Computer Graphics:

Week 4
Presentation By: Ms. Ifrah Mansoor
Topics to be covered
• Display Technologies
• Introduction to graphic system
• Video display devices
• Fresh CRTs Display
• Block Diagram and Working
• Random Scan Display
• Method to scan image
• Differentiate between random and raster scan with example
• Raster Scan Display
• Method to scan image, Basic Video Controller fresh operations, Digitizing, Pixel
intensity, Frame buffer, Raster Scan characters with examples.

• OpenGL : Drawing a Pixel in C++ with OpenGL.

Display Technologies
Introduction to Graphic System:

• The most visual part of a computer is its graphics system.

• It consists of a display adapter and the monitor.

• The brain of the PC Graphics System lie with the display adapter. This type of
graphics system is referred to as integrated graphics.

• The display adapter sports its own processor called the GPU for graphics processing
unit or VPU for visual processing unit.
Display Technologies
Introduction to Graphic System:
 Display Technologies
Video Display Devices:
• The display device is an output device used to represent the
information in the form of images (visual form). Display systems are
mostly called a video monitor or Video display unit (VDU).

• Display devices are designed to model, display, view, or display

information. The purpose of display technology is to simplify
information sharing.
Display Technologies
Video Display Devices:
• There are some display devices given below:

• Cathode-Ray Tube(CRT)
• Color CRT Monitor
• Liquid crystal display(LCD)
• Light Emitting Diode(LED)
• Direct View Storage Tubes(DVST)
• Plasma Display
• 3D Display
Video Display Devices:

1. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

A CRT is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun (a source of electrons) and a

fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the
electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the
fluorescent screen.
Working of a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
Principle behind Basic Working of CRT
• The primary components of electron gun are heated metal cathode and
control grid (which controls the intensity of electrons).
• Heat is supplied to the filament and hence the electrons start boiling.
• In the vacuum inside the monitor these electrons are accelerated (by the
accelerating anode or by the positive metal coating near the phosphor
screen) towards the phosphor coating by a high positive voltage.
• Focusing system in CRT forces the electron beam to converge into a small
spot as it strikes the phosphor.
• Deflection of the electron beam can be controlled either by the electric field
or by the magnetic field.
Principle behind Basic Working of CRT
Power supply block of oscilloscope is classified in to two types:

(1) Negative high voltage supply

The voltages of negative high voltage supply is from -1000V to -1500V.

(2) Positive low voltage supply

The range of positive voltage supply is from 300V to 400V.
Video Display Devices:
2. Color CRT

CRT Monitor Displays color pictures by using a combination of phosphors that emit
different colored light.

Two Techniques for producing color Display with a CRT are:-

1. Beam- Penetration
2. Shadow Mask
 Color CRT:
1. Beam Penetration Method:

• Used with random-scan monitors these

systems have Two layers of phosphor, green the inner layer and red the outer one,
are coated on to the inside of the CRT screen.
• The displayed color depends on how far the electron beam penetrates into the
phosphor layers.
• It produces a limited number of colors red, orange, yellow and green.
• Inexpensive way of producing colors in Random Scan
• Picture Quality is not very good.
 Color CRT:
2. Shadow Mask Method

• Commonly used in raster scan systems

• It can display a much wider range
• than Beam Penetration Method
• It has three phosphor color dots (red, green and blue) at each pixel position.
• These systems have three electron guns. One for each color dot.
• As per the picture definition the electron guns passes the electron beam which is
properly deflected through the Shadow Mask hence forming a single beam.
 Color CRT

Shadow Mask Method

The shadow mask is one of two major
technologies used to manufacture cathode
ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer
displays that produce color images.

Tiny holes in a metal plate separate the colored phosphors in

the layer behind the front glass of the screen.

The holes are placed in a manner ensuring that electrons

from each of the tube's three cathode guns reach only the
appropriately-colored phosphors on the display.
CRT Display : Advantages

• Resolution and Aspect Ratio : Operate at any resolution, geometry and aspect
ratio without the need for rescaling the image.
• Highest Resolutions : Run at the highest pixel resolutions generally available.
• Black-Level and Contrast : Produce a very dark black and the highest contrast
levels normally available.
• Color and Gray-Scale Accuracy: Produces the very best color and gray-scale
with an infinite number of intensity levels.
• Cost : Less expensive than other display technologies.
CRT Display : Disadvantages
• Sharpness
not as sharp as an LCD at its native resolution.
• Geometric Distortion
affected by magnetic fields from other equipment including other CRTs.
• Brightness
Not suitable for very brightly lit environments.
• Physical
They are large, heavy, and bulky and consume a lot of electricity and
produce a lot of heat.

•
Flat Panel Displays

The term flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume,
weight, and power requirements compared to a CRT. A significant feature of flat-panel
displays is that they are thinner than CRTs, and we can hang them on walls or wear
them on our wrists.

• Two categories: Emissive displays and Nonemissive displays.

• The Emissive displays (or emitters) are devices that convert electrical energy into light.
Plasma panels, and light-emitting diodes are examples of emissive displays.

• Nonemissive displays (or nonemitters) use optical effects to convert sunlight or light
from some other source into graphics patterns. The most important example of a
nonemissive flat-panel display is a liquid-crystal device.
What is Refreshing/ Fresh CRT?
• The light emitted by the phosphor fades very rapidly. In order to
maintain the screen picture or to keep the phosphor is to redraw the
picture repeatedly by quickly directing the electron beam over the
same point.
• The most common method employed for maintaining phosphor glow is to redraw
the picture repeatedly by quickly directing the electron beam back over the same
screen points. This type of display is called a RefreshCRT, and the frequency at
which a picture is redrawn on the screen is referred to as the Refresh Rate.
CRT Monitor Technology
There are three technologies which are used to display graphics on the screen
using CRT.
1. DVST
2. Random Scan display
3. Raster Scan display

DIRECT VIEW RANDOM

STORAGE TUBE SCAN DISPLAYS

RASTER
SCAN DISPLAYS
 1. Direct View Storage Tube (DVST)

• In all the earlier technologies we need refreshing of the screen.

• In a computer display, to refresh is to redraw the image information from memory.

• Computer or television displays have to be refreshed because they don't have the
capacity to hold a stable image.

• Electron guns in the cathode ray tube ( CRT ) constantly sweep across the screen,
redrawing the display.
 1. Direct View Storage Tube (DVST)
• DVST resembles CRT as it uses electron gun to draw
picture and phosphor coated screen to display it.
• DVST does not use refresh buffer or frame buffer to
store picture definition.
• Picture definition is stored in inside CRT in form
positive charged distribution. Because of this reason
DVST is knows as Storage Type CRT.
• In DVST no refreshing is required as result picture
drawn on DVST will be seen for several minutes before
fading.
• Two electron guns primary gun and flood gun are used
• Primary gun stores the picture pattern and flood gun
maintains the picture display
DVST Vs Refresh CRT

• In DVST since no refreshing

required so complex pictures can
be displayed at higher resolution
without flicker.
• However DVST ordinarily does
not display colors and parts of
image cannot be erased here so not
good for animation
2. Random Scan Displays
(also known as Stroke-writing, Vector Or Calligraphic Displays)

• The random scan is a technique in which the

display is constructed through an electron
beam, which is directed only to the specific
areas of the screen where the image is to be
sketched or drawn.
• The resolution of the random scan display is
high, and thus it delivers smooth image
drawing.
• Pen plotter is an example of random-scan
displays.
2. Random Scan Displays

How to scan an image in random scan display?

• Electron beam is directed only to the areas of
screen where a picture has to be drawn.

• It is also called vector display, as it draws picture

one line at time.

• It can draw and refresh component lines of a

picture in any specified sequence.

• An area of memory called refresh display files

stores picture definition as a set of line drawing
commands.
3. Raster Scan Display
• A Raster Scan Display is based on
intensity control of pixels in the
form of a rectangular box called
Raster on the screen.
• Information of on and off pixels is
stored in refresh buffer or Frame
buffer.
• Televisions in our house are based
on Raster Scan Method
3. Raster Scan Display
3. Raster Scan Display
How to scan an image in raster scan display?
• The electron beam sweeps across the
screen one row at a time from top to
bottom (scan lines swept by
horizontal retrace and vertical
retrace).
• As the electron beam sweeps the
intensity is turned on or off as per
the picture definition stored in the
frame buffer to create a pattern of
illuminated spots.
3. Raster Scan Display

There are two techniques of scanning in Raster Scan displays:

1. Interlaced Systems:
In some raster system interlacing technique is used for painting the screen . Instead of
refreshing every line in an interlaced mode the electron gun sweeps alternate line in
each pass (each frame is displayed in two frames odd numbered being refreshed first
and then the even numbered lines.).

* This is an effective
technique for avoiding flicker
3. Raster Scan Display

Example Interlaced Systems:

3. Raster Scan Display
2. Progressive system
Progressive scanning (alternatively referred to as noninterlaced scanning) is a format of
displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame
are drawn in sequence.
Raster Scan Display Architecture

• The raster scan system is a combination of some processing units.

It consists of the control processing unit (CPU) and a particular processor
called a display controller. Display Controller controls the operation of the
display device. It is also called a video controller.

Operations performed by these units:

1. Refreshing Operation
2. Transformation (Area of the screen can be enlarged, reduces or moved
during the refresh cycle)
The raster scan system is a
combination of some
processing units.
It consists of the central
processing unit (CPU) and a
particular processor called a
Display controller.
Display Controller controls the
operation of the display device.
It is also called a Video
controller.
Raster Scan Display Architecture with Video Controller
Raster Scan Display Architecture with Video Controller
Video Controller:
• A video controller can be designed to perform a number of other operations. For
various applications, the video controller can retrieve pixel values from different
memory areas on different refresh cycles.

• Another video-controller task is the transformation of blocks of pixels, so that

screen areas can be enlarged, reduced, or moved from one location to another
during the refresh cycles.

• 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
• Picture definition is stored
in memory area called the
Refresh Buffer or Frame
Buffer.
• This memory area holds
the set of intensity values
for all the screen points
• Pixel intensity value is the
primary information
stored within pixels, it is
the most popular and
important feature used
for classification.

• The intensity value for

each pixel is a single value
for a gray-level image, or
three values (RGB) for a
color image
 Raster Scan Display Architecture with Display Processor

Display Processor Unit:

• Digitizing:
• 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 called scan conversion.
• Lines and other geometric objects are converted into set of discrete intensity
points.

• In scan conversion, graphics commands specifying straight lines and other

geometric objects are scan converted into a set of discrete points,
corresponding to screen pixel positions.
 Raster Scan Display Architecture with Display Processor
Display Processor Unit Operations:
• In an effort to reduce memory requirements in raster systems, methods have been devised
for organizing the frame buffer as a linked list and encoding the color information.
• One organization scheme is to store each scan line as a set of number pairs. The first
number in each pair can be a reference to a color value, and the second number can
specify the number of adjacent pixels on the scan line that are to be displayed in that
color. This technique, called run-length encoding.
• A similar approach can be taken when pixel colors change linearly. Another approach is
to encode the raster as a set of rectangular areas (cell encoding).
Raster Scan Display Complete Architecture

Digitizing
Digitizing Example
CPU vs GPU vs Video Controller vs Display
Processor
• The CPU is designed to handle a wide-range of tasks quickly (as measured by
CPU clock speed), but are limited in the concurrency of tasks that can be running.
• A GPU is designed to quickly render/generate high-resolution images and video
concurrently.
• Video controller/Display controller is a key hardware component that allows
computers to generate graphic information to any video display devices, such as a
monitor or projector.
• Display Processor is a part of computer graphics system which is used to convert
the code into pictures.
Difference b/w Raster and Random Scan
Implementation of a Pixel in OPENGL
#include <windows.h> // for MS Windows
#include <GL/glut.h> // GLUT, include glu.h and gl.h
void display() {
glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f); // Set background color to black and opaque
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); // Clear the color buffer (background)

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
gluOrtho2D(0.0, 500.0, 500.0, 0.0);
glBegin(GL_POINTS);
glColor3f(1, 1, 1);
glVertex2i(100, 100);
glEnd();
glFlush(); // Render now
}
 Implementation of a Pixel in OPENGL
/* Main function: GLUT runs as a console application starting at main() */

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

glutInit(&argc, argv); // Initialize GLUT
glutCreateWindow("OpenGL Setup Test"); // Create a window with the given title
glutInitWindowSize(320, 320); // Set the window's initial width & height
glutInitWindowPosition(50, 50); // Position the window's initial top-left corner
glutDisplayFunc(display); // Register display callback handler for window re-
paint
glutMainLoop(); // Enter the event-processing loop
return 0;
}