Computer Graphics & IMAGE PROCESSING

CST304
Module - 1 Part -2

 Video Display devices:-

Refresh Cathode Ray Tubes
Random Scan Displays and systems
Raster Scan Displays and systems
 CG -Development of Hardware
Hardware evolution had a greater influence in the development of
Computer Graphics than software.
In the early years interactive graphics was beyond the resources of
most organizations because of:
the high cost of computer graphics hardware
the need for expensive computing resources to support massive design
databases, interactive picture manipulation,
the difficulty of writing large, interactive programs at a time when both
graphics and interaction where new to predominantly batch-oriented
FORTRAN programmers,
non-portable software – written for a particular display device without
software-engineering principles and structured systems. Moving to new
display devices necessitates expensive and time-consuming rewriting of
working programs.
With development of graphics-based personal computers (Apple
Macintosh, IBM PC) hardware and software costs driven down, and
millions of graphics computers were sold for office and home use. 2
 Video Display Devices

• The primary output device in a graphical system is the

video monitor.
• The operation of most video monitors is based on the
standard Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) design.

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 Cathode-Ray Tubes (CRT)

Focusing
System

Y deflect
Base

Phosphor

Connector x deflect
Pins
Electron
Gun Control
grid
voltage
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 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
 A cathode ray tube (CRT) contains four basic parts:
 electron gun,
 focusing and accelerating systems,
 deflecting systems, and
 evacuated glass envelope with a phosphorescent screen
that glows visibly when struck by the electron beam

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 Basic operations of a CRT

1. The electron gun emits a beam of electrons (cathode rays).

2. The electron beam passes through focusing and deflection
systems that direct it towards specified positions on the
phosphor-coated screen.
3. When the beam hits the screen, the phosphor emits a small
spot of light at each position contacted by the electron
beam. (Because the light emitted by the phosphor fades
very quickly some method is needed for maintaining the
screen picture).
4. Redraw the picture by quickly directing the electron beam
back over the same screen points.

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 Phosphor Persistence
Definition: The time it takes the emitted light from the screen
to decay to one-tenth of its original intensity .
There are different kind of phosphors for use in a CRT.
Besides color, a major difference is their persistence – how
long they continue to emit light after the CRT beam is
removed.
A phosphor with low-persistence is useful in animation.
A high-persistence phosphor is useful for displaying highly
complex, static pictures.
Graphics monitors are usually constructed with a persistence
in the range from 10 to 60 microseconds.

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 Brightness (Intensity) distribution
The intensity is greater at the center of the spot, and it decreases with
Gaussian distribution out to the edges of the spot.

Two illuminated phosphor spots are distinguishable when their separation is

greater than the diameter at which a spot intensity has fallen to 60% of
maximum (at the center of the spot).
Spot size depends on intensity

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 Resolution

Resolution- The maximum number of points (pixels) that can be

displayed without overlap on a screen, and determines the detail
that can be seen in an image.
Determines Clarity of image
A more precise definition is the number of points per centimeter that
can be plotted horizontally and vertically, although it is often simply
stated as the total number of points in each direction (i.e. 1280 
1024).
The physical size of a graphics monitor, on the other hand, is given as
the length (in inches) of the screen diagonal.
Resolution depends on type of phosphor, intensity to be displayed,
and focusing and deflection systems.

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 Aspect Ratio
• Aspect ratio gives the ratio of horizontal points to vertical points
necessary to produce equal-length lines in both directions on the
screen.
• Aspect ratio 4:3 (most common) means that a horizontal line
plotted with 4 points has the same length as a vertical line plotted
with 3 points.

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 Aspect Ratio

Frame aspect ratio (FAR) =

horizontal/vertical size
TV
4:3
HDTV 16:9
Page 8.5:11
~ 3/4

Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) =

pixel width/ pixel height
Nuisance in graphics if not 1

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 Addressability
• Addressability is the number of individual dots per
inch (d.p.i.) that can be created.
• If the address of the current dot is (x, y) then the next
dot will be (x + y), (x + y + 1)
• The picture on a screen consists of intensified points.
• The smallest addressable point on the screen is
called pixel or picture element

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Refresh Rate
 Definition: The number of times per second the image is
redrawn.
 The entire contents of the frame buffer are displayed on the
CRT at a rate high enough to avoid flicker. This rate is called
the refresh rate.
rate
 For a human to see a steady image on most CRT displays,
the same path must be retraced, or refreshed, by the beam
at least 60 times per second.
 Current raster-scan displays perform refreshing at the rate
of 60 to 80 frames per second, although some systems now
have refresh rates of up to 120 frames per second.
 Refresh rates are described in units of cycles per second, or
Hertz (Hz), where a cycle corresponds to one frame (i.e. a
refresh rate of 60 frames per second = 60 Hz).

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 Refresh-rate for films and TV
• The display technology on a monitor is different from that of film.
– A film projector can maintain the continuous display of a film
frame until the next frame is brought into view.
– On a video monitor a phosphor spot begins to decay as soon as it
is illuminated.
• On films, below 24 frames per second, we can perceive a gap
between successive screen images.
– Old silent films show flicker because they were photographed at a
rate of 16 frames per second.
– When sound systems were developed in the 1920s, motion picture
film rates increased to 24 frames per second removing flickering.
– Today TV refresh rate is 25 frames per second in Europe and 30
frames per second in the USA.
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 Raster Scan Displays

 Developed in the early seventies, today's dominant hardware

technology. Almost all graphics systems are raster-based.
 A picture is produced as an array - raster of picture elements.
 This elements are called Pixels or Pels (Picture Elements).
 A pixel corresponds to a location, or small area, in the image
 Pixel - Dot on screen, Is addressable, Can be illuminated
 More pixels means higher resolution
 Dot pitch - distance between dots
 Smaller distance means better quality image
 Collectively, the pixels are stored in a part of memory called the
refresh buffer or frame buffer.
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 The Frame Buffer

0 800
0
x

pixel at address (x,y) spot at (x,y)

600

y
Frame buffer Display surface
at (800,600)

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 The number of bits per pixel in the frame buffer is called
depth or bit planes
 Determines properties such as how many colors can be
represented on a given system.
 Buffer with 1 bit per pixel (1-bit-deep) – Bitmap allows 21 colors
(black and white)
 Buffer with multiple bits per pixel (8-bit-deep) – Pixmap allows 28
colors (=256)
 Full color (RGB-color systems), 24 (or more) bits per pixel in
order to display sufficient colors to represent most images
realistically.

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 Raster Scan Displays
They are based on TV technology
Eg: Home TV sets, Printers
Refresh rate = 60 to 80 frames per second.
Note: Below 24 frames/second, eye detects flicker.
 Electron beam sweeps across the screen one row at a time from top to
bottom referred to as a scan line. As the electron beam moves across
each row, the beam intensity is turned on and off to create a pattern of
illuminated spots.
 Picture definition is stored in frame buffer/ refresh buffer, and stored
intensity values are retrieved and painted on the screen one row(scan
line) at a time.
 Each screen point is called as pixel (picture element) and is visited
every refresh cycle.
Capable to store intensity information for each screen point, so well
suited for the realistic display of scenes (shading and color patterns).
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 Raster- Scan Displays….
 Electron beam sweeps across the screen one row at a time from top to
bottom referred to as a scan line
 At the end of each scan line, the electron beam returns to the left side of
the screen to display the next scan line (horizontal retrace)
 At the end of each frame, the electron beam returns to the top-left corner
of the screen to display the next frame (vertical retrace)

Scan line

Horizontal Vertical
retrace retrace

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20
 Interlaced Raster Scan Displays
 To reduce flicker, divide frame into two fields—one consisting of the
even scan lines and the other of the odd scan lines.
 Even and odd fields are scanned out alternately to produce an
interlaced image. Odd/even scan lines covered in successive refresh
cycles.
 Hence 30 frames/sec refresh rate appears like 60 frames/sec.

0
1
2
3
4
5
6

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22
 Interlaced vs. Non-interlaced
Interlaced
Refresh every other line on each pass
Lower refresh rate without flicker
Good for fixed graphics
Causes flutter with animated graphics
Inexpensive

Non-interlaced
Refresh every line on each pass
Typical screen sold today

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Zooming Effects

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 Random-Scan (Vector) displays
Vector stands for line.
Developed in the mid-60’s and in common use until the mid- 80’s
The electron beam is directed only to parts of the screen where the
picture is to be drawn.

MoveTo (300,800)
LineTo (700,800)
LineTo (500,300)
LineTo (300,800)

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 Random Scan Displays
 Calligraphic Displays also called vector, stroke or line drawing graphics
 Electron beam directed only to the points of picture to be displayed.
Picture is stored as a set of point and line-drawing commands with (x,y) or
(x,y,z) endpoint coordinates, as well as character-plotting commands.
Storage referred as display list, refresh display file, vector file or display
program
System cycles through set of commands in display list, draw lines and
refreshes it.
Refresh rate depends on the number of lines to be displayed. To avoid
flicker it must be at least 30 times per second (30 Hz).
They are designed to draw all the component lines of a picture 30 to 60
times per second – more than 60 could burn the phosphor.
High quality vector systems are capable of handling approximately 100,000
lines at this refresh rate.
They are designed for smooth line drawing applications, higher resolution
Cannot display realistic shaded images, 26
 Raster Scan Vs Random Scan

Raster scan

Ideal line drawing

Random scan
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 Raster Scan Vs Random Scan

• Advantages of Raster Displays

– lower cost
– filled regions/shaded images cheaper
– colours, textures, realism
– unlimited complexity of picture: whatever you put in refresh
buffer, whereas vector complexity limited by refresh rate

• Disadvantages of Raster Displays

– a discrete representation, continuous primitives must be
scan-converted (i.e. fill in the appropriate scan lines)
– Aliasing or "jaggies" arises due to sampling error when
converting from a continuous to a discrete representation

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 Comparing Raster and Vector (2/2)
 Advantages of Vector displays:
– very fine detail of line drawings (sometimes curves),
– whereas raster suffers from jagged edge problem due to pixel
s (aliasing, quantization errors)
– Higher resolution
– geometry objects (lines) whereas raster only handles pixels
– eg. 1000 line plot: vector display computes 2000 endpoints
– raster display computes all pixels on each line

 Disadvantages of Vector displays

– vector complexity limited by refresh rate
– cannot display realistic shaded scenes

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 Random Scan Raster Scan
1. It has high Resolution 1. Its resolution is low.
2. It is more expensive 2. It is less expensive
3. Any modification if needed is easy 3.Modification is tough
4. Solid pattern is tough to fill 4.Solid pattern is easy to fill
5. Refresh rate does not depend on the
5. Refresh rate depends on picture
picture.
6. Only screen with view on an area is
6. Whole screen is scanned.
displayed.

7. Beam Penetration technology 7. Shadow mask technology

8. It does not use interlacing method. 8. It uses interlacing

9. It is restricted to line drawing

9. It is suitable for realistic displays.
applications

10. TV, Printer 10. Pen Plotter 30

 The Bit-map
1-bit-deep frame-buffer

1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Frame buffer Pixels

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 Gray Level Images
n-bits per pixel produce 2n gray levels.
Many images use 8-bits per pixel, i.e. 256 gray levels
since it gives acceptable quality.

00 01 10 11

2-bit per pixel

4 gray level

Color image 8-bit per pixel 1-bit per pixel

256 gray level 2 gray levels
Black & White 32
 Color Images
• Produce realistic images.
• Cost of high-quality color displays has decreased.
• Cost of scanners that digitize color photos has decreased.

Each pixel in a color image has a “color value” which is a

combination of amounts of red, green and blue.
Each pixel value is an ordered triple, such as (23,14,51),
that prescribes the densities of the red, green and blue.
Each value in the triple (RGB) has a certain number of bits,
and color depth is the sum of these values.

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 The Color Depth
Many images have a color depth of eight (one byte), 3 bits-red, 3 bits -
green and 2 bits for the blue. Each pixel has one of 256 colors.
In highest quality (true-color) images, have a color depth of 24, one
byte for each component.
This achieves the best color production the eye can perceive: More bits do not
improve an image.
However, such images require a lot of memory. A true-color image of 1,080 
1,024 pixels requires over 3 million bytes.

pixel value

y
Color depth = 6 bits  26 (= 64) colors 34
Common Colors

Color depth of three

One bit for each component

Color Value Value

(triple)
0,0,0 Black
0,0,1 Blue
0,1,0 Green
0,1,1 Cyan
1,0,0 Red
1,0,1 Magenta
1,1,0 Yellow
1,1,1 White

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 Color CRT Monitors
• Using a combination of phosphors that emit
different-colored light
• Beam-penetration
– Used in random-scan monitors
– Use red and green phosphors layers
– Only 4 colours- RED, GREEN, YELLOW AND ORANGE
– Color depends on the penetrated length of electrons
• Shadow mask
– Used in raster-scan systems
– Produce wide range of color with RGB color model
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 Color CRT – Beam penetration method
 Used with random-scan monitors.
 Two layers of phosphor, usually red and green, are coated onto the inside of the
CRT screen, and the displayed color depends on how far the electron beam
penetrates into the phosphor layers.
 A beam of slow electrons excites only the outer red layer. A beam of very fast
electrons penetrates through the red layer and excites the inner green layer. At
intermediate beam speeds, combinations of red and green light are emitted to show
two additional colors, orange and yellow.
 The speed of the electrons, and hence the screen color at any point, is controlled by
the beam-acceleration voltage.
 An inexpensive way to produce color in random-scan monitors, but only four
colors are possible, and the quality of pictures is not as good as with other methods.

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 Color CRT - Shadow Mask method
Color CRTs have three different colored phosphors (red, green,
blue) usually arranged in triangular (delta) groups called triads at
each pixel position.
– Requires manufacturing very precise geometry
– Uses a pattern of color phosphors on the screen
Shadow mask - This type of CRT has three electron guns, one for
each color dot, and a shadow-mask grid just behind the phosphor-
coated screen. A metal screen with small holes allows electrons from
each gun to hit only corresponding phosphors dots (of proper
color).
are commonly used in raster-scan systems (including color TV)
because they produce a much wider range of colors than the beam-
penetration method.
We obtain color variations in a shadow-mask CRT by varying the
intensity levels of the three electron beams.
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Shadow Mask Methods
Delta electron gun arrangement

In-line electron gun arrangement

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 Delta-delta vs Inline
• The delta-delta shadow-mask
method, commonly used in color • Another configuration for the
CRT systems. three electron guns is an in-line
• The three electron beams are arrangement.
deflected and focused as a group onto
the shadow mask, which contains a • This in-line arrangement of
series of holes aligned with the electron guns is easier to keep in
phosphor-dot patterns. When the alignment and is commonly used
three beams pass through a hole in in high-resolution color CRTs.
the shadow mask, they activate a dot
triangle, which appears as a small
color spot on the screen.
• The phosphor dots in the triangles are
arranged so that each electron beam
can activate only its corresponding
color dot when it passes through the
shadow mask. 40
 Raster-Scan systems
• Organization of raster system
– Fixed area of system memory reserved for frame buffer which can
be directly accessed by video controller

System Video
CPU Monitor
Memory Controller

System Bus

I/O Devices

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 Raster-Scan systems…
 A fixed area of the system memory is reserved for the frame
buffer, and the video controller is given direct access to the
frame-buffer memory.
 Frame-buffer locations, and the corresponding screen
positions, are referenced in Cartesian coordinate
 For many graphic monitors, origin is defined at the lower left
screen corner
 The screen surface is then represented as the first quadrant of
a two-dimensional system, with positive x values increasing
to the right and positive y values increasing from bottom to
top.

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Raster-Scan systems

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 Raster-Scan systems
• Video Controller
– Refresh operations
• X, Y register used to indicate pixel position
• Fix Y register and increment X register to generate
scan line
– Double buffering
• Pixel value can be loaded in buffer while it is read
• Provide a fast mechanism for real-time animation
generation

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Raster-Scan systems
 Two registers are used to store
the coordinates of the screen
pixels.
 Initially, the x register is set to 0
and the y register is set to ymax.
 The value stored in the frame
buffer for this pixel position is
then retrieved and used to set
the intensity of the CRT beam

0 800
0 x

600
y 45
 Raster-Scan systems

• Then the x register is incremented by 1, and the process repeated

for the next pixel on the top scan line. This procedure is repeated
for each pixel along the scan line.
• After the last pixel on the top scan line has been processed, the x
register is reset to 0 and the y register is decremented by 1. Pixels
along this scan line are then processed in turn, and the procedure is
repeated for each successive scan line.
• After cycling through all pixels along the bottom scan line (y = O),
the video controller resets the registers to the first pixel position
on the top scan line and the refresh process starts over.

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 Raster-Scan systems
 To speed up pixel processing, video controllers can retrieve
multiple pixel values from the refresh buffer on each pass.
 The multiple pixel intensities are then stored in a separate
register and used to control the CRT beam intensity for a
group of adjacent pixels.
 When that group of pixels has been processed, the next
block of pixel values is retrieved from the frame buffer.

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 Video Controller
• For various applications, the video controller can also retrieve pixel
intensities from different memory areas on different refresh cycles.
• Also, some transformations can be accomplished by the video
controller.
• In addition, the video controller often contains a lookup table, so
that pixel values in the frame buffer are used to access the lookup
table instead of controlling the CRT beam intensity directly.
• Finally, some systems are designed to allow the video controller to
mix the frame-buffer image with an input image from a television
camera or other input device

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 Raster-Scan Systems
• Raster-Scan Display Processor
– Frees the CPU from the graphics chores
– Provide separate display-processor memory

Architecture of raster-scan display system with display processor 49

 Display Processor

• A major task of the display processor is digitizing a picture

definition given in an application program into a set of pixel-
intensity values for storage in the frame buffer. This digitization
process is caIled scan conversion.
• Graphics commands specifying straight lines and other geometric
objects are scan converted into a set of discrete intensity points.
• Scan converting a straight-line segment, for example, means that we
have to locate the pixel positions closest to the line path and store the
intensity for each position in the frame buffer.
• Similar methods are used for scan converting curved lines and
polygon outlines.
• Characters can be defined with rectangular grids or they can be
defined with curved outlines

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 RANDOM-SCAN SYSTEMS

• An application program is input and stored in the system memory

along with a graphics package.
• Graphics commands in the application program are translated by the
graphics package into a display file stored in the system memory.
• This display file is then accessed by the display processor to refresh
the screen.
• The display processor cycles through each command in the display
file program once during every refresh cycle.
• Sometimes the display processor in a random-scan system is referred
to as a display processing unit or a graphics controller.

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 RANDOM-SCAN SYSTEMS
 Graphics patterns are drawn on a random-scan system by directing
the electron beam along the component lines of the picture.
 Lines are defined by the values for their coordinate endpoints, and
these input coordinate values are converted to x and y deflection
voltages.
 A scene is then drawn one line at a time by positioning the beam to
fill in the line between specified endpoints.

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 Graphics Software
• Classifications
– Special purpose package
• Designed for non-programmers
• No graphics procedures involved
• Communicate with a set of menus
– General programming package
• Designed for programmers
• Provide library of graphics functions used in
programming language

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