forms an image on a two-
dimensional structure called the retina at the
back of the eye.
• The rods and cones are light sensors and
are located on the retina.
• The sizes of the rods and cones determine
the resolution of our visual systems
• Rods are responsible for vision at low light
levels (scotopic vision). Cones are active at
higher light levels (photopic vision)

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 The Programmer’s Interface
• In a typical application, such as the
painting program in the Figure, the user
sees menus and icons that represent
possible actions.

• By clicking on these items, the user

guides the software and produces images

without having to write programs. 55

• Interface for a painting program 56
• The interface between an application
program and a graphics system can be
specified through a set of functions that
resides in a graphics library.

• These specifications are called the

application programming interface
(API).

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 Three-Dimensional APIs
• If we are to follow the synthetic-camera
model, we need functions in the API to
specify the following:

– Objects

– A viewer

– Light sources

– Material properties 58