Raster Scan System

Raster Scan Systems

It is the most common type of graphics monitor based on television technology. In

a raster scan system, the electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a
time from top to bottom. When electron beam moves across each row the beam
intensity is turned ON and OFF to craete a pattern of illuminated spots. Picture
definition is stored in a memory called frame buffer which holds the set of intensity
values, which are then retrieved from the frame buffer and pointed on the screen
one row at a time as shown in figure below:
At the end of each line the beam must be turned off and redirect to the left hand side
of the CRT, this is called Horizontal Retrace. At the end of each frame, the electrin
beam return to top left corner of the screen to begin the next frame called Verticle
Retrace as shown in figure below:

Advantages
produce realistic images
also produced different colors
and shadows scenes.

Disadvantages
low resolution
expensive
electron beam directed to whole screen
Raster Scan Display
The Figure below shows the architecture of a raster display. It consists of display
controller, central processing unit (CPU), video controller, refresh buffer, keyboard,
mouse and the CRT.
As shown in the fig below the display image is stored in the form of 1s and 0s in the
refresh buffer. The video controller reads this refresh buffer and produces the actual
image on the screen. It does this by scanning one scan line at a time, from top to
bottom and then back to the top.
CPU

I/O Port

Frame Buffer Interaction Data Display Commands

Keyboard
0000000000000000 Display Controller
000000011111100000 Mouse
000000011111100000
00000000011000000
Video Controller Monitor
00000000011000000
Raster scan is the most common method of displaying images on the CRT screen.
In this method, the horizontal and vertical deflection signals are generated to move
the beam all over the screen in a pattern.

Here, the beam is swept back and forth from the left to the right across the
screen. When the beam is moved from the left to the right, it is ON. The beam is
OFF, when it is moved from the right to the left.

When the beam reaches the bottom of the screen, it is made OFF and rapidly
retraced back to the top left to start again. A display produced in this way is called
raster scan display.

In raster scan displays a special area of memory is dedicated to graphics only.
This memory area is called frame buffer. It holds the set of intensity values for all
the screen points. The stored intensity values are retrieved from frame buffer and
displayed on the screen one row (scan line) at a time. Each screen point is referred
to as a pixel.

Each pixel on the screen can be specified by its row and column number. Thus by
specifying row and column number we can specify the pixel position on the screen.
Intensity range for pixel positions depends on the capability of the raster system.
It can be a simple black and white system or color system.

In a simple black and white system, each pixel position is either on or off, so only
one bit per pixel is needed to control the intensity of the pixel positions. 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, which can
require several megabytes of storage space for the frame buffer.

On a black and white system with one bit per pixel, the frame buffer is called a
bitmap. For systems with multiple bits per pixel, the frame buffer is often referred
to as a pixmap.
 Interlacing
Interlace is a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal primarily
on CRT devices without consuming extra bandwidth. In this technique, each frame
is displayed in two passes using interlacing. In the first pass, the beam sweeps
across every other scan line from top to bottom. In the second pass, the beam
sweeps out the remaining scan lines.

The technique of next figure in which the raster starts at the top of the screen,
drawn to the bottom and repeated continuously is called a non-interlaced raster
system. Interlacing is a technique used to reduce the bandwidth or information rate
of the system.
Consider a television system of 625 lines refreshed 50 times per second. Assume
each line can be considered as 500 points across the screen the information rate is
625*500*50 = 15625000 bits per second or a bandwidth of approximately 15MHz.
In an interlaced system this data rate is reduced by half by only drawing each line 25
times per second.
In an interlaced system a picture frame is built by scanning the screen twice. In the
first scan the odd numbered lines are displayed and in the second scan the even
numbered lines are displayed. For example, Fig a and b shows how the house in the
non-interlaced system would be drawn using an interlaced system

Fig a

Fig b
Interlaced refreshing works by making the following assumptions about 'real life’
television pictures:

that is little difference between the information on adjacent lines hence the eye
averages the two scans of each frame and little or no flicker is perceived.

there are few situations where edge boundaries on a picture are exactly horizontal,
i.e. along a scan line, and even less where a horizontal line on a picture would be one
scan line wide.

In many computer generated images the above assumptions do not apply.

A computer is quite capable of drawing a horizontal line one scan line wide. If an
interlaced display is used in such situations flicker will then be perceived. i.e. the
line will only be redrawn 25 times per second and will flicker. High quality
computer graphics systems use non-interlaced displays refreshing at 50 or 60 times
per second.

The advantage of using interlaced displays is that the bandwidth is halved over a
non-interlaced system; leading to reductions in the complexity and cost of the
overall system, i.e. cheaper CRT tube, deflection circuits, decoding circuits, memory
on a computer graphics system, etc.
 Flickering
The phenomenon whereby a display screen appears to flicker. Screen flicker results
from a variety of factors, the most important of which is the monitor'srefresh rate,
the speed with which the screen is redrawn.

If the refresh rate is too slow, the screen will appear to glimmer.

Another factor that affects screen flicker is the persistence of the screen phosphors.

Low-persistence phosphors fade more quickly than high-persistence monitors,

making screen flicker more likely.

Screen flicker can also be affected by lighting.

Finally, screen flicker is a subjective perception that affects people differently. Some
people perceive screen flicker where others do not.
Flicker is a visible fading between cycles displayed on video displays, especially
the refresh interval on cathode ray tube (CRT) based computer screens.

Flicker occurs on CRTs when they are driven at a low refresh rate, allowing the 
brightness to drop for time intervals sufficiently long to be noticed by a human eye –
see persistence of vision and flicker fusion threshold.

For most devices, the screen's phosphors quickly lose their excitation between

sweeps of the electron gun, and the afterglow is unable to fill such gaps –
see phosphor persistence.

For example, if a Cathode Ray Tube computer monitor's vertical refresh rate is set to
60 Hz, most monitors will produce a visible "flickering" effect, unless they use
phosphor with long afterglow.

Most people find that refresh rates of 70–90 Hz and above enable flicker-
free viewing on CRTs. Use of refresh rates above 120 Hz is uncommon, as they
provide little noticeable flicker reduction and limit available resolution.