1

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTIONTOCOMPUTERGRAPH
ICS
Introduction :
Computer graphics is concerned with producing images and animations
or a sequences of images using a computer. This includes the hardware
and software systems used to make these objects.
The task of producing photo-realistic images is extremely complex. This
field is in great demand because of variety of applications.

The field of computer graphics has grown enormously over the past 1020 years, and many software systems have been developed for generating
computer graphics in various fields.
In very short we would say
Computer Graphics = Mathematics + Computer Science + Art

Until 1980 computer graphics was a small field of specialization because

the hardware used was very expensive and a very few graphic based
applications were available.
As the era of PC became extremely popular, companies such as Xerox,
IBM started mass production of cheap display devices. Macintosh and
IBM made bitmap graphics very popular.
As a result, low cost application programs such as word processors,
spreadsheets and drawing applications with a Graphical Interface
started becoming popular.
Many application programs are now available to produce computer
graphics, either as 2D images, 3D models or animated sequences. Corel
Draw, Photoshop, AutoCAD, Maya, Soft Image and many more are being
used as basic graphic tools.
Today almost all interactive application programs use graphics interface
to visualize and manipulate application specific components.

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1.1 HISTORY OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS

The foundations of computer graphics can be traced to artistic and
mathematical inventions, for example,

Euclidean geometry provides a basis for graphics concepts.

Filippo Brunelleschi an architect, goldsmith, and sculptor is known for

his use of perspective projections.
Rene Descarte developed coordinate systems which provide a foundation
for describing the location and shape of objects in space.

Issac Newton invented calculus describe dynamical systems.

James Joseph Sylvester invented matrix notation. Graphic operations

are heavily dependent on matrices.

Schoenberg discovered splines, a fundamental type of curve.

Early History :

SAGE computer system were designed to support military preparedness.

The Whirlwind Project started as an efort to build a flight simulator.
SAGE was to provide air defense system in the United States to guard
against the threat of a nuclear attack.

The SAGE workstation had a vector display and light pens that
operators would use pinpoint planes flying over regions of the United
States. SAGE workstation is still there at Boston Computer Museum.
In first half of 60s IBM, Sperry-Rand, Burroughs and a few other
computer companies were competing in the computing industry. Those
computers had a few kilobytes of memory, no operating systems to
represent the computer and no graphical display.

Punch cards, line printers, and roll-paper plotters were being used.
Assembler, FORTRAN, and Algol were the available programming
languages. In 1963 Ivan Sutherland presented a paper Sketchpad in a
Computer Conference.

Sketchpad allowed interactive design on a vector graphics display

monitor with a light pen as input device. Most people mark this event as
the origin of computer graphics. Thus we can say that the real start to
Computer graphics began during this time.
In Late 60s :
Jack Bresenham drew lines on a raster device. Then he extended this to
circles. Anti-aliased lines and curve drawing is a major topic in computer
graphics. Larry Roberts pointed out the usefulness of homogeneous
coordinates, 4 X 4 matrices and hidden line detection algorithms.

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1.3

Steve Coons introduced parametric surfaces and developed early

computer aided geometric design concepts. Pierre Beziers concept on
parametric curves and surfaces started getting accepted.
Appel at IBM developed hidden surface and shadow algorithms initiating
work area of ray tracing. Fast Fourier transform was discovered by
Cooley and Tukey. It allow us to better understand signals and is
fundamental for developing antialiasing techniques.
Hardware and Technology :
We all are very familiar with mouse today. We cannot think of working
without a mouse. Doug Englebart invented mouse at Xerox. General
Electric started building flight simulators with real-time raster graphics.
Floppy disk was invented at IBM. During this time, Microprocessor was
invented at Intel. The concept of a research network had been initiated
in form of the ARPANET, in USA.
In 70s :
Software and Algorithms :
Shading was discovered by Gouraud and Phong. Phong also introduced
a reflection model that included specular highlights. Keyframe based
animation for 3-D graphics was demonstrated.
Xerox developed a Paint program. BASIC, C, and Unix were developed
at Dartmouth and Bell Labs.
Hardware and Technology :
IBM 360 computer was the heartthrob with about 64 KB of memory, a
Tektronix 4014 storage tube, or a vector display with a light pen. During
the initial phase these devices were very costly.
Evans & Sutherland Picture System was the high-end graphics
computer. It had a vector display with hardware support for clipping and
perspective. Xerox PARC introduced the Altos personal computer, and an
8 bit computer was invented at Intel.
Apple I and II computers became the first commercial successes for
personal computing. The DEC VAX computer was the mainframe
computer of choice. Arcade games such as Pong and Pac Mac became
popular. Laser printers were invented at Xerox.
In 1980s :
Software and Algorithms :
Blobby models and texture mapping concepts were introduced during
this time. Binary space partitioning (BSP) trees were introduced as a

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1.4

data structure. Loren Carpenter starting his work on fractal Geometry

in computer graphics.
Postscript was developed by John Warnock and Adobe was formed. Steve
Cook introduced stochastic sampling to ray tracing. Character animation
started becoming very popular. Photoshop was marketed by Adobe. Unix
and X windows were the platforms of choice with programming in C and
C++, but MS-DOS was starting to rise.
Hardware and Technology :
The IBM PC was marketed in 1981. The Video Graphics Array (VGA)
card was invented at IBM. Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations that
supported real-time raster line drawing started becoming popular.
The Apple Macintosh started production in 1984.Microprocessors
development on PCs began to take of, on Intel x86 chipset. Computers
with a mouse, raster display and LANs became the standard in
academic, science and engineering streams.
Sun workstations, with the Motorola 680x0 chipset became popular as
advanced workstation in the mid 80s. The data glove, a precursor to
virtual reality, was invented at NASA. VLSI for special purpose graphics
processors and parallel processing became were thought of as big
research areas.
In 1990s :
PC became the buzzing word in 90s. Computer were SGI workstation
with at least 16 MB of memory, at 24-bit raster display with hardware
support. Laser printers and single frame video recorders became very
popular .
Unix, X Windows and Silicon Graphics GL were the operating systems,
Shaded raster graphics were introduced in motion pictures. PCs started
to get decent, but still they could not support 3-D graphics.
Microsoft started to grow as a big giant. Apple collapsed, but began to
come back, SGI collapsed.
Software and Algorithms :
Mosaic became the first graphical Internet browser at National Center
for Scientific Applications (NCSA).

MPEG standards for compressed video began during this phase.. In 1992
OpenGL became the standard for graphics APIs

In 1993, World Wide Web began such that it does not even stop
today.

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1.5

Hardware and Technology :

Hand-held computers were invented at Hewlett-Packard. Zip drives were
invented at Iomega. The Intel 486 chipset allowed PC to get reasonable
floating point performance.
Silicon Graphics produced the Reality Engine. Ninetendo, a computer
game hit the market providing Reality Engine-like graphics for the
masses of games players. Scanners were introduced.
Laptops were introduced during this time. Intel Pentium chipset made
PCs as powerful as workstations. Motion capture, begun with the data
glove, becomes a primary method for generating animation sequences. 3D video games became very popular:
Beginning 21st Century :
Every graphicist wants an Intel PC with at least 256 MB of memory and
a 40 GB hard disk. Display has its own graphics processor supporting
real-time texture mapping. Scanner, color laser printer, Mini DV
camera, DVD, and MPEG encoder/decoder are the peripherals have
become very common.
High definition TV (HDTV) is becoming a hot concept. Wireless
computing has become a buzzword. 3-D modeling and video editing has
become talk of this early time in century.
Brief Chronology of CG
1960s
1963

Vector display devices

Ivan Sutherlands Sketchpad

1970s
1972
1976
1980s
1982
1985
1989
1990s
1991
1993
1995
1996

Raster display devices

Pong
Star Wars
Ray tracing, Realism, Multimedia
Star Trek II
Last Star fighter
Abyss
Virtual reality, Interactivity
Terminator 2
Jurassic Park
Toy Story
Titanic

1999
2000
2002

Star Wars - the Phantom Menace

Large number of commercials & TV series using CG
Lord of the Rings: Two Towers

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1.2 GRAPHICS STANDARDS

Graphic programming package provides a set of functions that are used
with high level programming language such as C or C++. It provides
library to generate basic graphic components such as a line circle or an
ellipse. It is normally used by expert programmers.
An application package is designed so that a simple user is able to drag and
drop graphic components without worrying about programming tactics.
We are able to use graphic applications like paint, Photoshop, that have
uniform type of tools this has become possible because of graphic standard.
Primary goal of a standard is portability. Without a standard, graphic
program for one system may not work on another. Standard graphic
functions define specifications which remain ind
e p e n d e n t o f programming panguage. It defines a binding for a
higher level language.

1.

Several common graphics languages/libraries/APIs

are
GKS

DirectX

Open Graphic Library

PHIGS.

Postscript

Direct3D

MPEG

VRML

Graphic Kernel Standard :

G raphic k ernel s ystem was developed to f ulf ill the need of
a standardized method to create graphic programs. GKS has a standard
interface with fixed specified index.
More over GKS is designed to bind its subroutine to programming
language like C, PASCAL, BASIC and FORTRAN .
GKS has a consistent set of reserved word with specified language used
with syntax

2.

Open GL :
Open GL is a software interface provided to graphics hardware. It has
about 120 commands to specify objects, required to create interface 3D
application.
Open GL is a stream lined, hardware independent interface used to
implement any where. It provide basic geometric primitive to create a 3D
model such as an automobile section or a plane.
Open GL utility library contains an inbuilt routine that use lower level
command to set a matrices or view a projection or venders surface .

3.

PHIGS :
Programming hierarchical interactive graphics system is a programming
library for 3D graphics It is created and managed by the ISO
(international standardized organization).It is being used on X-windows
in Unix and also available for several workstation vendor.

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INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER GRAPHICS

PHIGS graphics library has about 400 function from creating a simple
line to ray casting a surface. It provides a standard interface to a display
device irrespective of vendor. Any vendor.
PHIGS stores graphics is its own database before displaying It is also
known as a display list system.

1.3 APPLICATION OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS :

Computer graphics is being used in many diverse fields. Some of them are Presentation Graphics

Entertainment

Education and Training

Computer Aided Design

Computer Art

Virtual Reality

Image Processing

Advertisement

Multimedia
1.

Presentation Graphics :
In presentation graphics, reports are generated
o n s l i d e s o r transparencies that can be used on projectors. It is
normally used to summarize financial, statical, mathematical,
scientific and economic data for research and managerial decisions.
Presentation graphics is in form of Bar charts, line graphs, pie charts and
other displays that show relations among multiple parameters.
Graphs and charts can be in 3D formats to make the presentation an
efective tools

2.

Entertainment :
Computer graphics is used in making motion pictures, music videos and
television shows. The graphics are shown alone or are combined with
others to give an attractive look.

3.

Education :
A wide range of individual educational software with multimedia is
available on CD-ROM. Models can be created to efectively explains
certain concepts.
One of the chief advantages of such Computer Graphics applications is,
the sequence of material .
Graphics is also used in classroom to enhance the educational experience
and simplify teachers work.
Distance learning is a variation on education where all students may not
be at same place during a class.
Education takes place through a combination of stored multimedia
presentations, live teaching, and participation of students.

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Distance learning involves aspects of both teaching with multimedia and

video conferencing.
4.

Computer Aided design :

A major use is computer graphics is in design process of engineering and
architectural systems. CAD applications are designed to create building,
automobiles, aircraft, spacecraft, textile and many more product models.

5.

Computer Art :

6.

Computer graphics is widely used in fine art and commercial applications.

Artists use a variety of applications like Paint packages, mathematics
package, desktop publishing software and animation programs.

Virtual reality :
Virtual reality provides a very realistic efect using sight and sound,
while allowing the user to interact with the virtual world.

7.

Telemedicine :
Computer Graphics with multimedia and telemedicine can improve the
delivery of health care in a number of ways. Digital information can be
centrally stored and can made available at many locations.
Physicians can consult with one another using video conferencing
capabilities, where all can see the data and images, it brings together
experts from a number of places in order to provide better care.

8.

Image Processing :

Computer graphics creates graphical scene with hardware and software.

Image processing applies techniques to modify or interpret existing
pictures like photographs and TV scans. Basic idea is to improve the
quality and find out machine perception of visual information.

Image processing, converts an existing image into digitized form by

converting the image file format. Image processing technique is used in
commercial applications that can rearrange some or whole of the picture,
apply proces s ing technique to enhance picture
or even do
a Computerized Tomography scan in medical examination.
Some of the other imaging technique includes ultrasonic and nuclear
medicine scanners.
9.

Graphical User Interface :

21st century is an era of graphical interface. Major component of
graphical interface is a window manager that allows a user to display
multiple window areas. Every window contains a graphic or non graphic
display. In order to activate a particular window, we need to click it
using a pointing device.
Interface generally comes with a menu and icons for fast selection of
processing options. Icon is a graphic symbol designed to look like a processing option. They take up less space and can be understood more quickly.