CS101 Introduction to Computing

Lecture 33
Graphics & Animation
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During the last lecture (Internet Services)

We looked at several services provided by the Internet
FTP Telnet Web eMail Instant messaging VoIP

We also found out about the addressing scheme 2 used on the Internet

IP Address
A unique identifier for a computer on a TCP/IP network Format: four 8-bit numbers separated by periods. Each 8-bit number can be 0 to 255

Domain Names
IP addresses are fine for computers, but difficult to recognize and remember for humans A domain name is a meaningful, easy-toremember label for an IP address

DNS: Domain Name System

DNS is the way that Internet domain names are located & translated into IP addresses

FTP
Used to transfer files between computers on a TCP/IP network (e.g Internet)

Telnet Protocol
Using Telnet, a user can remotely log on to a computer (connected to the users through a TCP/IP network, e.g. Internet) & have control over it like a local user, including control over running various programs

The Web
The greatest, shared resource of information created by humankind A user may access any item on the Web through a URL, e.g.
http://www.vu.edu.pk/cs/index.html

http://www.vu.edu.pk/cs/index.html

Protocol Identifier

Server Address

Directory & File Name

eMail
Computer-to-computer messaging Inexpensive, and quite quick, but not instant!

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But first, the components:

eMail client SMTP server POP3 server

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The Trouble with eMail

Slow response times No way of knowing if the person we are sending eMail to is there to read it The process of having a conversation through eMail by exchanging several short messages is too cumbersome
12 Instant messaging (IM) solves these problems

Instant Messaging
The IM services available on the Internet (e.g. ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger) allow us to maintain a list of people (contacts) that we interact with regularly We can send an instant messages to any of the contacts in our list as long as that contact is online

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Key Point
Once the IM server provides the communication info to the user and his/her contacts IM client, the two are able to communicate with each other without the IM servers assistance This server-less connection is termed as a P2P connection

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VoIP: Voice over IP

Voice delivered from one device to another using the Internet Protocol Inexpensive, but of poor quality

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Todays Goal: Graphics & Animation

We will become familiar with the role that graphics and animations play in computing We will look at how graphics & animation are displayed
We will look at a few popular formats used for storing graphics and animation
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Computer Graphics
Images created with the help of computers 2-D and 3-D (displayed on a 2-D screen but in such a way that they give an illusion of depth) Used for scientific research, artistic expression, or for industrial applications Graphics have made the computer interfaces more intuitive by removing the need to 17 memorize commands

Displaying Images
Most all computer displays consist of a grid of tiny pixels arranged in a regular grid of rows and columns

Images are displayed by assigning different colors to the pixels located in the desired portion of the computer display
Lets discuss the pixel a bit more
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Pixel
The smallest image forming element on a computer display The computer display is made up of a regular grid of these pixels The computer has the capability of assigning any color to any of the individual pixels on the display Lets now see how the computer displays a square 19

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Pixel Colors (1)

The color of each pixel is generally represented in the form a triplet In a popular scheme the RGB scheme each part of the triplet represents the intensity of one of out of three primary colors: red, green, blue

Often, the intensity of each color is represented with a byte, resulting in 256x256x256 (16+ million) unique color combinations 21

Pixel Colors (2)

If this scheme is used to display an image that is equal to the size of an XGA (1024x768 pixels) display, the image will require 2.25MB of storage, which is just too much A number of clever schemes have been invented to reduce the number of bytes that are required for storing graphics. 2 popular ones:
Color mapping Dithering
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Color Mapping (1)

Instead of letting each pixel assume one out of 16 million possible colors, only a limited number of colors called the platelet are allowed

For example, the platelet may be restricted to 256 colors (requiring 1 byte/pixel instead of 3)

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Color Mapping (2)

Each value, from 0 to 255, is mapped to a selected RGB color through a table, reducing the size of a 2.25MB graphic to 0.75MB

The quality of the displayed image will not suffer at all if the image only uses colors that are a part of the platelet

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Color Platelet Example

Color Platelet Code Actual Color in RGB 1 255, 255, 000 (yellow)

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255, 000, 000 (red)

000, 255, 255 (cyan)

255, 153, 051 (orange)

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Dithering
In this scheme, pixels of alternating colors are used to simulate a color that is not present in the platelet

For example, red and green pixels can be alternated to give the impression of bright yellow
The quality of the displayed image is poorer
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Aliasing
The computer screen consists of square-ish pixels arranged in a fixed grid At times, when a diagonal line is drawn on this grid, it looks more like a staircase, instead of a straight line

This effect called aliasing can be managed by reducing the size of pixels
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Anti-Aliasing (1)
Anti-aliasing is another technique used for managing the staircase effect Lets say that we need to draw a white straightline such that it overlaps 60% with one pixel, and 40% with another initially, and near the end, 58%, 41%, and 1%, respectively, with three pixels

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Anti-Aliasing (2)
The staircase effect is caused because the proper drawing of the line requires a pixel that does not exist

There are three options in this case:

Assign the white color to the pixel corresponding to the largest overlap Assign the white color to both pixels

Either of these will cause the staircase effect 30

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Anti-Aliasing (3)
The 3rd option is to color the pixel with 60% overlap to a 40% gray color & the other one to 60% gray

Result: A smoother - pleasing to the eye - look

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Graphics File Formats

The choice of the format generally depends upon the nature of the image. For example:
An image of natural scenery contains many irregular, non-gemetric shapes, therefore is stored in bit-map format A CAD drawing consists of many geometric shapes like straight lines, arcs, etc. and therefore is stored in a vector format A third situation arises when dealing with graphics 35 that contain both regular and irregular shapes

Vector or Object-Oriented Graphics

Treats everything that is drawn as an object

Objects retain their identity after they are drawn

These objects can later be easily moved, stretched, duplicated, deleted, etc Are resolution independent Relatively small file size Examples: swf, svg, wmf, ps
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Bit-Mapped or Raster Graphics

Treats everything that is drawn as a bit-map

If an object is drawn on top of another, it is difficult to move just one of them while leaving the other untouched
Changing the resolution often requires considerable touch-up work Relatively large file size

Examples: gif, jpg, bmp

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File Formats Popular on the Web (1)

gif (Graphical Interchange Format)
Bit-map images compressed using the LZW algo.
The number of colors is first reduced to 256 and then consecutive pixels having the same color are encoded in a [color, numberOfPixels] format Works well with computer-generated graphics (e.g. CAD, block diagrams, cartoons) but not with natural, realistic images
38 Loss-less for images having 256 colors or less

File Formats Popular on the Web (2)

jpg (JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Compressed, full-color and gray-scale bit-map images of natural, real-world scenes, where most every pixel differs in color from its neighbor It does not work as well as gif with non-realistic images, such as cartoons or line drawings Does not handle compression of B&W images Lossy
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File Formats Popular on the Web (3)

swf (Shockwave Flash)
Designed for 2-D animations, but can also be used for storing static vector images as well
A special program (called a plug-in) is required to view swf files in a Web browser

svg (Structured Vector Graphics)

New format; may become more popular than40swf

Image Processing
A branch of computer science concerned with manipulating and enhancing computer graphics Examples:
Converting 2-D satellite imagery into a 3-D model of a terrain

Restoring old, faded photographs into something closer to the original

Determining the amount of silting in Tarbela41 lake from a satellite image

3-D Graphics (1)

Flat images enhanced to impart the illusion of depth We perceive the world and the objects in it in 3D - breadth, width, depth - although the images formed on the retinas of our eyes are 2-D

The secret of 3-D perception: stereo vision

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3-D Graphics (2)

The two eyes are spaced a few cm apart Result: The images formed on the two retinas are slightly different The brain combines these two into a single 3-D image, enabling us to perceive depth

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3-D Graphics: Applications

Games Medical images

3-D CAD

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3-D Rendering
The process of converting information about 3D objects into a bit-map that can be displayed on a 2-D computer display

Computationally, very expensive!

Steps:
Draw the wire-frame (skeleton, made with thin lines) Fill with colors, textures, patterns Add lighting effects (reflections, shadows) 45

Animation
Graphics in motion, e.g. cartoons Illusion of motion is created by showing the viewer a sequence of still images, rapidly Drawing those images - each slightly different from the previous one - used to be quite tedious work Computers have helped in cutting down some 46 of the tediousness

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Computer Animation: Examples

Games Cartoons, movies

Visualization of processes, e.g the IM process Displaying the results of scientific experiments, e.g. nuclear fusion
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Tweening (1)
Creating a reasonable illusion of motion requires the drawing of 14-30 images per second of animation very tedious!

In practice, only 4-5 images (called key images) instead of 14-30 are drawn, and then the computer is asked to create the remaining inbetween images

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Tweening (2)
This process of creating these in-between images from key images is called in-betweening (or tweening for short)

The simplest algorithm for tweening calculates the position of a particular segment of an image by calculating the average of the positions of that same image segment belonging to adjacent key images
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The Future of Graphics & Animation

New graphic-file storage formats will appear with better compression efficiencies 3-D animation will become more popular as computers become faster and algorithms become smarter More realistic games; better realism in movies may, one day, make the human actors extinct
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Todays Goal: Graphics & Animation

We became familiar with the role that graphics and animations play in computing

We discussed how graphics & animation are displayed We also looked at several formats used for storing graphics and animation
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Next Lecture: (Intelligent Systems)

To become familiar with the distinguishing features of intelligent systems with respect to other software systems

To become able to appreciate the role of intelligent systems in scientific, business and consumer applications
To look at several techniques for designing intelligent systems 54