Computer Graphics Notes PDF

Index
SNo Lesson Lesson Name Author Vetter

No.
1 1 Overview of Computer Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
Graphics
2 2 Display Devices Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
3 3 Scan Conversion Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
4 4 2D Transformations Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
5 5 Graphics Operations Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
6 6 Interactive Devices Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
7 7 3D Graphics Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
8 8 The Concept of Abhesik Taneja Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
Multimedia and GKS
Author: Abhishek Taneja Vetter: Dr. Pradeep Bhatia
Lesson: Overview of Computer Graphics Lesson No. : 01
1.0 Objectives
At the end of this chapter the reader will be able to:
• Describe Computer Graphics and its applications.
• Describe and distinguish between Interactive and Passive Graphics.
• Describe advantages of Interactive Graphics.
• Describe applications of Computer Graphics.
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Interactive Graphics
1.3 Passive Graphics
1.4 Advantages of Interactive Graphics
1.5 How the Interactive Graphics Display Works
1.6 Applications of Computer Graphics
1.7 Summary
1.8 Keywords
1.9 Self Assessment Questions (SAQ)
1.10 References/Suggested Readings
1.1 Introduction
The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or
sound. Today almost every computer can do some graphics, and people have even come
to expect to control their computer through icons and pictures rather than just by typing.
Here in our lab at the Program of Computer Graphics, we think of computer graphics as
drawing pictures on computers, also called rendering. The pictures can be photographs,
drawings, movies, or simulations - pictures of things, which do not yet exist and maybe
could never exist. Or they may be pictures from places we cannot see directly, such as
medical images from inside your body. We spend much of our time improving the way
computer pictures can simulate real world scenes. We want images on computers to not
just look more realistic, but also to be more realistic in their colors, the way objects and
rooms are lighted, and the way different materials appear. We call this work “realistic
image synthesis”.
1.2 Interactive Graphics
In interactive computer graphics user have some control over the picture i.e user can
make any change in the produced image. One example of it is the ping pong game. The
conceptual model of any interactive graphics system is given in the picture shown in
Figure 1.1. At the hardware level (not shown in picture), a computer receives input from
interaction devices, and outputs images to a display device. The software has three
components. The first is the application program, it creates, stores into, and retrieves
from the second component, the application model, which represents the the graphic
primitive to be shown on the screen. The application program also handles user input. It
produces views by sending to the third component, the graphics system, a series of
graphics output commands that contain both a detailed geometric description of what is
to be viewed and the attributes describing how the objects should appear. After the user
input is processed, it sent to the graphics system is for actually producing the picture.
Thus the graphics system is a layer in between the application program and the display
hardware that effects an output transformation from objects in the application model to a
view of the model.
Applicatio Graphics
Applicati n Program system
on Model
Figure 1.1: Conceptual model for interactive graphics
The objective of the application model is to captures all the data, objects, and
relationships among them that are relevant to the display and interaction part of the
application program and to any nongraphical postprocessing modules.
1.3 Passive Graphics
A computer graphics operation that transfers automatically and without operator

intervention. Non-interactive computer graphics involves one way communication
between the computer and the user. Picture is produced on the monitor and the user does
not have any control over the produced picture.
1.4 Advantages of Interactive Graphics
Graphics provides one of the most natural means of communicating with a computer,
since our highly developed 2D and 3D pattern-recognition abilities allow us to perceive
and process pictorial data rapidly and efficiently. In Many design, implementation, and
construction processes today, the information pictures can give is virtually indispensable.
Scientific visualization became an important field in the late 1980s, when scientists and
engineers realized that they could not interpret the data and prodigious quantities of data
produced in supercomputer runs without summarizing the data and highlighting trends
and phenomena in various kinds of graphical representations.
Creating and reproducing pictures, however, presented technical problems that stood in
the way of their widespread use. Thus, the ancient Chinese proverb “a picture is worth
ten thousand words” became a cliché in our society only after the advent of inexpensive
and simple technology for producing pictures—first the printing press, then photography.
Interactive computer graphics is the most important means of producing pictures since
the invention of photography and television; it has the added advantage that, with the
computer, we can make pictures not only of concrete, “real-world” objects but also of
abstract, synthetic objects, such as mathematical surfaces in 4D and of data that have no
inherent geometry, such as survey results. Furthermore, we are not confined to static
images. Although static pictures are a good means of communicating information,
dynamically varying pictures are frequently even better–to time-varying phenomena, both
real (e.g., growth trends, such as nuclear energy use in the United States or population
movement form cities to suburbs and back to the cities). Thus, a movie can show changes
over time more graphically than can a sequence of slides. Thus, a sequence of frames
displayed on a screen at more than 15 frames per second can convey smooth motion or
changing form better than can a jerky sequence, with several seconds between individual
frames. The use of dynamics is especially effective when the user can control the
animation by adjusting the speed, the portion of the total scene in view, the amount of
detail shown, the geometric relationship of the objects in the another, and so on. Much of
interactive graphics technology therefore contains hardware and software for user-
controlled motion dynamics and update dynamics.
With motion dynamics, objects can be moved and tumbled with respect to a stationary
observer. The objects can also remain stationary and the viewer can move around them ,
pan to select the portion in view, and zoom in or out for more or less detail, as though
looking through the viewfinder of a rapidly moving video camera. In many cases, both
the objects and the camera are moving. A typical example is the flight simulator, which
combines a mechanical platform supporting a mock cockpit with display screens for
windows. Computers control platform motion, gauges, and the simulated world of both
stationary and moving objects through which the pilot navigates. These multimillion-
dollar systems train pilots by letting the pilots maneuver a simulated craft over a
simulated 3D landscape and around simulated vehicles. Much simpler fight simulators
are among the most popular games on personal computers and workstations. Amusement
parks also offer “motion-simulator” rides through simulated terrestrial and extraterrestrial
landscapes. Video arcades offer graphics-based dexterity games and racecar-driving
simulators, video games exploiting interactive motion dynamics: The player can change
speed and direction with the “gas pedal” and “steering wheel,” as trees, buildings, and
other cars go whizzing by. Similarly, motion dynamics lets the user fly around the
through buildings, molecules, and 3D or 4D mathematical space. In another type of
motion dynamics, the “camera” is held fixed, and the objects in the scene are moved
relative to it. For example, a complex mechanical linkage, such as the linkage on a stream
engine, can be animated by moving or rotating all the pieces appropriately.
Update dynamics is the actual change of the shape, color, or other properties of the
objects being viewed. For instance, a system can display the deformations of an airplane
structure in flight or the state changes in a block diagram of a nuclear reactor in response
to the operator’s manipulation of graphical representations of the many control
mechanisms. The smoother the change, the more realistic and meaningful the result.
Dynamic interactive graphics offers a large number of user-controllable modes with
which to encode and communicate information: the 2D or 3D shape of objects in a
picture, their gray scale or color, and the time variations of these properties. With the
recent development of digital signal processing (DSP) and audio synthesis chips, audio
feedback can now be provided to augment the graphical feedback and to make the
simulated environment even more realistic.
Interactive computer graphics thus permits extensive, high-bandwidth user-computer

interaction. This significantly enhances our ability to understand data, to perceive trends,
and to visualize real or imaginary objects–indeed, to create “virtual worlds” that we can
explore from arbitrary points of view. By making communication more efficient,
graphics make possible higher-quality and more precise results or products, greater
productivity, and lower analysis and design costs.
1.5 How The Interactive Graphics Display Works
The modern graphic display is very simple in construction. It consists of the three
components shown in figure 1.2 below.
(1) Frame Buffer
(2) Monitor like a TV set without the tuning and receiving electronics.
(3) Display Controller It passes the contents of the frame buffer to the monitor.
00000000 00000001 Scan Line Data

00000000 00011001
01111100 01100001 Scan Line
…………
00110000 00011101
…………
11100000 00001001
00000000 11000001 Display Controller
………………………….
00001110 01110001
…………………………
00000000 00011101
.
00001110 00001001
.
00000000 00001001
.
00011110 00010001
.
00000000 00110001
.
00000000 10000001
.
00011110 11000001
………………………….
00000001 00110001
00000110 10000001
Figure 1.2
Inside the frame buffer the image is stored as a pattern of binary digital numbers, which
represent a array of picture elements, or pixels. In the simplest case, where you want to
store only black and white images, you can represent black pixels by “1’s” and white
pixels by “0’s” in the frame buffer. Therefore, a array of black and white pixels of 16X16
could be represented by 32 bytes, stored in frame buffer.
The display controller reads each successive byte of data from the frame buffer and
converts its 0’s and 1’s into corresponding video signals. This signal is then fed to the
monitor, producing a black and white image on the screen. The display controller repeats
this operation 30 times a second to maintain a steady picture on the monitor. If you want
to change the image, then you need to modify the frame buffer’s contexts to represent the
new pattern of pixels.
1.6 Applications of Computer Graphics
Classification of Applications
The diverse uses of computer graphics listed in the previous section differ in a variety of
ways, and a number of classification is by type (dimensionality) of the object to be
represented and the kind of picture to be produced. The range of possible combinations is
indicated in Table 1.1.
Classification of Computer Graphics by Object and

Picture
Type of Object
2D
3D
Pictorial Representation
Line drawing
Gray scale image
Color image
Line drawing (or wire-frame)
Line drawing, with various effects Shaded, color image with
various effects
Table 1.1
Computer graphics is used today in many different areas of industry, business,

government, education, entertainment, and most recently, the home. The list of
applications is enormous and is growing rapidly as computers with graphics capabilities
become commodity products. Let`s look at a representative sample of these areas.
Cartography: Computer graphics is used to produce both accurate and schematic

representations of geographical and other natural phenomena from measurement
data. Examples include geographic maps, relief maps, exploration maps for drilling
and mining, oceanographic charts, weather maps, contour maps, and population-
density maps.
User interfaces: As soon mentioned, most applications that run on personal
computers and workstations, and even those that run on terminals attached to time
shared computers and network compute servers, have user interfaces that rely on
desktop window systems to manage multiple simultaneous activities, and on point
and click facilities to allow users to select menu items, icons, and objects on the
screen; typing is necessary only to input text to be stored and manipulated. Word-
processing , spreadsheet, and desktop-publishing programs are typical applications
that take
Advantage of such user-interface techniques: The authors of this book used such
programs to create both the text and the figures; then , the publisher and their
contractors produced the book using similar typesetting and drawing software.
(Interactive) plotting in business, science and technology: The next most common
use of graphics today is probably to create 2D and 3D graphs of mathematical,
physical, and economic functions; histograms, bar and pie charts; task-scheduling
charts; inventory and production charts, and the like . All these are used to present
meaningfully and concisely the trends and patterns gleaned from data, so as to
clarify complex phenomena and to facilitate informed decision making.
Office automation and electronic publishing: The use of graphics for the creation
and dissemination of information has increased enormously since the advent of
desktop publishing on personal computers. Many organizations whose publications
used to be printed by outside specialists can now produce printed materials inhouse.
Office automation and electronic publishing can produce both traditional printed
(hardcopy) documents and electronic (softcopy) documents that allow browsing of
networks of interlinked multimedia documents are proliferating
Computer-aided drafting and design: In computer-aided design (CAD), interactive

graphics is used to design components and systems of mechanical , electrical,
electromechanical, and electronic devices, including structure such as buildings,
automobile bodies, airplane and ship hulls, very large scale-integrated (VLSI) chips,
optical systems, and telephone and computer networks. Sometimes, the use; merely
wants to produce the precise drawings of components and assemblies, as for online
drafting or architectural blueprints Color Plate 1.8 shows an example of such a 3D
design program, intended for nonprofessionals also a customize your own patio
deck” program used in lumber yards. More frequently however the emphasis is on
interacting with a computer based model of the component or system being designed
in order to test, for example, its structural, electrical, or thermal properties. Often,
the model is interpreted by a simulator that feeds back the behavior of the system to
the user for further interactive design and test cycles. After objects have been
designed, utility programs can postprocess the design database to make parts lists, to
process ‘bills of materials’, to define numerical control tapes for cutting or drilling
parts, and so on.
Simulation and animation for scientific visualization and entertainment: Computer

produced animated movies and displays or the time-varying behavior of real and
simulated objects are becoming increasingly popular for scientific and engineering
visualization. We can use them to study abstract mathematical entries as well as
mathematical models of such phenomena as fluid flow, relativity, nuclear and
chemical reactions, physiological system and organ function, and deformation of
mechanical structures under various kinds of loads. Another advanced-technology
area is interactive cartooning. The simpler kinds of systems for producing ‘Flat”
cartons are becoming cost-effective in creating routine ‘in-between” frames that
interpolate between two explicity specified ‘key frames”. Cartoon characters will
increasingly be modeled in the computer as 3D shape descriptions whose
movements are controlled by computer commands, rather than by the figures being
drawn manually by cartoonists . Television commercials featuring flying logos and
more exotic visual trickery have become common, as have elegant special effects in
movies. Sophisticated mechanisms are available to model the objects and to
represent light and shadows.
Art and commerce: Overlapping the previous categories the use of computer
graphics in art and advertising here, computer graphics is used to produce pictures
that express a message and attract attention. Personal computers and Teletext and
Videotexts terminals in public places such as in private homes, offer much simpler
but still informative pictures that let users orient themselves, make choices, or even
“teleshop” and conduct other business transactions. Finally, slide production for
commercial, scientific, or educational presentations is another cost-effective use of
graphics, given the steeply rising labor costs of the traditional means of creating
such material.
Process control: Whereas flight simulators or arcade games let users interact with a
simulation of a real or artificial world, many other applications enable people or
interact with some aspect of the real world itself. Status displays in refineries, power
plants, and computer networks show data values from sensors attached to critical
system components, so that operators can respond to problematic conditions. For
example, military commanders view field data – number and position of vehicles,
weapons launched, troop movements, causalities – on command and control displays
to revise their tactics as needed; flight controller airports see computer-generated
identification and status information for the aircraft blips on their radar scopes, and
can thus control traffic more quickly and accurately than they could with the
uninitiated radar data alone; spacecraft controllers monitor telemetry data and take
corrective action as needed.
1.7 Summary
z Computer graphics includes the process and outcomes associated with using
computer technology to convert created or collected data into visual
representations.
z Graphical interfaces have replaced textual interfaces as the standard means for
user-computer interaction. Graphics has also become a key technology for
communicating ideas, data, and trends in most areas of commerce, science,
engineering, and education With graphics, we can create artificial realities, each
a computer-based “exploratorium” for examining objects and phenomena in a
natural and intuitive way that exploits our highly developed skills in visual-
pattern recognition.
z Until the late eighties, the bulk of computer-graphics applications dealt with 2D
objects, 3D applications were relatively rare, both because 3D software is
intrinsically far more complex than is 2D software and because a great deal of
computing power is required to render pseudorealistic images. Therefore, until
recently, real-time user interaction with 3D models and pseudorealistic images
was feasible on only very expensive high-performance workstations with
dedicated, special-purpose graphics hardware. The spectacular progress of VLSI
semiconductor technology that was responsible for the advent of inexpensive
microprocessors and memory led in the early 1980s to the creation of 2D,
bitmap-graphics-based personal computers. That same technology has made it
possible, less than a decade later, to create subsystems of only a few chips that
do real-time 3D animation with color-shaded images of complex objects,
typically described by thousands of polygons. These subsystems can be added as
3D accelerators to workstations or even to personal computers using commodity
microprocessors It is clear that an explosive growth of 3D applications will
parallel the current growth in applications.
z Much of the task of creating effective graphic communication, whether 2D or

3D, lies in modeling the objects whose images we want to produce. The graphics
system acts as the intermediary between the application model and the output
device. The application program is responsible for creating and updating the
model based on user interaction; the graphics system does the best-understood,
most routine part of the job when it creates views of objects and passes user
events to the application.
1.8 Keywords
Computer Graphics, Interactive Graphics, Passive Graphics
1. Write a short note on the interactive computer graphics.
2. Discuss the relative advantage of interactive and passive graphics.

3. What are the applications of computer graphics?
4. Nominate an application of computers that can be accommodated by either
textual or graphical computer output. Explain when and why graphics output
would be more appropriate in this application.
5. Explain briefly the classification of computer graphics.
1. Computer Graphics, Principles and Practice, Second Edition, by James D. Foley,

Andries van Dam, Steven K. Feiner, John F. Hughes, Addison- Wesley
2. Computer Graphics , Second Edition , by Pradeep K. Bhatia , I.K .International
Publisher.
3. High Resolution Computer Graphics using Pascal/C, by Ian O. Angell and
Gareth Griffith, John Wiley & Sons
4. Computer Graphics (C Version), Donald Hearn and M. Pauline Baker, Prentice
Hall,
5. Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques, Theory and Practice, Alan
Watt and Mark Watt , ACM Press/Addison-Wesley
6. Graphics Gems I-V, various authors, Academic Press
7. Computer Graphics, Plastok, TMH
8. Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics, Newman, TMH
Lesson: Display Devices Lesson No. : 02
1.0 Objectives
• Describe and distinguish raster and random scan displays
• Describe various display devices.
• Describe how colour CRT works..
Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Refresh CRT
2.3 Random-Scan and Raster Scan Monitor
2.4 Color CRT Monitors
2.5 Direct-View Storage Tubes (DVST)
2.6 Flat-Panel Displays
2.7 Light-emitting Diode (LED) and Liquid-crystal Displays (LCDs)
2.8 Hard Copy Devices
2.9 Summary
2.10 Key Words
2.1 Introduction
The principle of producing images as collections of discrete points set to appropriate
colours is now widespread throughout all fields of image production. The most common
graphics output device is the video monitor which is based on the standard cathode ray
tube(CRT) design, but several other technologies exist and solid state monitors may
eventually predominate.
2.2 Refresh CRT
Basic Operation of CRT
Figure 2.1 illustrates the basic operation of a CRT. A beam of electrons (cathode rays),
emitted by an electron gun, passes through focusing and deflection systems that direct the
beam toward specified positions on the phosphor-coated screen.
Figure 2.1: Basic Design of a magnetic-deflection CRT
The phosphor then emits a small spot of light at each position contacted by the electron
beam. Because the light emitted by the phosphor fades very rapidly, some method is
needed for maintaining the screen picture. One Way to keep the phosphor glowing is to
redraw the picture repeatedly by quickly directing the electron beam back over the same
points. This type of display is called a refresh CRT.
Working
Beam passes between two pairs of metal plates, one vertical and other horizontal. A
voltage difference is applied to each pair of plates according to the amount that the beam
is to be deflected in each direction. As the electron beam passes between each pair of
plates, it is bent towards the plate with the higher positive voltage. In figure 2.2 the beam
is first deflected towards one side of the screen. Then, as the beam passes through the
horizontal plates, it is deflected towards, the top or bottom of the screen. To get the
proper deflection, adjust the current through coils placed around the outside of the CRT
loop. The primary components of an electron gun in a CRT are the heated metal cathode
and a control grid (Fig. 2.2). Heat is supplied to the cathode by directing a current
through a coil of wire, called the filament, inside the cylindrical cathode structure. This
causes electrons to be "boiled off" the hot cathode surface. In the vacuum inside the CRT
envelope, the free, negatively charged electrons are then accelerated toward the phosphor
coating by a high positive voltage. The accelerating voltage can be generated with a
positively charged metal coating on the inside of the CRT envelope near the phosphor
screen, or an accelerating anode can be used, as in Fig. 2.2. Sometimes the electron gun is
built to contain the accelerating anode and focusing system within the same unit.
Figure 2.2: Operation of an electron gun with an acceleration anode
The focusing system in a CRT is needed to force the electron beam to converge into a
small spot as it strikes the phosphor. Otherwise, the electrons would repel each other, and
the beam would spread out as it approaches the screen. Focusing is accomplished with
either electric or magnetic fields. Electrostatic focusing is commonly used in television
and computer graphics monitors. With electrostatic focusing, the electron beam passes
through a positively charged metal cylinder that forms an electrostatic lens, as shown in
Fig. 2.3. The action of the electrostatic lens focuses the electron beam at the center of the
screen, in exactly the same way that an optical lens focuses a beam of light at a particular
focal distance. Similar lens focusing effects can be accomplished with a magnetic field
set up by a coil mounted around the outside of the CRT envelope. Magnetic lens focusing
produces the smallest spot size on the screen and is used in special-purpose devices.
As with focusing, deflection of the electron beam can be controlled either with electric
fields or with magnetic fields. Cathode-ray tubes are now commonly constructed with
magnetic deflection coils mounted on the outside of the CRT envelope, as illustrated in
Fig. 2.1. Two pairs of coils are used, with the coils in each pair mounted on opposite
sides of the neck of the CRT envelope. One pair is mounted on the top and bottom of the
neck, and the other pair is mounted on opposite sides of the neck. The magnetic field
produced by each pair of coils results in a transverse deflection force that is perpendicular
both to the direction of the magnetic field and to the direction of travel of the electron
beam. Horizontal deflection is accomplished with one pair of coils, and vertical
deflection by the other pair. The proper deflection amounts are attained by adjusting the
current through the coils. When electrostatic deflection is used, two pairs of parallel
plates are mounted inside the CRT envelope. One pair of plates is mounted horizontally
to control the vertical deflection, and the other pair is mounted vertically to control
horizontal deflection (Fig. 2.3).
Figure 2.3: Electrostatic deflection of the electron beam in a CRT
Spots of light are produced on the screen by the transfer of the CRT beam energy to the
phosphor. When the electrons in the beam collide with the phosphor coating, they are
stopped and their kinetic energy is absorbed by the phophor. Part of the beam energy is
converted by friction into heat energy, and the remainder causes electrons in the phosphor
atoms to move up to higher quanturn-energy levels. After a short time, the "excited"
phosphor electrons begin dropping back to their stable ground state, giving up their extra
energy as small quantums of light energy. What we see on the screen is the combined
effect of all the electron light emissions: a glowing spot that quickly fades after all the
excited phosphor electrons have returned to their ground energy level. The frequency (or
color) of the light emitted by the phosphor is proportional to the energy difference
between the excited quantum state and the ground state.
Figure 2.4 shows the intensity distribution of a spot on the screen. The intensity is
greatest at the center of the spot, and decreases with a Gaussian distribution out to the
edges of the spot. This distribution corresponds to the cross-sectional electron density
distribution of the CRT beam.
Figure 2.4: Intensity distribution of an illuminated phosphor spot on a CRT screen
Resolution
The maximum number of points that can be displayed without overlap on a CRT is
referred to as the resolution. A more precise definition of resolution 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. This depends on the type of
phosphor used and the focusing and deflection system.
Aspect Ratio
Another property of video monitors is aspect ratio. This number gives the ratio of vertical
points to horizontal points necessary to produce equal-length lines in both directions on
the screen. (Sometimes aspect ratio is stated in terms of the ratio of horizontal to vertical
points.) An aspect ratio of 3/4 means that a vertical line plotted with three points has the
same length as a horizontal line plotted with four points.
2.3 Random-Scan and Raster Scan Monitor

2.3.1 Random-Scan/Calligraphic displays
Random scan system uses an electron beam which operates like a pencil to create a line
image on the CRT. The image is constructed out of a sequence of straight line segments.
Each line segment is drawn on the screen by directing the beam to move from one point
on screen to the next, where each point is defined by its x and y coordinates. After
drawing the picture, the system cycles back to the first line and design all the lines of the
picture 30 to 60 time each second. When operated as a random-scan display unit, a CRT
has the electron beam directed only to the parts of the screen where a picture is to be
drawn. Random-scan monitors draw a picture one line at a time and for this reason are
also referred to as vector displays (or stroke-writing or calligraphic displays) Fig. 2.5. A
pen plotter operates in a similar way and is an example of a random-scan, hard-copy
device.
Figure 2.5: A random-scan system draws the component lines of an object in any
order specified
Refresh rate on a random-scan system depends on the number of lines to be displayed.

Picture definition is now stored as a set of line-drawing commands in an area of memory
referred to as the refresh display file. Random-scan systems are designed for line-drawing
applications and can-not display realistic shaded scenes. Since picture definition is stored
as a set of line-drawing instructions and not as a set of intensity values for all screen
points, vector displays generally have higher resolution than raster systems. Also, vector
displays produce smooth line drawings because the CRT beam directly follows the line
path.
2.3.2 Raster-Scan Displays

In raster scan approach, the viewing screen is divided into a large number of discrete
phosphor picture elements, called pixels. The matrix of pixels constitutes the raster. The
number of separate pixels in the raster display might typically range from 256X256 to
1024X 1024. Each pixel on the screen can be made to glow with a different brightness.
Colour screen provide for the pixels to have different colours as well as brightness. In a
raster-scan system, the electron beam is swept across the screen, one row at a time from
top to bottom. 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 a
memory area called the refresh buffer or frame buffer. This memory area holds the set of
intensity values for all the screen points. Stored intensity values are then retrieved from
the refresh buffer and "painted" on the screen one row (scan line) at a time (Fig. 2.6).
Each screen point is referred to as a pixel or pel (shortened forms of picture element).
The capability of a raster-scan system to store intensity information for each screen point
makes it well suited for the realistic display of scenes containing subtle shading and color
patterns. Home television sets and printers are examples of other systems using raster-
scan methods.
Figure 2.6: A raster-scan system displays an object as a set of discrete points across
each scan line
Intensity range for pixel positions depends on the capability of the raster system. In a
simple black-and-white system, each screen point is either on or off, so only one bit per
pixel is needed to control the intensity of screen positions. For a bilevel system, a bit
value of 1 indicates that the electron beam is to be turned on at that position, and a value
of 0 indicates that the beam intensity is to be off. Additional bits are needed when color
and intensity variations can be displayed. On some raster-scan systems (and in TV sets),
each frame is displayed in two passes using an interlaced refresh procedure. In the first
pass, the beam sweeps across every other scan line from top to bottom. Then after the
vertical re- trace, the beam sweeps out the remaining scan lines (Fig. 2.7). Interlacing of
the scan lines in this way allows us to see the entire screen displayed in one-half the time
it would have taken to sweep across all the lines at once from top to bottom. Interlacing is
primarily used with slower refreshing rates. On an older, 30 frame- per-second,
noninterlaced display, for instance, some flicker is noticeable. But with interlacing, each
of the two passes can be accomplished in l/60th of a second, which brings the refresh rate
nearer to 60 frames per second. This is an effective technique for avoiding flicker,
providing that adjacent scan lines contain similar display information.
Figure 2.7: Interlacing Scan lines on a raster-scan display. First , all points on the
even-numbered (solid) scan lines are displayed; then all points along the odd-
numbered (dashed) lines are displayed
2.4 Color CRT Monitors
To display colour pictures, combination of phosphorus is used that emits different

coloured light. There are two different techniques for producing colour displays with a
CRT.
1. Beam Penetration Method
2. Shadow Mask Method
Beam Penetration Method
The beam-penetration method for displaying color pictures has been 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. Beam
penetration has been 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.
Shadow Mask Method
Shadow-mask methods are commonly used in raster-scan systems (including color TV)
because they produce a much wider range of colors than the beam-penetration method. A
shadow-mask CRT has three phosphor color dots at each pixel position. One phosphor
dot emits a red light, another emits a green light, and the third emits a blue light. This
type of CRT has three electron guns, one for each color dot, and a shadow-mask grid just
behind the phosphor-coated screen. Figure 2.8 illustrates the delta-delta shadow-mask
method, commonly used in color CRT- systems. The three electron beams are deflected
and focused as a group onto the shadow mask, which contains a series of holes aligned
with the phosphor-dot patterns. When the three beams pass through a hole 'in 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. Another
configuration for the three electron guns is an in-line arrangement in which the three
electron guns, and the. Corresponding red-green-blue color dots on the screen, are
aligned along one scan line instead of in a triangular pattern. This in-line arrangement of
electron guns is easier to keep in alignment and is commonly used in high-resolution
color CRTs.
Figure 2.8: Operation of a delta–delta, shadow-mask CRT. Three electron guns,
aligned with the triangular color-dot patterns on the screen, are directed to each dot
triangle by a shadow mask.
We obtain color variations in a shadow-mask CRT by varying the intensity levels of the
three electron beams. By turning off the red and green guns, we get only the color coming
from the blue phosphor. Other combinations of beam intensities produce a small light
spot for each pixel position, since our eyes tend to merge the three colors into one
composite. The color we see depends on the amount of excitation of the red, green, and
blue phosphors. A white (or gray) area is the result of activating all three dots with equal
intensity. Yellow is produced with the green and red dots only, magenta is produced with
the blue and red dots, and cyan shows up when blue and green are activated equally. In
some low-cost systems, the electron beam can only be set to on or off, limiting displays
to eight colors. More sophisticated systems can set intermediate intensity levels for the
electron beams, allowing several million different colors to be generated.
2.5 Direct-View Storage Tubes (DVST)
This is an alternative method to monitor a screen image, as it sores the picture

information inside the CRT instead of refreshing the screen. A direct-view storage tube
(DVST) stores the picture information as a charge distribution just behind the phosphor-
coated screen. Two electron guns are used in a DVST. One, the primary gun, is used to
store the picture pattern; the second, the flood gun, maintains the picture display. A
DVST monitor has both disadvantages and advantages compared to the refresh CRT.
Because no refreshing is needed, very complex pictures can be displayed at very high
resolutions without flicker. Disadvantages of DVST systems are that they ordinarily do
not display color and that selected parts of a picture cannot be erased. To eliminate a
picture section, the entire screen must be erased and the modified picture redrawn. The
erasing and redrawing process can take several seconds for a complex picture. For these
reasons, storage displays have been largely replaced by raster systems.
2.6 Flat-Panel Displays

The term flat panel display refers to a class of video device that have reduced volume ,
weight and power requirement 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. Since we can even write on some flat-panel displays, they will soon be
available as pocket notepads. Current uses for flat-panel displays include small TV
monitors, calculators, pocket video games, laptop computers, armrest viewing of movies
on airlines, as advertisement boards in elevators, and as graphics displays in applications
requiring rugged, portable monitors.
We can separate flat-panel displays into two categories: emissive displays and
nonemissive displays. The emissive displays (or emitters) are devices that convert
electrical energy into light. Plasma panels, thin-film electroluminescent displays, and-
light-emitting diodes are examples of emissive displays. Flat CRTs have also been
devised, in which electron beams are accelerated parallel to the screen, then deflected 90°
to the screen. But flat CRTs have not proved to be as successful as other emissive
devices. Nonemmissive 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.
2.7 Light-emitting Diode (LED) and Liquid-crystal Displays (LCDs)
2.7.1 Light-emitting Diode (LED)
In LED, a matrix of diodes is arranged to form the pixel positions in the display and
picture definition is stored in a refresh buffer. Information is read from the refresh buffer
and converted to voltage levels that are applied to the diodes to produce the light patterns
in the display.
2.7.2 Liquid-crystal Displays (LCDs)
Liquid crystal displays are the divices that produce a picture by passing polarized light
from the surroundings or from an internal light source through a liquid crystal material
that transmit the light. Liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) are commonly used in small
systems, such ' as calculators and portable, laptop computers. These non-emissive devices
produce a picture by passing polarized light from the surroundings or from an internal
light source through a liquid-crystal material that can be aligned to either block or
transmit the light.
The term liquid crystal refers to the fact that these compounds have a crystalline
arrangement of molecules, yet they flow like a liquid. Flat-panel displays commonly use
nematic (threadlike) liquid-crystal compounds that tend to keep the long axes of the rod-
shaped molecules aligned. A flat-panel display can then be constructed with a nematic
liquid crystal, as demonstrated in Fig. 2-9. Two glass plates, each containing a light
polarizer at right angles to the other plate, sandwich the liquid-crystal material. Rows of
horizontal transparent conductors are built into one glass plate, and columns of vertical
conductors are put into the other plate. The intersection of two conductors defines a pixel
position. Normally, the molecules are aligned as shown in the "on state" of Fig. 2.9.
Polarized light passing through the material is twisted so that it will pass through the
opposite polarizer. The light is then reflected back to the viewer. To turn off the pixel, we
apply a voltage to the two intersecting conductors to align the molecules so that the light
is not twisted. This type of flat-panel device is referred to as a passive-matrix LCD.
Picture definitions are stored in a refresh buffer, and the screen is refreshed at the rate of
60 frames per second, as in the emissive devices. Back lighting is also commonly applied
using solid-state electronic devices, so that the system is not completely dependent on
outside light sources. Colors can be displayed by using different materials or dyes and by
placing a triad of color pixels at each screen location. Another method for constructing
LCDs is to place a transistor at each pixel location, using thin-film transistor technology.
The transistors are used to control the voltage at pixel locations and to prevent charge
from gradually leaking out of the liquid-crystal cells. These devices are called active-
matrix displays.
Figure 2.9: The light-twisting, shutter effect used in the design of most liquid-crystal
display devices
2.8 Hard Copy Devices
The printer is an important accessory of any computing system. In a graphics system, it is

the quality of printed output which is one of the key factors necessary to convince both
the user and the customer. The major factors which control the quality of a printer are
individual dot size on the paper and the number of dots per inch.
We can obtain hard-copy output for our images in several formats. For presentations or
archiving, we can send image files to devices or service bureaus that will produce 35-mm
slides or overhead transparencies. To put images on film, we can simply photograph a
scene displayed on a video monitor. And we can put our pictures on paper by directing
graphics output to a printer or plotter.
Printers produce output by either impact or nonimpact methods. Impact printers press
formed character faces against an inked ribbon onto the paper. A line printer is an
example of an impact device, with the typefaces mounted on bands, chains, drums, or
wheels. Nonimpact printers and plotters use laser techniques, ink-jet sprays, xerographic
processes (as used in photocopying machines), electrostatic methods, and electrothermal
methods to get images onto paper.
In a laser device, a laser beam creates a charge distribution on a rotating drum coated
with a photoelectric material, such as selenium. Toner is applied to the drum and then
transferred to paper. Figure 2.10 shows examples of desktop laser printers with a
resolution of 360 dots per inch.
Figure 2.10: Small-footprint laser printers
Ink-jet methods produce output by squirting ink in horizontal rows across a roll of paper
wrapped on a drum. The electrically charged ink stream is deflected by an electric field to
produce dot-matrix patterns.
2.9 Summary
• Persistence is defined as the time it takes the emitted light from screen to decay to
one-tenth of its original intensity.
z This chapter have surveyed the major hardware and software features of computer
graphics systems. Hardware components include video monitors, hard-copy devices,
keyboards, and other devices for graphics input or output. Graphics software
includes special applications packages and general programming packages.
• The dominant graphics display device is the raster refresh monitor, based on
television technology. A raster system uses a frame buffer to store intensity
information for each screen position (pixel). Pictures are then painted on the screen
by retrieving this information from the frame buffer as the electron beam in the CRT
sweeps across each scan line, from top to bottom. Older vector displays constructs
pictures by drawing lines between specified line endpoints. Picture information is
then stored as a set of line-drawing instructions.
• Various other video display devices are available. In particular, flat-panel display
technology is developing at a rapid rate, and these devices may largely replace raster
displays in the near future. At present, flat-panel displays are commonly used in the
small systems and in special-purpose systems. Flat-panel displays include plasma
panels and liquid-crystal devices. Although vector monitors can be used to display
high-quality line drawings, improvements in raster display technology have caused
vector monitors to be largely replaced with raster systems.
• Hard-copy devices for graphics workstations include standard printers and plotters, in
addition to devices for producing slides, transparencies, and film output. Printing
methods include dot matrix, laser, ink jet, electrostatic, and electrothermal. Plotter
methods include pen plotting and combination printer-plotter devices.
2.10 Key Words
Random scan display, raster scan display, CRT, persistence, aspect ratio
1. Write a short note on hard copy devices.
2. How the colours are focused in coloured CRT? Discuss
3. Is the refreshing is necessary? Explain.
4. Discuss the detailed of DVST.

5 Explain about the display technologies?
6 Explain various display devices?
7 What are the different hardware and software of graphics?
8 List five graphic soft copy devices for each one briefly explain?
A. How it works.
B. Its advantages and limitations.
C. The circumstances when it would be more useful.
9. List five graphic hard copy devices for each one briefly explain?
a) How it works.
b) Its advantages and limitations.
c) The circumstances when it would be more useful.

Publisher.
11.
Hall
Lesson: Scan Conversion Lesson No. : 03
3.0 Objectives
• Describe scan converstion
• Describe how to scan convert basic graphic primitives like point, line, circle,
ellipse
Structure
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Scan-converting a Point
3.3 Scan-converting a Straight Line
3.4 Scan-converting a Circle
3.5 Scan-converting an Ellipse
3.6 Summary
3.7 Key Words
3.1 Introduction
We have studied various display devices in the previous chapter. It is clear that these
devices need special procedures for displaying any graphic object: line, circle, curves,
and even characters. Irrespective of the procedures used, the system can generate the
images on these raster devices by turning the pixels on or off. The process in which the
object is represented as the collection of discrete pixels is called scan conversion. The
video output circuitry of a computer is capable of converting binary values stored in its
display memory into pixel-on, pixel-off information that can be used by a raster output
device to display a point. This ability allows graphics computers to display models
composed of discrete dots.
Almost any model can be reproduced with a sufficiently dense matrix of dots
(pointillism), most human operators generally think in terms of more complex graphics
objects such as points, lines, circles and ellipses. Since the inception of computer
graphics, many algorithms have been developed to provide human users with fast,
memory-efficient routines that generate higher-level objects of this kind. However,
regardless of what routines are developed, the computer can produce images on raster
devices only by turning the appropriate pixels on or off. Many scan-conversion
algorithms are implemented in computer hardware or firmware. However, a specific
graphics algorithm, the scan-conversion algorithm can be implemented in software. The
most commonly used graphics objects are the line, the sector, the arc, the ellipse, the
rectangle and the polygon.
3.2 Scan-converting a Point
We have already defined that a pixel is collection of number of points. Thus it does not represent
any mathematical point. Suppose we wish to display a point C(5.4, 6.5). It means that we wish to
illuminate that pixel, which contains this point C. Refer to figure 3.1, which shows that pixel
corresponding to point C. What happens if we try to display C’(5.3, 6.4)? Well, it also
corresponding to the same pixel as that of C (5.4,6.5).Thus we can say that point C(x,y) is
represented by an integer part of x and integer part of y. So, we can use the command as
Putpixel(int x, int y);

We will now look into the actual process of plotting a point.
Figure 3.1: Scan-converting point
We normally use right handed cortesian coordinate system. The origin in this system starts at the
bottom. However in case of computer system, due to the memory organization, the system turns
out ot left handed Cartesian system. Thus there is a difference in the actual representation and the
way in which we work with the points.
The basic steps involved in converting Cartesian coordinate system to the system
understable points are:
Step 1: Identify the starting address corresponding to the line on which the point is to be
displayed.
Step 2: Find the byte address in which the point is to be displayed.
Step 3: Compute the value for the byte that represents the point.
Step 4: Logically OR the calculated value with the present value of the byte.
Step 5: Store the value found in step 4 in the byte found in steps 1 and 2.
Step 6: Stop.
3.3 Scan-converting a Straight Line
A scan conversion of line locates the coordinates of the pixels lie on or near an ideal
straight line impaired on 2D raster grid. Before discussing the various methods, let us see
what are the characteristics of line. One expects the following features of line:
1. The line should appear straight line.
2. The line should have equal brightness throughout their length.
3. The line must be drawn rapidly.
Even though the rasterization tries to generate a completely straight line, yet in few cases
we may not get equal brightness. Basically, the lines which are horizontal or vertical or
oriented by 450 , have equal brightness. But for the lines with larger length and different
orientations, we need to have complex computations in our algorithms. This may reduce
the speed of generation of line. Thus we make some sort of compromise while
generating the lines, such as:
1. Calculate only the approximate line length.
2. Make use of simple arithmetic computations, preferabley integer arithmetic.
3. Implement result in hardware or firmware.
A straight line may be defined by two endpoints and an equation figure 3.2. In figure 3.1
the two endpoints are described by (x1, y1) and (x2, y2). The equation of the line is used
to describe the x, y coordinates of all the points that lie between these two endpoints.
Using the equation of a straight line, y = mx + b where m = Δy/Δx and b = the y
intercept, we can find values of y by incrementing x = x1 to x = x2. By scan-converting
these calculated x = x2. By scan-converting these calculated x, y values, we represent the
line as a sequence on pixels.
While this method of scan-converting a straight line is adequate for many graphics
applications, interactive graphics systems require a much faster response than the method
described above can provide. Interactive graphics is a graphics system in which the user
dynamically controls the presentation of graphics models on a computer display.
Figure 3.2
3.3.1 Direct Use of Line Equation
A simple approach to scan-converting a line is to first scan-convert P1 and P2 to pixel

coordinates (x’1, y’1) and (x’2, y’2), respectively; then set m = (y’2, y’1) (x’2, x’1) and b =
y’1 –mx’1. If [m] ≤ 1, then for every integer value of x between and excluding x’1 and x’2,
calculate the corresponding value of y using the equation and scan-convert (x, y). If [m] >
1, then for every integer value of y between and excluding y’1 and y’2 calculate the
corresponding value of x using the equation and scan-convert (x, y).
While this approach is mathematically sound, it involves floating-point computation

(multiplication and addition) in every step that uses the line equation since m and b are
generally real numbers. The challenge is to find a way to achieve the same goal as
quickly as possible.
3.3.2 DDA Algorithm

This algorithm works on the principle of obtaining the successive pixel values basede on
the differential equation goverening the line. Since screen pixels are referred with integer
values, or plotted positions, which may only approximate the calculated coordinates –
i.e., pixels which are intensified are those which lie very close to the line path if not
exactly on the line path which in this case are perfectly horizontal, vertical or 45° lines
only. Standard algorithms are available to determine which pixels provide the best
approximation to the desired line, one such algorithm is the DDA (Digital Differential
Analyser) algorithm. Before going to the details of the algorithm, let us discuss some
general appearances of the line segment, because the respective appearance decides
which pixels are to be intensified. It is also obvious that only those pixels that lie very
close to the line path are to be intensified because they are the ones which best
approximate the line. Apart from the exact situation of the line path, which in this case
are perfectly horizontal, vertical or 45° lines (i.e., slope zero, infinite, one) only. We may also
face a situation where the slope of the line is > 1 or < 1.Which is the case shown in Figure 3.3.
In Figure 3.3, there are two lines. Line 1 (slope<1) and line 2 (slope>1). Now let us
discuss the general mechanism of construction of these two lines with the DDA
algorithm. As the slope of the line is a crucial factor in its construction, let us consider the
algorithm in two cases depending on the slope of the line whether it is > 1 or < 1.
Case 1: slope (m) of line is < 1 (i.e., line 1): In this case to plot the line we have to move
the direction of pixel in x by 1 unit every time and then hunt for the pixel value of the y
direction which best suits the line and lighten that pixel in order to plot the line.
So, in Case 1 i.e., 0 < m < 1 where x is to be increased then by 1 unit every time and
proper y is approximated.
Figure 3.3 DDA Line Generation

Case 2: slope (m) of line is > 1 (i.e., line 2) if m > 1 i.e., case of line 2, then the most
appropriate strategy would be to move towards the y direction by 1 unit every time and
determine the pixel in x direction which best suits the line and get that pixel lightened to
plot the line.
So, in Case 2, i.e., (infinity) > m > 1 where y is to be increased by 1 unit every time and
proper x is approximated.
3.3.3 Bresenham’s Line Algorithm

Bresenham's line-drawing algorithm uses an iterative scheme. A pixel is plotted at the
starting coordinate of the line, and each iteration of the algorithm increments the pixel
one unit along the major, or x-axis. The pixel is incremented along the minor, or y-axis,
only when a decision variable (based on the slope of the line) changes sign. A key feature
of the algorithm is that it requires only integer data and simple arithmetic. This makes the
algorithm very efficient and fast.
Figure 3.4
The algorithm assumes the line has positive slope less than one, but a simple change of
variables can modify the algorithm for any slope value.
Bresenham's Algorithm for 0 < slope < 1

Figure 3.4 shows a line segment superimposed on a raster grid with horizontal axis X and
vertical axis Y. Note that xi and yi are the integer abscissa and ordinate respectively of
each pixel location on the grid. Given (xi, yi) as the previously plotted pixel location for
the line segment, the next pixel to be plotted is either (xi + 1, yi) or (xi + 1, yi + 1).
Bresenham's algorithm determines which of these two pixel locations is nearer to the
actual line by calculating the distance from each pixel to the line, and
plotting that pixel with the smaller distance. Using the familiar equation of a straight line,
y = mx + b, the y value corresponding to xi + 1 is y=m(xi+1) + b The two distances are
then calculated as:
d1 = y- yi
d1= m(xi + 1) + b- yi
d2 = (yi+ 1)- y
d2 = (yi+ 1) - m(xi + 1)- b
and,
d1 - d2 = m(xi+ 1) + b - yi - (yi + 1) + m(xi + 1) + b
d1 - d2 = 2m(xi + 1) - 2yi + 2b - 1
Multiplying this result by the constant dx, defined by the slope of the line m = dy/dx, the
equation becomes:
dx(d1-d2)= 2dy(xi)- 2dx(yi) + c
where c is the constant 2dy + 2dxb - dx. Of course, if d2 > d1, then (d1-d2) < 0, or
conversely if d1 > d2, then (d1-d2) >0. Therefore, a parameter pi can be defined such that
pi = dx(d1-d2)
Figure 3.5
pi = 2dy(xi) - 2dx(yi) + c
If pi > 0, then d1 > d2 and yi + 1 is chosen such that the next plotted pixel is (xi + 1, yi).
Otherwise, if pi < 0, then d2 > d1 and (xi + 1, yi + 1) is plotted. (See Figure3.5 .)
Similarly, for the next iteration, pi + 1 can be calculated and compared with zero to
determine the next pixel to plot. If pi +1 < 0, then the next plotted pixel is at (xi + 1 + 1,
Yi+1); if pi + 1< 0, then the next point is (xi + 1 + 1, yi + 1 + 1). Note that in the equation for
pi + 1, xi + 1 = xi + 1.
pi + 1 = 2dy(xi + 1) - 2dx(yi + 1) + c.
Subtracting pi from pi + 1, we get the recursive equation:
pi + 1 = pi + 2dy - 2dx(yi + 1 - yi)
Note that the constant c has conveniently dropped out of the formula. And, if pi < 0 then
yi + 1= yi in the above equation, so that:
pi + 1 = pi + 2dy
or, if pi > 0 then yi + 1 = yi + 1, and
pi + 1 = pi + 2(dy-dx)
To further simplify the iterative algorithm, constants c1 and c2 can be initialized at the
beginning of the program such that c1 = 2dy and c2 = 2(dy-dx). Thus, the actual meat of
the algorithm is a loop of length dx, containing only a few integer additions and two
compares (Figure 3.5) .
3.4 Scan-converting a Circle

Circle is one of the basic graphic component, so in order to understand its generation, let
us go through its properties first. A circle is a symmetrical figure. Any circle-generating
algorithm can take advantage of the circle’s symmetry to plot of eight points for each
value that the algorithm calculates. Eight-way symmetry is used by reflecting each
calculated point around each 45˚ axis. For example, if point 1 in Fig. 3.6 were calculated
with a circle algorithm, seven more points could be found by reflection. The reflection is
accomplished by reversing the x, y coordinates as in point 2, reversing the x,y
coordinates and reflecting about the y axis as in point 3, reflecting about the y axis in
point 4, switching the signs of x and y as in point 5, reversing the x, y coordinates,
reflecting about the y axis and reflecting about the x axis.
Figure 3.6: Eight–way symmetry of a circle.
As in point 6, reversing the x, y coordinates and reflecting about the y-axis as in point 7,
and reflecting about the x-axis as in point 8.
To summarize:
P1 = (x, y) P5 = (- y,-x)
P2 = (y, x) P6 = (-y, - x)
P3 = (-y, x) P7 = (y, -x)
P4 = (-x, y) P8 = (x, -y)
3.4.1 Defining a Circle
There are two standard methods of mathematically defining a circle centered at the
origin. The first method defines a circle with the second-order polynomial equation (see
Fig. 3.7).
y2 = r2 – x2
Where x = the x coordinate

y = the y coordinate
r = the circle radius
With this method, each x coordinate in the sector, from 90 to 45˚, is found by stepping x
from 0 to r/ 2, and each y coordinate is found by evaluating r 2 + x 2 for each step of x.

This is a very inefficient method, however, because for each point both x and r must be
squared and subtracted from each other; then the square root of the result must be found.
The second method of defining a circle makes use of trigonometric functions (see Fig.
3.8):
x = r cos θ y = r sin θ
where θ = current angle
r = circle radius
x = x coordinate
y = y coordinate
By this method, θ is stepped from θ to π/4, and each value of x and y is calculated.
However, computation of the values of sin θ and cos θ is even more time-consuming
than the calculations required by the first method.
Figure 3.7 & 3.8: Circle defined with a second-egree Polynomial equation and circle
defined with trignometric functions respectively.
3.4.2 Bresenham’s Circle Algorithm
If a circle is to be plotted efficiently, the use of trigonometric and power functions must
be avoided. And as with the generation of a straight line, it is also desirable to perform
the calculations necessary to find the scan-converted points with only integer addition,
subtraction, and multiplication by powers of 2. Bresenham’s circle algorithm allows
these goals to be met.
Scan-converting a circle Bresenham’s algorithm works as follows. If the eight-way

symmetry of a circle is used to generate a circle, points will only have to be generated
through a 45°, moves will be made only in the +x and –y directions (see Fig. 3.9).
Figure 3.9: Circle scan-converted with Bresenham’s algorithm
The best approximation of the true circle will be described by those pixels in the raster
that fall the least distance from the true circle. Examine Figs. 3.10 (a) and 3.10 (b).
Notice that if points are generated from 90 and 45°, each new point closest to the true
circle can be found by taking either of two actions:(1) move in the x direction one unit or
(2) move in the x direction one unit. Therefore, a method of selecting between these two
choices is all that is necessary to find the points closets to the true circle.
The process is as follows. Assume that the last scan-converted pixel is P1 [see Fig. 3-
10(b)]. Let the distance from the origin to the true circle squared minus the distance to
point P3 squared = D(Si). Then let the distance from the origin to the true circle squared
minus the distance to point P2 squared = D (Ti). As the only possible valid moves are to
move either one step in the x direction or one step in the x direction and one step in the
negative y direction, the following expressions can be developed:
D (Si ) = (xi ) 2 + y 2i
− 1 − 1 − r2 D (Ti ) = (xi − 1)2 + (y i − 1 − 1)2 − r 2
Since D (Si) will always be positive and D (Ti) will always be negative, a decision
variable d may be defined as follows:
d i = D (Si ) + D (Ti )
Therefore
d i = ( x i −1 + 1) 2 + y 2 i −1 − r 2 + ( x i −1 + 1) 2 + ( y i −1 − 1) 2 − r 2
From this equation we can derive
d 1 = 3 − 2r
Figure 3.10
Thereafter, if d i > 0 , then only x is incremented:
xi +1 = xi + 1 d i + 1 = d i + 4x i + 6
and if d ≤ 0 , then x and y are incremented:
xi +1 = xi + 1 y i +1 = y i − 1 d i +1 = d i + 4( x i − y i ) + 10
3.4.3 Mid point Circle Algorithm
We present another incremental circle algorithm that is very similar to Bresenham’s

approach. It is based on the following function for testing, the spatial relationship
between an arbitrary (x, y) and a circle of radius r centered at the origin:
⎧
2⎪
f (x , y ) = x + y
2 2
−r ⎨
⎪
⎩
<0 (X,Y) inside the circle
=0 (X,Y) on the circle
>0 (X,Y) outside the circle
Now consider the coordinates of the point halfway between pixel T and pixel S in Fig. 3-
1
8: (xi + 1, yi – ). This is called the midpoint and we use it to define decision parameter:
2
pi = f (xi + 1, yi –
1
) = (xi + 1)2 + (yi – 1
) 2 – r2
2 2
If pi is negative, the midpoint is inside the circle, and we choose pixel T. On the other
hand, if pi is positive (or equal to zero), the midpoint is outside the circle (or on the
circle), and we choose pixel S. Similarly, the decision parameter for the next step is
pi+1 = (x i+1 + 1)2 + (yi +1 – 1 )2 – r2

2
Since xi+1 = xi + 1, we have
2 2
⎛ 1⎞ ⎛ 1⎞
p i +1 − p i = [(x i + 1)1]2 – (x i + 1)2 + ⎜ y i +1 − ⎟ − ⎜ y i – ⎟
⎝ 2⎠ ⎝ 2⎠
Hence
( )
p i +1 = p + 2 (x i + 1) + 1 + yi 2 + yi 2 – (y i +1 – y i )
If pixel T is chosen (meaning pi < 0), we have yi+1 = yi. On the other hand, if pixel S is
chosen (meaning pi ≥ 0) , we have yi+1= yi – 1. Thus
⎧⎪p i + 2(x i + 1) + 1 If p i < 0

p i +1 = ⎨
⎪⎩ p i + 2(x i + 1) + 1 — 2(y i – 1) If p i ≥ 0
We can continue to simplify this in terms of (xi, yi) and get
⎧p i + 2x i + 3 If p i < 0 If p i < 0
pi + 1 = ⎨ i
⎩ p + 2(x i – y i +1 ) + 1 If p i ≥ 0
Finally, we compute the initial value for the decision parameter using the original
definition of pi and (0, r):
2
⎛ 1⎞ 5
p i = (0 + 1) 2 + ⎜ r − ⎟ – r 2 = – r
⎝ 2⎠ 4
One can see that this is not really integer computation. However, when r is a integer we
1
can simply set p1 = 1 – r. The error of being less than the precise value does not
4
prevent p1 from getting the appropriate sign. It does not affect the rest of the scan-
conversion process either, because the decision variable is only updated with integer
increments in subsequent steps.
The following is a description of this midpoint circle algorithm that generates the pixel
coordinates in the 90o to 45o octant:
int x = 0, y = r, p = 1 – r;
while (x < = y) {
setPixel (x, y);
If (p < 0)
p = p + 2x + 3;
else {
p = p + 2 (x – y) + 5;
y –;
x++;
3.5 Scan-converting an Ellipse

The ellipse, like the circle, shows symmetry. In the case of an ellipse, however,
symmetry is four-rather than eight-way. There are two methods of mathematically
defining an ellipse.
3.5.1 Polynomial Method of Defining an Ellipse
The polynomial method of defining an ellipse (Fig. 3.11 is given by the expression
(x − h )2 (y − k )2
+ =1
a2 b2
where (h, k) = ellipse center
a = length of major axis
b = length of minor axis
When the polynomial method is used to define an ellipse, the value of x is incremented
from from h to a. For each step of x, each value of y is found by evaluating the
expression
x − h2
y = b 1− +k
a2
This method is very inefficient, however, because the squares of a and (x – h) must be
2
found; then floating-point division of (x − h )2 by a ] and floating point multiplication of
the square root of [1 − (x − h )2 / a2 ] by b must be performed
Figure 3.11: Polynomial description of an ellipse
Routines have been found that will scan-convert general polynomial equations, including
the ellipse. However, these routines are logic intensive and thus are very slow methods
for scan-converting ellipses.
Steps for generating ellipse using polynomial method are:
1. Set the initial variables: a = length of majo0r axis; b = length of minor axis; (h, k) =
coordinates of ellipse center; x = 0; i = step; xend = a.
2. Test to determine whether the entire ellipse has been scan-converted. If x> xend, stop.
3. Compute the value of the y coordinate:
x2
y = b 1−
a2
4. Plot the four points, found by symmetry, at the current (x, y) coordinates:
Plot (x + h, y + k) Plot (-x + h, -y + k)
Plot (-y - h, x + k) Plot ( y + h, -x + k)
5. Increment x; x = x + i.
6. Go to step 2.
3.5.2 Trigonometric Method of Defining an Ellipse
A second method of defining an ellipse makes use of trigonometric relationships (see Fig.
3.12). The following equations define an ellipse trigonometrically:
x = a * cos(0) + h and y = b * sin(0) + k
where (x, y) = current coordinate
θ = current angle
(h, c) = ellipse center
For the generation of an ellipse using the trigonometric method, the value of θ is varied
from 0 to π / 2 radians (rad). The remaining points are found by symmetry. While this
method is also inefficient and thus generally too slow for interactive applications, a
lookup table containing the values for sin(θ ) and cos(θ ) with θ ranging from 0 to π / 2
rad can be used. This method would have been considered unacceptable at one time
because of the relatively high cost of the computer memory used to store the values .
Figure 3.12: Trigonometric description of an ellipse
θ . However, because the cost of computer memory has plummeted in recent years, this
method is now quite acceptable.
3.5.3 Ellipse Axis Rotation
Since the ellipse shows fourway symmetry, it can easily be rotated 90° . The new
equation is found by trading a and b, the values which describe the major and minor axes.
When the polynomial method is used, the equations used to describe the ellipse become
(x − h )2 (y − k )2
+ =1
b2 a2
where (h, k) = ellipse center

When the trigonometric is used, the equations used to describe the ellipse become
x = b ∗ cos(θ ) + h and y = a ∗ sin(θ ) + k
Where (x, y) = current coordinates
θ = current angle
(h, k) = ellipse center
Assume that you would like to rotate the ellipse through an angle other than 90 degrees.
It can be seen from Fig. 3.12 that rotation of the ellipse may be accomplished by rotating
the x, y coordinates of each scan-converted point which become
x = a cos(0) − b sin(0+ ∝) + h y = b sin(0) + a cos(0+ ∝) + k
Figure 3.12 : Rotation of an ellipse
3.6 Summary
z The process of representing continuous graphic objects as a collection of discrete

pixels is called scan conversion.
• Scan-converting a point involves illuminating the pixel that contains the point
• Interactive graphics is a graphics system in which the user dynamically controls the
presentation of graphics models on a computer display.
• Bresenham’s line algorithm is an efficient method for scan-converting straight lines
in and uses only integer addition, subtraction, and multiplication by
• The polynomial or the trigonometric method may generate an arc
3.7 Key Words

Scan conversition, scan conversion of circle, ellipse, line and point
1. What is raster graphics? differentiate b/w raster and vector graphics?
2. Explain how Bresenham’s algorithm takes advantage of the connectivity of
pixels in drawing straight lines on a raster output device.
3. Explain midpoint line algorithm? Write alogorithm in your own words
4. What steps are required to plot a line whose slope is between 45 and 90º
using Bresenham’s method?
5. What steps are required to plot a dashed line using Bresenham’s method?
6. Show graphically that an ellipse has four-way symmetry by plotting four

points on the ellipse: x = a * cos(0) + h y = b * sin(0) + k
where a = 2 b=1 h=0 k=0 θ = π/ 4,3π / 4,5π / 4,7π / 4
7. How must Prob. 3.9 be modified if an ellipse is to be rotated (a) π / 4 , (b)

π / 9 , and (c) π / 2 radians?
8. What steps are required to scan-convert a sector using the trigonometric

method?
Publisher.
Hall,
Lesson: Two Dimensional Transformation Lesson No. : 04
4.0 Objectives
• Describe two dimensional transformations
• Describe and distinguish between two dimensional geometric and coordinate
transformations
• Describe composite transformations
• Describe shear transformations
Structure
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Geometric Transformations
4.3 Coordinate Transformations
4.4 Composite Transformations
4.5 Shear Transformation
4.6 Summary
4.7 Key Words
4.1 Introduction
Transformations are fundamental part of computer graphics. In order to manipulate object
in two dimensional space, we must apply various transformation functions to object. This
allows us to change the position, size, and orientation of the objects. Transformations are
used to position objects, to shape objects, to change viewing positions, and even to
change how something is viewed.
There are two complementary points of view for describing object movement. The first
is that the object itself is moved relative to a stationary coordinate system or background.
The mathematical statement of this viewpoint is described by geometric transformations
applied to each point of the object. The second point of view holds that the object is held
stationary while the coordinate system is moved relative to the object. This effect is
attained through the application of coordinate transformations. An example involves the
motion of an automobile against a scenic background. We can also keep the automobile
fixed while moving the backdrop fixed (a geometric transformation). We can also keep
the automobile fixed while moving the backdrop scenery (a coordinate transformation).
In some situations, both methods are employed.
Coordinate transformations play an important role in the instancing of an object – the

placement of objects, each of which is defined in its own coordinate system, into an
overall picture or design defined with respect to a master coordinate system.
4.2 Geometric Transformations
An object in the plane is represented as a set of points (vertices). Let us impose a

coordinate system on a plane. An object Obj in the plane can be considered as a set of
points. Every object point P has coordinates (x, y), and so the object is the sum total of
all its coordinate points. If the object is moved to a new position, it can be regarded as a
new object Obj' , all of whose coordinate point P’ can be obtained from the original
points P by the application of a geometric transformation.
Figure 4.1
Points in 2-dimensional space will be represented as column vectors:
We are interested in three types of transformation:
• Translation
• Scaling
• Rotation
• Mirror Reflection
4.2.1 Translation
In translation, an object is displaced a given and direction from its original position. If
the displacement is given by the vector v = t x I + t y J , the new object point P' (x' , y ' ) can be
found by applying the transformation Tv to P(x, y) (see Fig. 4.1).
P' = Tv (P) where x' = x + t x and y ' = y + t y .
4.2.2 Rotation about the origin
In rotation, the object is rotated θ° about the origin. The convention is that the direction
of rotation is counterclockwise if θ is a positive angle and clockwise if θ is a negative
angle (see Fig. 4.2). The transformation of rotation Rθ is
P' = Rθ (P)
where x' = x cos(θ ) − y sin(θ ) and y ' = x sin(θ) + y cos(θ)

Figure 4.2
4.2.3 Scaling with Respect to the origin

Scaling is the process of expanding or compressing the dimension of an object. Positive
scaling constants Sx and Sy , are used to describe changes in length with respect to the x
direction and y direction, respectively. A scaling constant greater than one indicates an
expansion of length, and less than one, compression of length. The scaling
transformation Ssx sy is given by P' = S s x s y ( P) where x' = sx .x and y ' = sx .y . Notice that
after a scaling transformation is performed, the new object is located at a different

position relative to the origin. In fact, in a scaling transformation the only point that
remains fixed is the origin (Figure 4.3).
Figure 4.3
If both scaling constants have the same value s, the scaling transformation is said to be
homogeneous. Furthermore, if s > 1, it is a magnification and for s < 1, a reduction
4.2.4 Mirror Reflection about an Axis
If either the x and y axis is treated as a mirror, the object has a mirror image or reflection.
Since the reflection P' of an object point P is located the same distance from the mirror as
P (Fig. 4.4), the mirror reflection transformation M x about the x-axis is given by
P' = M x (P)
where x' = x and y ' = − y .
Similarly, the mirror reflection about the y-axis is
P' = M y (P)
where x' = − x and y ' = y .
Figure 4.4
4.2.5 Inverse Geometric Transformation
Each geometric transformation has an inverse, which is described by the opposite

operation performed by the transformation.
Translation: Tv−1 = T− v or translation in the opposite direction
Rotation: Rθ−1 = R− θ or rotation in the opposite direction

Scaling: S s−x1, s y = S 1 / s x ,1 / s y
Mirror reflection: M −x1 = M x and M y−1 = M y
4.3 Coordinate Transformations
Suppose that we have two coordinate systems in the plane. The first system is located at
origin O and has coordinate axes xy figure 4.6. The second coordinate system is located
at origin O' and has coordinate axes x' y ' Now each point in the plane has two coordinate
descriptions: (x, y) or ( x' , y ' ) , depending on which coordinate system is used. If we

think of the second system x' y ' as arising from a transformation applied to the first
system xy, we say that a coordinate transformation has been applied. We can describe
this transformation by determining how the (x' , y ' ) coordinates of a point P are related to
the (x, y) coordinates of the same point.
Figure 4.5
4.3.1 Translation
If the xy coordinate system is displaced to a new position, where the direction and
distance of the displacement is given by the vector v = t x I + t y J , the coordinates of a point
in both systems are related by the translation transformation T v :
( x' , y ' ) = T v ( x , y )
where x' = x − t x and y ' = y − t y

4.3.2 Rotation about the Origin
The xy system is rotated by θ ° about the origin figure 4.6. Then the coordinates of a
point in both systems are related by the rotation transformation Rθ :
(x' , y ' ) = Rθ (x , y )
where x' = x cos(θ ) + y ' sin(θ ) and y ' = −x sin(θ) + y cos(θ) .
Figure 4.6
4.3.3 Scaling with Respect to the Origin
Suppose that a new coordinate system is formed by leaving the origin and coordinate
axes unchanged, but introducing different units of measurement along the x and y axes.
If the new units are obtained from the old units by a scaling of sy units along the y-axis,
the coordinates in the new system are related to coordinates in the old system through the
scaling transformation Ss x , sy :
(x' , y ' ) = Ss x , sy (x , y )
where x' = 1 / sx .x and y ' = 1/ sy .y . Figure 4.7 shows coordinate scaling transformation
1
using scaling factors sx = 2 and sy = .
2
Figure 4.7
4.3.4 Mirror Reflection about an Axis
If the new coordinate system is obtained by reflecting the old system about either x or y
axis, the relationship between coordinates is given by the coordinate transformations
M x and M y : For reflection about the x axis (figure 4.8 (a))
( x' , y ' ) = M x ( x , y )
where x' = x and y ' = − y . For reflection about the y axis [figure 4.8(b)]
(x' , y ' ) = M y (x , y )
where x' = − x and y ' = y .
Figure 4.8
Notice that the reflected coordinate system is left-handed; thus reflection changes the
orientation of the coordinate system.
4.3.5 Inverse Coordinate Transformation
Each coordinate transformation has an inverse which can be found by applying the
opposite transformation:
−1
Translation : T v = T − v translation in the opposite direction
−1
Rotation: Rθ = R −θ rotation in the opposite direction
−1
Scaling : Ssx , sy = S1/ sx ,1/ sy
Mirror reflection: M x = M x and M y = M y
4.4 Composite Transformations
More complex geometric and coordinate transformations can be built from the basic
transformations described above by using the process of composition of functions. For
example, such operations as rotation about a point other than the origin or reflection
about lines other than the axes can be constructed from the basic transformations.
Matrix Description of the Basic Transformations
The transformations of rotation, scaling, and reflection can be represented as matrix

functions:
Geometric Transformations Coordinate Transformations
cos(θ) − sin(θ) ⎞ cos(θ) sin(θ) ⎞

Rθ = ⎛⎜ ⎟ Rθ = ⎛⎜ ⎟
⎝ sin(θ) cos(θ) ⎠ ⎝ sin(θ) cos(θ) ⎠
−
⎛1 ⎞
⎜ 0⎟
⎛ sx 0⎞
=⎜ x ⎟
s
Ssx ,s y = ⎜⎜ ⎟ Ssx , sy
⎝0 s y ⎟⎠ ⎜ 1⎟
⎜0 sy ⎟⎠
⎝
M x = ⎛⎜ 1 0⎞
⎟ M x = ⎛⎜ 1 0⎞
⎟
⎝ 0 − 1⎠ ⎝ 0 − 1⎠
M y = ⎛⎜ −11 0 ⎞
1⎟⎠ M y = ⎛⎜ −01 0 ⎞
1⎟⎠
⎝ ⎝
The translation transformation cannot be expressed as a 2 x 2 matrix function. However,

a certain artifice allows us to introduce a 3 x 3 matrix function, which performs the
translation transformation.
We represent the coordinate pair (x, y) of a point P by the triple (x, y, 1). This is simply
the homogeneous representation of P. Then translation in the direction v = t x I + t y J can
be expressed by the matrix function.
⎛1 0 tx ⎞
⎜ ⎟
Tv = ⎜ 0 1 t y ⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Then
⎛ 1 0 t x ⎞⎛ x ⎞ ⎛ x + t x ⎞
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ 0 1 t y ⎟⎜⎜ y ⎟⎟ = ⎜ y + t y ⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟ 1 ⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠⎝ ⎠ ⎝ 1 ⎠
From this we extract the coordinate pair (x + t x , y + t y ) .
Concatenation of Matrices
The advantage of introducing a matrix form for translation is that we can now build
complex transformation by multiplying the basic matrix transformations. This process is
sometimes called concatenation of matrices. Here, we are using the fact that the
composition of matrix functions is equivalent to matrix multiplication. We must be able
to represent the basic transformations as 3 x 3 homogeneous coordinate matrices so as to
be compatible (from the point of view of matrix multiplication) with the matrix of
translation. This is accomplished by augmenting the 2 x 2 matrices with a third column
⎛ 0⎞
⎜ 0⎟ and a third row (0 0 1). That is
⎜ 1⎟
⎝ ⎠
⎛ a b 0⎞
⎜ b d 0⎟
⎜ 0 0 1⎟
⎝ ⎠
Here we share some solved problems to better understand the transformations that
we discussed above.
Problem 1 Derive the transformation that rotates an object point θ o about the origin.
Write the matrix representation for this rotation.
Answer Refer to Fig. 4.9. Definition of the trigonometric functions sin and cos yields
x' = r cos(θ + φ) y' = r sin (θ + φ)
and
x = r cos φ y = r sin φ
Using trigonometric identities, we obtain
r cos(θ + φ) = r (cosθ cosφ − sin θ sin φ ) = x cosθ − y sin θ
and
r sin (θ + φ) = r (sin θ cosφ − cosθ sin φ) = x sin θ − y cosθ
or
x' = x cosθ − y sin θ y' = x sin θ + y cosθ
⎛ x' ⎞ ⎛x⎞
Writing P' = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟, P = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟, and
y'
⎝ ⎠ y⎝ ⎠
⎛ cosθ − sin θ ⎞
Rθ = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ sin θ cosθ ⎠
we can now write P’ = R . P.

Figure 4.9
Problem 2 Write the general form of the matrix for rotation about a point P (h, k).
Solution Following we write Rθ , P = Tv .Rθ .T− v , where v = hI + kJ. Using the 3× 3
homogeneous coordinate form for the rotation and translation matrices, we have
⎛ 1 0 h ⎞ ⎛ cos(θ ) − sin (θ) h ⎞ ⎛ 1 0 − h ⎞

⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟
Rθ, P = ⎜ 0 1 k ⎟ ⎜ sin(θ) cos(θ) k ⎟ ⎜ 0 1 − k ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1⎟ ⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟⎠ ⎜⎝ 0 0 1 ⎟⎠
⎝ ⎠⎝
⎛ cos(θ) − sin (θ )
⎜
[− h cos(θ) + k sin (θ) + h]⎞⎟
= ⎜ cos(θ) − sin (θ ) [− h cos(θ) + k sin (θ) + h]⎟
⎜ 0 0 0 ⎟⎠
⎝
Problem 3
(a) Find the matrix that represents rotation of an object by 30o about the origin.
(b) What are the new coordinates of the point P (2, 4) after the rotation?
Answer
(a) From problem 1
⎛ 3 1 ⎞⎟
⎛ cos30o ⎜ −
− sin 30o ⎞⎟ ⎜ 2 2⎟
R o =⎜ =
30 ⎜ sin 30o cos30o ⎟⎠ ⎜ 1 3⎟
⎝ ⎜ ⎟
⎝ 2 2 ⎠
(b) So the new coordinates can be found by multiplying:

⎛ 3 1⎞
⎜ − ⎟ ⎛ 2 ⎞ ⎛ 3+2⎞
⎜ 2 2⎟ ⎜ ⎟=⎜ ⎟
⎜1 3 ⎟ ⎜⎝ − 4 ⎟⎠ ⎜⎝ 1 − 2 3 ⎟⎠
⎜ ⎟
⎝2 2 ⎠
Problem 4 Perform a 45o rotation of triangle A (0, 0), B (1, 1), C (5, 2)
(a) about the origin and

(b) about P (-1, -1).
Answer
We represent the triangle by a matrix formed from the homogeneous coordinates of the
varitices:
⎛ A B C⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜01 5 ⎟
⎜01 2 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ 11 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠
(a) The matrix of rotation is
⎛ ⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜ 2 2 ⎟
⎛ ⎞
⎜
⎜ − 0 ⎟
⎟
cos45o − sin45o
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜
⎜ 0⎟⎟ ⎜
⎜
2 1 ⎟
⎟
= sin45ο
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
2 2
cos45o
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
R ⎜ 0⎟⎟ =⎜ 0 ⎟
45ο
⎜ ⎜ ⎟
⎜
⎜
⎟
⎟
⎜
⎜ 2 2 ⎟
⎟
⎜
⎜
0 0 1 ⎟
⎟
⎜
⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟
⎟
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
So the coordinates A' B' C' of the rotated triangle ABC can be found as
⎛ 2 2 ⎞ ⎛ A' B' C' ⎞
⎜ 0⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ 2 2 ⎟⎛0 1 5⎞ ⎜ 3 2 ⎟
⎜ 2 2 ⎟⎜ ⎟ ⎜0 0
⎟
[A' B' C ']= R45ο [ABC ] = ⎜ 0⎟ ⎜ 0 1 2⎟ = ⎜ 2
⎟
⎜ 2 2 ⎟⎜ ⎟ 7 2
⎜ 0 0 1⎟⎝1 1 1⎠ ⎜ 0 2 ⎟
⎜⎜ 2 ⎟⎟
⎜ ⎟ ⎝1 1 1 ⎠
⎝ ⎠
( ) ⎛3
Thus A' = (0,0), B' = 0, 2 , andC ' = ⎜ 2,
7 ⎞
2 ⎟.
⎝2 2 ⎠
(b) The rotation matrix is given by R = Tv. R o T− v , where v = − I − J. So
45o, P 45 .
⎛ 2 2 ⎞
⎜ − −1 ⎟
⎛ 1 0 − 1⎞ ⎛ 1 0 1⎞ ⎜ 2 2 ⎟
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟ ⎜
R45o, P = ⎜ 0 1 − 1⎟ ⎜ 0 1 1⎟ = ⎜
2
2
2
2
( )⎟
2−1 ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟ ⎜ 0 0 1⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠⎝ ⎠ ⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Now
⎛ 2 2 ⎞
⎜ − −1 ⎟
⎜ 2 2 ⎟⎛0 1 5⎞
⎜
[A' B' C '] = R45o , p[ABC ] = ⎜
2
2
2
2
( )
⎟⎜ ⎟
2 −1 ⎟⎜0 1 2⎟
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟⎝1 1 1⎠
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
⎛ ⎛3 ⎞⎞
⎜ −1 −1 ⎜ 2 − 1⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎝2 ⎠⎟
⎜
=⎜ ( 2 −1 ) (2 2−1 ) ⎛9
⎜
⎝2
⎞⎟
2 − 1⎟ ⎟
⎠⎟
⎜
⎜ 1 1 1 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
So A' = (− 1, 2 − 1), B' = (− 1, 2 2 − 1), andC' = ⎛⎜ ⎞

3 9
2 − 1, 2 − 1⎟.
⎝ 2 2 ⎠
Problem 5 Write the general form of a scaling matrix with respect to a fixed point P(h, k).
Answer
Following the same general procedure as in Example 2 and 3, we write the required
transformation with
v = hI + kJas
S a , b , P = Tv .S a , bT−v
⎛ 1 0 h⎞ ⎛ a 0 0⎞ ⎛ 1 0 − h⎞
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟
= ⎜ 0 1 k ⎟ ⎜ 0 b 0⎟ ⎜ 0 1 − k ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1⎟ ⎜ 0 0 1⎟ ⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠⎝ ⎠⎝ ⎠
⎛ a 0 − ab + h ⎞
⎜ ⎟
= ⎜ 0 b − bk + k ⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟⎠
⎝
Problem 6 Find the transformation that scales (with respect to the origin) by (a)a unit in
the X direction, (b) b units in the Y direction, and (c) simultaneously a units in the
X direction and b units in the Y direction.
Answer
(a) The scaling transformation applied to a point P(x , y ) produces the point
(ax, y ). We can write this in matrix form as S a ,1 .P, or
⎛ a 0 ⎞ ⎛ x ⎞ ⎛ ax⎞
⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ 0 1⎠ ⎝ y ⎠ ⎝ y ⎠
(b) As in part (a), the required transformation can be written in matrix from as S1,b P. So
⎛1 0⎞⎛ x ⎞ ⎛ x ⎞
⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ 0 b ⎠ ⎝ y ⎠ ⎝ by ⎠
(c) Scaling in both directions is described by the transformation x' = ax and
y' = by. Writing this in matrix form as S ab .P, we have
⎛ a 0 ⎞ ⎛ x ⎞ ⎛ ax⎞
⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ 0 b ⎠ ⎝ y ⎠ ⎝ by⎠
Problem 7 An Observer standing at the origin sees a point P(1,1). If the point is
translated one unit in the direction v = I, its new coordinate position is P’(2,1). Suppose
instead that the observer stepped back one unit along the x axis. What would be the
apparent coordinates of P with respect to the observer?
Answer
The problem can be set as a transformation of coordinate system . If we translate the
origin O in the direction v = –I (to a new position at O’) the coordinates of P in this
system can be found by the translation Tv .
⎛ 1 0 1 ⎞ ⎛ 1⎞ ⎛ 2 ⎞
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
Tv P = ⎜ 0 1 0 ⎟ ⎜1⎟ = ⎜ 1 ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟ ⎜ 1⎟ ⎜ 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠
So the new coordinates are (2,1)’. This has the following interpretation a displacement of
one unit in a given direction can be achieved by either moving the object forward or
steping back from it.
4.5 Shear Transformation
The shear transformation distorts an object by scaling one coordinate using the other. If
distorts the shape of an object in such a way as if the object were composed of internal
layers that has been caused to slide over each other is called shear. Two common
shearing transformations are those that shift coordinate x values and those that shift y
values.
2D Shear along X-direction

Shear in X direction is represented by the following set of equations.
where h is the negative or positive fraction of Y coordinate of P to be added to the X
coordinate. can be any real number.
The matrix of form of shear in x-direction is given by
(0.1)
2D Shear along Y Direction
Similarly, shear along y-direction is given by
(0.2)
Combining the shear in X and Y directions,
where g is a non-zero fraction of to be added to the Y coordinate
General matrix form of shear
The general matrix form of shear is
(0.3)
Shear will reduce to a pure shear in the y-direction, when h=0.
The inverse of Shear is given by
(0.4)
Problem 8
If h=0,5 g=0.8, then shear along X direction of the point P : (8,9) is obtained by
substituting these values in (0.3).
Shear in Y direction is
2 Consider a square of side = 2. Show the effect of shear when (1)
4.6 Summary
z Transformation is a process carried out by means of transformation to

these object or changing the orientation of the object or may be
combination of these.
z In translation, an object is displaced a given and direction from its

original position
z If the new coordinate system is obtained by reflecting the old system
about either x or y axis, the relationship between coordinates is given by
the coordinate transformations
z Scaling is the process of expanding or compressing the dimension of an

object
z Multiplying the basic matrix transformations can do complex

transformations
z Shear transformation distorts an object by scaling one coordinate using

the other in such a way as if the object were composed of internal layers
that has been caused to slide over each other.
4.7 Key Words

Transformation, translation, scaling, rotation, mirror reflection, shear
1. Prove that the multiplication of the 3X3 matrices in 2-D geometry in each of the
following operations is commutative, that is, independent of the order of
executation:
(a) Two successive rotations
(b) Two successive translations
(c ) Two successive scaling
2. Briefly explain the concept of 2D graphics.
3. What is inverse geometric transformations?
4. Show that the order in which transformations are performed is important by the
transformation of triangle A (1,0), B(0,1), C(1,1) , by (a) rotating 45° about the
origin and then translating in the direction of vector I, and (b) translating and then
rotating.
5. An object point P(x,y) is translated in the direction v = aI + bJ and simultaneously
an observer moves in the direction v. Show that there is no apparent motion(from
the point of view of the observer) of the object point.
6. Show that reflection about the line y = x is attained by reversing coordinates. That is,
M L (x , y ) = (y , x)

Hall,
Publisher.
Lesson: Graphic Operations Lesson No. : 05
5.0 Objectives
• Describe Windowing concepts
• Describe and distinguish between window and viewport
• Describe Normalized Device Coordiantes
• Describe Clipping
Structure
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Window-to-Viewport Mapping
5.3 Two – Dimensional Viewing and Clipping
5.4 Point Clipping
5.5 Line Clipping
5.6 Area Clipping
5.7 Text Clipping
5.8 Window-To-Viewport Coordinate Transformation
5.9 Exterior and Interior Clipping
5.10 Summary
5.11 Key Words
5.1 Introduction
In very basic two dimensional graphics usually use device coordinates. If any graphics
primitive lies partially or completely outside the window then the portion outside will not
be drawn. It is clipped out of the image. In many situations we have to draw objects
whose dimensions are given in units completely incompatible with the screen coordinates
system. Programming in device coordinates is not very convenient since the programmer
has to do any required scaling from the coordinates natural to the application to device
coordinates. This has led to two dimensional packages being developed which allow the
application programmer to work directly in the coordiate system which is natural to the
application. These user coordinates are usually called World Coordinates (WC). The
packages then coverts the coordinates to Device Coordinates (DC) automatically. The
transformation form the WC to DC is often carried out in tow steps. First using the
Normalisation Transformation and then the Workstation Transformation. The
Viewing Transformation is the process of going form a window in World coordinates to
viewport in Physical Device Coordinates (PDC).
5.2 Window-to-Viewport Mapping
A window is specified by four world coordinates : wxmin, wxmax, wymin,and wymax (see
Fig. 5.1) Similarly, a viewport is described by four normalized device coordinates:
vxmin,vxmax,vymin, and vy max. The objective of window – to – viewport mapping is to
convert the world coordinates (wx, wy) of an arbitrary point to its corresponding
normalized device coordinates (vx,vy). In order to maintain the same relative placement
of the point in the viewport as in the window, we require:
wx − wxmin vx − vxmin wy − wymin vy − vymin

= and =
wxmax − wxmin vxmax − vxmin wymax − wymin vymax − vymin
Thus
⎧ vxmax − vxmin
⎪vx = (wx − wxmin ) + vxmin
⎪ wxmax − wxmin
⎨
vymax − vymin
⎪vy = (wy − wymin ) + vymin
⎪⎩ wymax − wymin
Since the eight coordinate values that define the window and the viewport are just
constants, we can express these two formulas for computing (vx, vy) from (wx, wy) in
terms of a translate-scale-translate transformation N
⎛ vx ⎞ ⎛ wx ⎞
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ vy ⎟ = N .⎜ wy ⎟
⎜1⎟ ⎜ 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠
where
⎛ vx max − vx min ⎞
⎜ 0 0⎟
⎛ 1 0 vx min ⎞⎜ wx max − wx min ⎟⎛ 1 0 − wx min ⎞
⎜ ⎟⎜ vy max − vy min ⎟⎜ ⎟
N = ⎜ 0 1 vy min ⎟⎜ 0 0 ⎟⎜ 0 1 − wy min ⎟
⎜0 0 ⎟ wy max − wy min ⎟⎜
⎝ 1 ⎠ ⎜
1⎟⎝ 0 0 1 ⎟⎠
⎜ 0 0
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Fig. 5.1: Window-to-viewport mapping
Note that geometric distortions occur (e.g. squares in the window become rectangles in
the viewport) whenever the two scalling constants differ.
5.3 Two – Dimensional Viewing and Clipping
Much like what we see in real life through a small window on the wall or the viewfinder
of a camera, a Computer-generated image often depicts a partial view of a large scene.
Objects are placed into the scene by modeling transformations to a master coordinate
system, commonly referred to as the world coordinate system (WCS). A rectangular
window with its edge parallel to the axes of the WCS is used to select the portion of the
scene for which an image is to be generated (see Fig. 5.2). Sometimes an additional
coordinate system called the viewing coordinate system is introduced to simulate the
effect of moving and / or tilting the camera.
On the other hand, an image representing a view often becomes part of a larger image,
like a photo on an album page, which models a computer monitor’s display area. Since
album pages vary and monitor sizes differ from one system to another, we want to
introduce a device-independent tool to describe the display area. This tool is called the
normalized device coordinate system (NDCS) in which a unit (1 x 1) square whose lower
left corner is at the origin of the coordinate system defines the display area of a virtual
display device. A rectangular viewport with its edges parallel to the axes of the NDCS is
used to specify a sub-region of the display area that embodies the image.
Fig. 5.2: Viewing transformation
The process that converts object coordinates in WCS to normalized device coordinate is
called window–to– viewport mapping or normalization transformation. The process that
maps normalized device coordinates to Physical Device Co-ordinates (PDC) / image
coordinates is called work, station transformation, which is essentially a second window-
to-viewport mapping., with a workstation window in the normalized device coordinate
system and a workstation viewport in the device coordinate window in the normalized
device coordinate system and a workstation viewport in the device coordinate system.
Collectively, these two coordinate mapping operations are referred to as viewing
transformation.
Workstation transformation is dependent on the resolution of the display device/frame
buffer. When the whole display area of the virtual device is mapped to a physical device
that does not have a 1/1 aspect ratio, it may be mapped to a square sub-region (see fig.
5.2) so as to avoid introducing unwanted geometric distortion.
Along with the convenience and flexibility of using a window to specify a localized view
comes the need for clipping, since objects in the scene may be completely inside the
window, completely outside the window, or partially visible through the window. The
clipping operation eliminates objects or portions of objects that are not visible through
the window to ensure the proper construction of the corresponding image.
Note that clipping may occur in the world coordinate or viewing coordinate space, where
the window is used to clip the objects; it may also occur in the normalized device
coordinate space, where the viewport/workstation window is used to clip. In either case
we refer to the window or the viewport/workstation window as the clipping window.
5.4 Point Clipping
Point clipping is essentially the evaluation of the following inequalities:
xmin ≤ x ≤ xmax and ymin ≤ y ≤ ymax
Where xmin, xmax, ymin and ymax define the clipping window. A point (x,y) is considered
inside the window when the inequalities all evaluate to true.
5.5 Line Clipping
Lines that do not intersect the clipping window are either completely inside the window
or completely outside the window. On the other hand, a line that intersects the clipping
window is divided by the intersection point(s) into segments that are either inside or
outside the window. The following algorithms provide efficient ways to decide the spatial
relationship between an arbitrary line and the clipping window and to find intersection
point(s).
5.5.1 The Cohen-Sutherland Algorithm

In this algorithm we divide the line clipping process into two phases: (1) identify those
lines which intersect the clipping window and so need to be clipped and (2) perform the
clipping.
All lines fall into one of the following clipping categories:
1. Visible – both endpoints of the line within the window
2. Not visible – the line definitely lies outside the window. This will occur if the line
from (x1,y1,) to (x2,y2) satisfies any one of the following four inequalities:
x1, x2 > xmax y1, y2 > y max

x1, x2 < xmin y 1 , y2 < y min
3. Clipping candidate – the line is in neither category 1 and 2

In fig. 5.3, line l1 is in category 1 (visible); lines l2 and l3 are in category 2 (not visible) ;
and lines l4 and l5 are in category 3 (clipping candidate).
Figure 5.3
The algorithm employs an efficient procedure for finding the category of a line. It
proceeds in two steps:
1. Assign a 4-bit region code to each endpoint of the line. The code is determined
according to which of the following nine regions of the plane the endpoint lies in
Starting from the leftmost bit, each bit of the code is set to true (1) or false (0) according
to the scheme
Bit 1 ≡ endpoint is above the window = sign (y – ymax)
Bit 2 ≡ endpoint is below the window = sign (ymin-y)
Bit 3 ≡ endpoint is to the right of the window = sign (x–xmax)
Bit 4 ≡ endpoint is to the left of the window = sign (xmin –x)
We use the convention that sign (a)=1 if a is positive, 0 otherwise. Of course, a

point with code 0000 is inside the window.
2. The line is visible if both region codes are 0000, and not visible if the bitwise
logical AND of the codes is not 0000, and a candidate for clipping if the bitwise
logical AND of the region codes is 0000.
Figure 5.4
For a line in category 3 we proceed to find the intersection point of the line with one of
the boundaries of the clipping window, or to be exact, with the infinite extension of one
of the boundaries. We choose an endpoint of the line, say (x1, y1), that is outside the
window, i.e., whose region code is not 0000. We then select an extended boundary line
by observing that those boundary lines that are candidates for intersection are of ones for
which the chosen endpoint must be “pushed across” so as to change a “1” in its code to a
“0” (see Fig. 5.4). This means:
If bit 1 is 1, intersect with line y = ymax.
If bit 2 is 1, intersect with line y = ymin.
If bit 3 is 1, intersect with line x = xmax.
If bit 4 is 1, intersect with line y = ymin.
Consider line CD is Fig.5.4. If endpoint C is chosen, then the bottom boundary line
y=ymin is selected for computing intersection. On the other hand, if endpoint D is chosen,
then either the top boundary line y=ymax or the right boundary line x = xmax is used. The
coordinates of the intersection point are
⎧ xi = x min or x max
⎨ if the boundary line is vertical
⎩ y i = y1 + m( xi − x1 )
or
⎧ xi = x1 + ( y i − y1 ) / m
⎨ if the boundary line is horizontal
⎩ y i = y min or y max
where m = (y2 – y1)/(x2 – x1) is the slope of the line.
Now we replace endpoint (x1, y1) with the intersection point (x1, yi) effectively
eliminating the portion of the original line that is on the outside of the selected window
boundary. The new endpoint is then assigned an updated region code and the clipped line
re-categorized and handled in the same way. This iterative process terminates when we
finally reach a clipped line that belongs to either category 1 (visible) or category 2 (not
visible).
5.5.2 Midpoint Subdivision
An alternative way to process a line in category 3 is based on binary search. The line is
divided at its midpoint into two shorter line segments. The clipping categories of the two
new line segments are then determined by their region codes. Each segment in category 3
is divided again into shorter segments and categorized. This bisection and categorization
process continues until each line segment that spans across a window boundary (hence
encompasses an intersection point) reaches a threshold for line size and all other
segments are either in category 1 (visible) or in category 2 (invisible) . The midpoint
coordinates ( x m, y m) ) of a line joining ( x 1, y 1 ) and ( x 2, y 2 ) are given by
x + x2 y1 + y 2
xm = 1 ym =
2 2
The example in fig.5.5 illustrates how midpoint subdivision is used to zoom in onto the
two intersection points I i and I 2 with 10 bisections. The process continues until we
reach two line segments that are, say, pixel – sized . i.e. mapped to one single pixel each
in the image space. If the maximum number of pixels in a line is M , this method will
yield a pixel-sized line segment in N subdivisions, where 2N = M or N = log2 M. For
instance, when M = 1024 we need at most N = log2 1024 = 10 subdivisions.
Figure 5.5
vx max − vx min vy max − vy min

Problem 1 Let Sx = and sy =
wx max wy max − wy min
Express window-to-viewport mapping in the form of a composite transformation matrix.
Answer
⎛1 0 vx min ⎞ ⎛ sx 0 0⎞ ⎛1 0 − wx min ⎞
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
N = ⎜0 1 vx min ⎟ ⎜ 0 sy 0⎟ ⎜0 1 − wx min ⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟⎠ ⎜⎝ 0 0 1⎟⎠ ⎜0 0 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎝ ⎠
⎛ sx 0 − sx wx min + vx min ⎞
⎜ ⎟
= ⎜ 0 sy − sy wy min + vy min ⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Problem 2 Find the normalization transformation that maps a window whose lower left
corner is at (1,1) and upper right corner is at (3, 5) onto (a) a viewport that is the entire
normalized device screen and (b) a viewport that has lower left corner at (0, 0) and upper
right corner ⎛⎜ , ⎞⎟ .
1 1
⎝ 2 2⎠
Answer
From problem 1, we need to identify the appropriate parameters
(a) The window parameters are wxmin = 1, wymax = 1, and wymax = 5. The viewport
1 1
parameters are vxmin = 0, vxmax= 1, vymin = 0, and vymax = 1. Then sx = , sy = , and
2 4
⎛ 1⎞
⎜1 − ⎟
⎜2 0 2⎟
1 1⎟
N =⎜0 −
⎜ 4 4⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
(b) The window parameters are the same as in (a). The viewport parameters are not
1 1 1 1
vxmin = 0, vxmax = , vymin = 0, vymax = . The sx = , sy= , and
2 2 4 8
⎛ 1⎞
⎜1 − ⎟
⎜4 0 4⎟
1 1
N =⎜0 − ⎟
⎜ 8 8⎟
⎜0 0 1 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Problem 3 Find a normalization transformation from the window whose lower left
corner is at (0,0) and upper right corner is at (4,3) onto the normalized device screen so
that aspect ratios are preserved.
Answer
4
The window aspect ratio is aw = . Unless otherwise indicated , we shall choose a
3
viewport that is as large as possible with respect to the normalized device screen. To this
3
end, we choose the x extent from 0 to 1 and the y extent from 0 to . So
4
1 4
av = =
3 3
4
As in Prob. 1 , with parameters wxmin = 0, wxmax = 4, wymax = 0, wymin = 3, and vxmax =

3
1, vymin = 0, vymax = .¾
4
⎛1 ⎞
⎜ 0 0 ⎟
⎜4 1 ⎟
N =⎜0 0 ⎟
4
⎜0 0 0 ⎟⎟
⎜
⎝ ⎠
5.6 Area Clipping
An algorithm that clips a polygon must deal with many different cases. The case is
particularly note worthy in that the concave polygon is clipped into two separate
polygons. All in all, the task of clipping seems rather complex. Each edge of the polygon
must be tested against each edge of the clip rectangle; new edges must be added, and
existing edges must be discarded, retained, or divided. Multiple polygons may result from
clipping a single polygon. We need an organized way to deal with all these cases.
The following example illustrate a simple case of polygon clipping (figure5.6).
Figure 5.6
Sutherland and Hodgman's polygon-clipping algorithm uses a divide-and-conquer

strategy: It solves a series of simple and identical problems that, when combined, solve
the overall problem. The simple problem is to clip a polygon against a single infinite clip
edge. Four clip edges, each defining one boundary of the clip rectangle, successively clip
a polygon against a clip rectangle.
Note the difference between this strategy for a polygon and the Cohen-Sutherland
algorithm for clipping a line: The polygon clipper clips against four edges in succession,
whereas the line clipper tests the outcode to see which edge is crossed, and clips only
when necessary.
5.6.1 Sutherland-Hodgman's polygon-clipping algorithm
• Polygons can be clipped against each edge of the window one at a time.
Windows/edge intersections, if any, are easy to find since the X or Y coordinates
are already known.
• Vertices which are kept after clipping against one window edge are saved for
clipping against the remaining edges.
• Note that the number of vertices usually changes and will often increases.
• We are using the Divide and Conquer approach.
Four Cases of polygon clipping against one edge
The clip boundary determines a visible and invisible region. The edges from vertex i to
vertex i+1 can be one of four types:
• Case 1 : Wholly inside visible region - save endpoint

• Case 2 : Exit visible region - save the intersection
• Case 3 : Wholly outside visible region - save nothing
• Case 4 : Enter visible region - save intersection and endpoint
Case 1 : Wholly inside the visible region, save the endpoint (Fig. 5.7).
Figure 5.7
Case 2 : Exit visible region, save the intersection Figure 5.8
Figure 5.8
Case 3 : Wholly outside visible region, save nothing (Figure 5.9)
.
Figure 5.9
Case 4 : Enter visible region, save intersection and endpoint(Figure 5.10)
Figure 5.10
Because clipping against one edge is independent of all others, it is possible to arrange
the clipping stages in a pipeline. The input polygon is clipped against one edge and any
points that are kept are passed on as input to the next stage of the pipeline. This way four
polygons can be at different stages of the clipping process simultaneously. This is often
implemented in hardware.
5.7 Text Clipping
For text clipping various techniques are available in graphic packages. The clipping
technique used will depend upon the application requirement and how characters
produced. Normally we have many simple methods for clipping text. One method for
processing character strings relative to a window boundary is to use the all or none sting
clipping strategy shown in figure 5.11 below. If all of the string is discarded. This
procedure is implemented by considering a boundary rectangle around the text pattern.
Figure 5.11
The boundary positions of the rectangle are the compared to the window boundaries, and
the string is rejected if there is any overlap. This method produces fastest text clipping.
5.8 Window-To-Viewport Coordinate Transformation
Once object descriptions have been transferred to the viewing reference frame, we choose
the window extents in viewing coordinates and select the viewport limits in normalized
coordinates. Object descriptions are then transferred to normalized device coordinates.
We do this using a transformation that maintains the same relative placement of objects
in normalized space as they had in viewing coordinates. If a coordinate position is at the
center of the viewing window, for instance, it will be displayed at the center of the
viewport.
Figure 5.12 illustrates the window-to-viewport mapping. A point at position (xw, yw) in
the window is mapped into position (xv, yv) in the associated view-port. To maintain the
same relative placement in the viewport as in the window, we require that
xv − xvmin xw − xw min
=
xvmax − xvmin xw max − xw min
yv − yvmin yw − yw min
=
yvmax − yvmin yw max − yw min
Figure 5.12: A point at position (xm, yw) in a designated window is mapped to

viewport coordinates
(xv, yv) so that relative positions in the two areas are the same.
Solving these expressions for the viewport position (xv, yv), we have
xv = xvmin + (xw – xwmin)sx
yv = yvmin + (yw - ywmin)sy
where the scaling factors are
xvmax − xvmin
sx =
xwmax − xwmin
yvmax − yvmin
sy =
yw max − yw min
Above equations can also be derived with a set of transformations that converts the
window area into the viewport area. This conversion is performed with the following
sequence of transformations:
1. Perform a scaling transformation using a fixed-point position of (xwmin, ywmin) that

scales the window area to the size of the viewport.
2. Translate the scaled window area to the position of the viewport.
Relative proportions of objects are maintained if the scaling factors are the same (sx =
sy). Otherwise, world objects will be stretched or contracted in either x or y direction
when displayed on the output device.
Character strings can be handled in two ways when they are mapped to a viewport. The
simplest mapping maintains a constant character size, even though the viewport area may
be enlarged or reduced relative to the window. This method would be employed when
text is formed with standard character fonts that cannot be changed. In systems that allow
.for changes in character size, string definitions can be windowed the same as other
primitives. For characters formed with line segments, the mapping to the viewport can be
carried out as a sequence of line transformations.
From normalized coordinates, object descriptions are mapped to the viewport display
devices. Any number of output devices can be open in a particular application, and
another window-to-viewport transformation can be performed for each open output
device. This mapping, called the workstation transformation, is accomplished by
selecting a window area in normalized space and a viewport area in the coordinates of the
display device. With the workstation transformation, we gain some additional control
over the positioning of parts of a scene on individual output devices. As illustrated in Fig.
5.13, we can use work station transformations to partition a view so that different parts of
normalized space can be displayed on different output devices.
Figure 5.13: Mapping selected parts of a scene in normalized coordinated to
different video monitors with workstation transformations.
5.9 Exterior and Interior Clipping
So far, we have considered only procedures for clipping a picture to the interior of a
region by eliminating everything outside the clipping region. What is saved by these
procedures is inside the region. In some cases, we want to do the reverse, that is, we want
to clip a picture to the exterior of a specified region. The picture parts to be saved are
those that are outside the region. This is referred to as exterior clipping.
A typical example of the application of exterior clipping is in multiple-window systems.

To correctly display the screen windows, we often need to apply both internal and
external clipping. Objects within a window are clipped to the interior of that window.
When other higher-priority windows overlap these objects, the objects are also clipped to
the exterior of the overlapping windows.
Exterior clipping is used also in other applications that require overlapping pictures.
Examples here include the design of page layouts in advertising or publishing
applications or for adding labels or design patterns to a picture. The technique can also be
used for combining graphs, maps, or schematics. For these applications, we can use
exterior clipping to provide a space for an insert into a larger picture.
Procedures for clipping objects to the interior of concave polygon windows can also
make use of external clipping. A figure 5.14 shows a line P1P2 that is to be clipped to the
interior of a concave window with vertices V1V2V3V4V5. Line P1P2 can be clipped in two
passes: (1) First, P1P2 is clipped to the interior of the convex polygon V1V2V3V4 to yield
the clipped segment P'1 P'2 . (2) Then an external clip of P' 1 P' 2 is performed against the
convex polygon V1V5V4 to yield the final clipped line segment P" 1 P' 2 .
Figure 5.14: Clipping line P1P2 to the interior of a concave polygon with vertices
V1V2V3V4V5 (a), using convex polygons V1V2V3V4 (b) and V1V5V4 (c), to produce the
clipped line P”1P’2
5.10 Summary
z The viewing transformation is used to transform a part of graphical scene

to a portion of the screen.
z The Normalised Device Coordinates describe the coordinates system

natural
z A window is a rectangular surrounding the object or a part of it that we

wish to draw on the screen.
z A viewport beings the window content to the screen, so, that window
coordinates are based on world coordinates system.
z Multiplying the basic matrix transformations can do complex

transformations
z Shear transformation distorts an object by scaling one coordinate using

the other in such a way as if the object were composed of internal layers
that has been caused to slide over each other.
5.11 Key Words

Window, Viewport, Clipping
1. Explain The Cohen-Sutherland Line-Clipping Algorithm.

2. Explain some uses of clipping.
3. What is clipping?
4. Explain clipping in a raster world?
5. What do you mean by viewing transformation?
6. Find the workstation transformation that maps the normalized device screen onto a
physical device whose x extent is 0 to 199 and y extent is 0 to 639 where origin is located
at the lower left corner.

Hall,
Publisher.
Lesson: Interactive Graphics Lesson No. : 06
6.0 Objectives
• Describe the concept of pointing and positioning
• Describe various interactive graphic devices
• Describe various interactive graphic techniques including positioning, constraints,
grid, gravity field, inking, painting, dragging, and rubber band techniques
Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Concept of Positioning and Pointing
6.3 Interactive Graphic Devices
6.4 Interactive Graphical Techniques
6.5 Summary
6.6 Key Words
6.1 Introduction
As hardware cost is plummeting, which is considered as the major bottleneck for the
progress; now communication devices is more listened for better development. For that
reason, techniques for developing high-quality user interfaces are moving to the forefront
in computer science and are becoming the "last frontier" in providing computing to a
wide variety of users—as other aspects of technology continue to improve, but the human
users remain the same. Interest in the quality of user-computer interfaces is a recent part
of the formal study of computers. The emphasis until the early 1980s was on optimizing
two scarce hardware resources, computer time and memory. Program efficiency was the
highest goal. With today’s plummeting hardware costs and powerful graphics-oriented
personal computing environments the focus turns to optimizing user efficiency rather
than computer efficiency. Thus, although many of the ideas presented in this chapter
require additional CPU cycles and memory space, the potential rewards in user
productivity and satisfaction well outweigh the modest additional cost of these resources.
The quality of the user interface often determines whether users enjoy or despise a
system, whether the designers of the system are praised or damned, whether a system
succeeds or fails in the market. Actually, a poor user interface such as in air traffic
control or in nuclear power plant monitoring can lead to catastrophic consequences.
The desktop user-interface metaphor, with its windows, icons, and pull-down menus, all
making heavy use of raster graphics, is popular because it is easy to learn and requires
little typing skill. Most users of such systems are not computer programmers and have
little sympathy for the old-style difficult-to-learn keyboard-oriented command-language
interfaces that many programmers take for granted. The designer of an interactive
graphics application must be sensitive to users’ desire for easy-to-learn yet powerful
interfaces. In this chapter, we discuss the three basic low-level elements of user
interfaces: input devices, interaction techniques, and interaction tasks. Interaction
techniques are the primitive building blocks from which a user interface is crafted.
We focus in this chapter on input devices—those pieces of hardware by which a user

enters information into a computer system. Input devices for the earliest computers were
switches and knobs, jumper wires placed in patch boards, and punched cards. These were
followed by the teletype, the text-only forerunner of today’s interactive terminals. The
mouse and keyboard now predominate, but a wide variety of input devices can be used.
An interaction task is the entry of a unit of information by the user. Basic
interaction tasks are position, text, select, and quantify. The unit of information that is
input in a position interaction task is of course a position; the text task yields a text string;
the select task yields an object identification; and the quantify task yields a numeric
value. A designer begins with the interaction tasks necessary for a particular application.
For each such task, the designer chooses an appropriate interaction device and interaction
technique. Many different interaction techniques can be used for a given interaction task,
and there may be several different ways of using the same device to perform the same
task. For instance, a selection task can be carried out by using a mouse to select items
from a menu, using a keyboard to enter the name of the selection, pressing a function
key, circling the desired command with the mouse, or even writing the name of the
command with the mouse. Similarly, a single device can be used for different tasks: A
mouse is often used for both positioning and selecting.
Interaction tasks are defined by what the user accomplishes, whereas logical input
devices categorize how that task is accomplished by the application program and the
graphics system. Interaction tasks are user-centered, whereas logical input devices are a
programmer and graphics-system concept. By analogy with a natural language, single
actions with input devices are similar to the individual letters of the alphabet from which
words are formed. The sequence of input-device actions that makes up an interaction
technique is analogous to the sequence of letters that makes up a word. A word is a unit
of meaning; just as several interaction techniques can be used to carry out the same
interaction task, so too words that are synonyms convey the same meaning. An
interactive dialogue is made up of interaction-task sequences, just as a sentence is
constructed from word sequences.
6.2 Concept of Positioning and Pointing
Most display terminals provide the user with an alphanumeric keyboard with which to
type commands and enter data for the program. For some applications, however, the
keyboard is inconvenient or inadequate. For example, the user may wish to indicate one
of a number of symbols on the screen, in order to erase the symbol. If each symbol is
labeled, he can do so by typing the symbol’s name; by pointing at the symbol, however,
he may be able to erase more rapidly, and the extra clutter of labels can be avoided.
Another problem arises if the user has to add lines or symbols to the picture on the
screen. Although he can identify an items’s position by typing coordinates he can do so
even better by pointing at the screen, particularly if what matters most is the items’s
position relative to the rest of the picture.
These two examples illustrate the two basic types of graphical interaction: pointing at
items already on the screen and positioning new items. The need to interact in these ways
has stimulated the developed of a number of different types of graphical input device,
some of which are described in this chapter.
Ideally a graphical input device should lend itself both to pointing and to positioning. In
reality there are no devices with this versatility. Most devices are much better at
positioning than at pointing; one device, the light pen, is the exact opposite. Fortunately,
however we can supplement the deficiencies of these devices by software and in this way
produce hardware-software system that has both capabilities. Nevertheless the distinction
between pointing and positioning capability is extremely important.
Another important distinction is between devices that can be used directly on the screen
surface and devices that cannot. The latter might appear to be less useful, but this is far
from true. Radar operators and air-traffic controllers have for years used devices like the
joystick and the tracker ball neither of which can be pointed at the screen. The
effectiveness of these input devices depends on the use of visual feedback: the x and y
outputs of the device control the movement of a small cross, or cursor, displayed on the
screen. The user of the device steers the cursor around the screen as if it were a toy boat
on the surface of a pond. Although this operation sounds as if it requires a lot of skill, it is
in fact very easy.
The use of visual feedback has an additional advantage: just as in any control system, it
compensates for any lack of linearity in the device. A linear input device is one that
faithfully increases or decreases the input coordinate value in exact proportion to the
user’s hand movement. If the device is being used to trace a graph or a map. Linearity is
important. A cursor, however, can be controlled quite easily even if the device behaves in
a fairly nonlinear fashion. For example, the device may be much less sensitive near the
left – hand region of its travel: a 1 – inch hand movement may change the x value by only
50 units, whereas the same movement elsewhere may change x by 60 units. The user will
simply change his hand movement to compensate, often without even noticing the no
linearity. This phenomenon has allowed simple, inexpensive devices like the mouse to be
used very successfully for graphical input.
6.3 Interactive Graphic Devices
Various devices are available for data input on graphics workstations. Most systems have
a keyboard and one or more additional devices specially designed for interactive input.
These include a mouse, trackball, spaceball, joystick, digitizers, dials, and button boxes.
Some other input devices used in particular applications are data gloves, touch panels,
image scanners, and voice systems.
6.3.1 Keyboards
The well-known QWERTY keyboard has been with us for many years. It is ironic that
this keyboard was originally designed to slow down typists, so that the typewriter
hammers would not be so likely to jam. Studies have shown that the newer Dvorak
keyboard , which places vowels and other high-frequency characters under the home
positions of the fingers, is somewhat faster than is the QWERTY design. It has not been
widely accepted. Alphabetically organized keyboards are sometimes used when many of
the users are non typists. But more and more people are being exposed to QWERTY
keyboards, and experiments have shown no advantage of alphabetic over QWERTY
keyboards .In recent years, the chief force serving to displace the keyboard has been the
shrinking size of computers, with laptops, notebooks, palmtops, and personal digital
assistants. The typewriter keyboard is becoming the largest component of such pocket-
sized devices, and often the main component standing in the way of reducing its overall
size. The chord keyboard has five keys similar to piano keys, and is operated with one
hand, by pressing one or more keys simultaneously to "play a chord." With five keys, 31
different chords can be played. Learning to use a chord keyboard (and other similar
stenographer style keyboards) takes longer than learning the QWERTY keyboard, but
skilled users can type quite rapidly, leaving the second hand free for other tasks. This
increased training time means, however, that such keyboards are not suitable substitutes
for general use of the standard alphanumeric keyboard. Again, as computers become
smaller, the benefit of a keyboard that allows touch typing with only five keys may come
to outweigh the additional difficulty of learning the chords. Other keyboard-oriented
considerations, involving not hardware but software design, are arranging for a user to
enter frequently used punctuation or correction characters without needing
simultaneously to press the control or shift keys, and assigning dangerous actions (such
as delete) to keys that are distant from other frequently used keys.
6.3.2 Touch Panels
As the name implies, touch panels allow displayed objects or screen positions to be
selected with the touch of a finger. A typical application of touch panels is for the
selection of processing options that are represented with graphical icons. Other systems
can be adapted for touch input by fitting a transparent device with a touch-sensing
mechanism over the video monitor screen. Touch input can be recorded using optical,
electrical, or acoustical methods.
Optical touch panels employ a line of infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) along one
vertical edge and along one horizontal edge of the frame. The opposite vertical and
horizontal edges contain light detectors. These detectors are used to record which beams
are interrupted when the panel is touched. The two crossing beams that are interrupted
identify the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the screen position selected. Positions
can be selected with an accuracy of about inch. With closely spaced LEDs, it is possible
to break two horizontal or two vertical beams simultaneously. In this case, an average
position between the two interrupted beams is recorded. The LEDs operate at infrared
frequencies, so that the light is not visible to a user. An electrical touch panel is
constructed with two transparent plates separated by a small distance. One of the plates is
coated with a conducting material, and the other plate is coated with a resistive material.
When the outer plate is touched, it is forced into contact with the inner plate. This contact
creates a voltage drop across the resistive plate that is converted to the coordinate values
of the selected screen position.
In acoustical touch panels, high-frequency sound waves are generated in the horizontal
and vertical directions across a glass plate. Touching the screen causes part of each wave
to be reflected from the finger to the emitters. The screen position at the point of contact
is calculated from a measurement of the time interval between the transmission of each
wave and its reflection to the emitter.
6.3.3 Light pens
The pencil-shaped devices 's are used to select screen positions by detecting the light
coming from point on the CRT screen. They are sensitive to the short burst of light
emitted from the phosphor coating at the instant the electron beam strikes a particular
point. Other light sources, such as the background light in the room, are usually not
detected by a light pen. An activated light pen, pointed at a spot on the screen as the
electron beam lights up that spot, generates an electrical pulse that causes the coordinate
position of the electron beam to be recorded. As with cursor-positioning devices,
recorded light-pen coordinates can be used to position an object or to select a processing
option. Although light pens are still with us, they are not as popular as they once were
since they have several disadvantages compared to other input devices that have been
developed. For one, when a light pen is pointed at the screen, part of the screen image is
obscured by the hand and pen. And prolonged use of the light pen can cause arm fatigue.
Also, light pens require special implementation for some applications because they
cannot detect positions within black areas. To be able to select positions in any screen
area with a light pen, we must have some nonzero intensity assigned to each screen pixel.
In addition, light pens sometime give false readings due to background lighting in a
room.
6.3.4 Graphics Tablets
One type of digitizer is the graphics tablet (also referred to as a data tablet), which is used
to input two-dimensional coordinates by activating a hand cursor or stylus at selected
positions on a flat surface. A hand cursor contains cross hairs for sighting positions, while
a stylus is a pencil-shaped device that is pointed at positions on the tablet. This allows an
artist to produce different brush strokes with different pressures on the tablet surface.
Tablet size varies from 12 by 12 inches for desktop models to 4 by 60 inches or larger for
floor models. Graphics tablets provide a highly accurate method for selecting coordinate
positions, with an accuracy that varies from about 0.2 mm on desktop models to about
0.05 mm or less on larger models. Many graphics tablets are constructed with a
rectangular grid of wire embedded in the tablet surface. Electromagnetic pulses are
generated in sequence along the wires, and an electric signal is induced in a wire coil in
an activated stylus or hand cursor to record a tablet position. Depending on the
technology, a their signal strength, coded pulses, or phase shifts can be used to determine
the position on the tablet.
6.3.5 Joysticks
A joystick consists of a small, vertical lever (called the stick) mounted on a base that is
used to steer the screen cursor around. Most joysticks select screen positions with actual
stick movement; others respond to pressure on the stick. The distance that the stick is
moved in any direction from its center position corresponds to screen-cursor movement
in that direction. Potentiometers mounted at the base of the joystick measure the amount
of movement, and springs return the stick to the center position when it is released. One
or more buttons can be programmed to act as input switchs to signal certain actions once
a screen position has been selected.
6.3.6 Mouse
A mouse is small hand-held box used to position the screen cursor. Wheels or rollers on
the bottom of the mouse can be used to record the amount and direction of movement.
Another method for detecting mouse motion is with an optical sensor. For these systems,
the mouse is moved over a special mouse pad that has a grid of horizontal and vertical
lines. The optical sensor detects movement across the lines in the grid.
Since a mouse can be picked up and put down at another position without change in
cursor movement, it is used for making relative changes in the position of the screen
cursor. One, two, or three buttons are usually included on the top of the mouse for
signaling the execution of some operation, such as recording cursor position or invoking
a function. Most general-purpose graphics systems now include a mouse and a keyboard
as the major input devices.
6.3.7 Voice Systems
Speech recognizers are used in some graphics workstations as input devices to accept
voice commands. The voice-system input can be used to initiate graphics operations or to
enter data. These systems operate by matching an input against a predefined dictionary of
words and phrases.
A dictionary is set up for a particular operator by having the operator speak the command
words to be used into the system. Each word is spoken several times, and the system
analyzes the word and establishes a frequency pattern for that word in the dictionary
along with the corresponding function to be performed. Later, when a voice command is
given, the system searches the dictionary for a frequency-pattern match. Voice input is
typically spoken into a microphone mounted on a headset. The microphone is designed to
minimize input of other background sounds. If a different operator is to use the system,
the dictionary must be reestablished with that operator's voice patterns. Voice systems
have some advantage over other input devices, since the attention of the operator does not
have to be switched from one device to another to enter a command.
6.3.8 Other Devices
Here we discuss some of the less common, and in some cases experimental, 2D
interaction devices. Voice recognizers, which are useful because they free the user’s
hands for other uses, apply a pattern-recognition approach to the waveforms created
when we speak a word. The waveform is typically separated into a number of different
frequency bands, and the variation over time of the magnitude of the waveform. in each
band forms the basis for the pattern matching. However, mistakes can occur in the pattern
matching, so it is especially important that an application using a recognizer provide
convenient correction capabilities. Voice recognizers differ in whether or not they must
be trained to recognize the waveforms of a particular speaker, and whether they can
recognize connected speech as opposed to single words or phrases. Speaker-independent
recognizers have very limited vocabularies—typically, they include only the ten digits
and 50 to 100 words. Some discrete word recognizers can recognize vocabularies of
thousands of different words after appropriate training. But if the user has a cold, the
recognizer must be retrained. The user of a discrete word recognizer must pause for a
fraction of a second after each word to cue the system that a word end has occurred. The
more difficult task of recognizing connected speech from a limited vocabulary can now
be performed by off-the-shelf hardware and software, but with somewhat less accuracy.
As the vocabulary becomes larger, however, artificial-intelligence techniques are needed
to exploit the context and meaning of a sequence of sentences to remove ambiguity. A
few systems with vocabularies of 20,000 or more words can recognize sentences such as
"Write Mrs. Wright a letter right now!" Voice synthesizers create waveforms that
approximate, with varying degrees of realism, spoken words. The simplest synthesizers
use phonemes, the basic sound units that form words. This approach creates an artificial-
sounding, inflection-free voice. More sophisticated phoneme-based systems add
inflections. Other systems actually play back digitized spoken words or phrases. They
sound realistic, but require more memory to store the digitized speech. Speech is best
used to augment rather than to replace visual feedback, and is most effective when used
sparingly. For instance, a training application could show a student a graphic animation
of some process, along with a voice narration describing what is being seen. See for
additional guidelines for the effective application of speech recognition and generation in
user-computer interfaces, and for an introduction to speech interfaces, and for speech
recognition technology. The data tablet has been extended in several ways. Many years
ago, Herot and Negroponte used an experimental pressure-sensitive stylus : High pressure
and a slow drawing speed implied that the user was drawing a line with deliberation, in
which case the line was recorded exactly as drawn; low pressure and fast speed implied
that the line was being drawn quickly, in which case a straight line connecting the
endpoints was recorded. Some commercially available tablets sense not only stylus
pressure but orientation as well. The resulting 5 degrees of freedom reported by the tablet
can be used in various creative ways. For example, Bleser, Sibert, and McGee
implemented the GWPaint system to simulate various artist’s tools, such as an italic pen,
that are sensitive to pressure and orientation. An experimental touch tablet, developed by
Buxton and colleagues, can sense multiple finger positions simultaneously, and can also
sense the area covered at each point of contact The device is essentially a type of touch
panel, but is used as a tablet on the work surface, not as a touch panel mounted over the
screen. The device can be used in a rich variety of ways . Different finger pressures
correlate with the area covered at a point of contact, and are used to signal user
commands: a light pressure causes a cursor to appear and to track finger movement;
increased pressure is used, like a button-push on a mouse or puck, to begin feedback such
as dragging of an object; decreased pressure causes the dragging to stop.
6.4 Interactive Graphical Techniques
There are several techniques that are incorporated into graphics packages to aid the
interactive construction of pictures. Various input options can be provided, so that
coordinate information entered with locator and stroke devices can be adjusted or
interpreted according to a selected option. For example, we can restrict all lines to be
either horizontal or vertical. Input coordinates can establish the position or boundaries for
objects to be drawn, or they can be used to rearrange previously displayed objects.
6.4.1 Basic Positioning Methods
Coordinate values supplied by locator input are often used with positioning methods to
specify a location for displaying an object or a character string. We interactively select
coordinate positions with a pointing device, usually by positioning the screen cursor. Just
how the object or text-string positioning is performed depends on the selected options.
With a text string, for example, the screen point could be taken as the center string
position, or the start or end position of the string, or any of the other string-positioning
options. For lines, straight line segments can be displayed between two selected screen
positions:
As an aid in positioning objects, numeric values for selected positions can be echoed on
the screen. Using the echoed coordinate values as a guide, we can make adjustments in
the selected location to obtain accurate positioning.
6.4.2 Constraints
With some applications, certain types of prescribed orientations or object alignments are
useful. A constraint is a rule for altering input-coordinate values to produce a specified
orientation or alignment of the displayed coordinates. There are many kinds of constraint
functions that can be specified, but the most common constraint is a horizontal and
vertical alignment of straight lines. This type of constraint, shown in Figs. 6.1 and 6.2, is
useful in forming network layouts. With this constraint, we can create horizontal and
vertical lines without worrying a-bout precise specification of endpoint coordinates.
Figure 6.1: Horizontal line constraint
Figure 6.2: Vertical line constraint
A horizontal or vertical constraint is implemented by determining whether any two input

coordinate endpoints are more nearly horizontal or more near vertical. If the difference in
the y values of the two endpoints is smaller than the difference in x values, a horizontal
line is displayed. Otherwise, a vertical line is drawn. Other kinds of constraints can be
applied to input coordinates to produce a variety of alignments. Lines could be
constrained to have a particular slant, such as 45°, and input coordinates could be
constrained to lie along predefined paths, such as circular arcs.
6.4.3 Grids
Another kind of constraint is a grid of rectangular lines displayed in some part of the
screen area. When a grid is used, any input coordinate position is rounded to the nearest
intersection of two grid lines. Figure 6.3 illustrates line drawing with grid. Each of the
two cursor positions is shifted to the nearest grid intersection point, and the line is drawn
between these grid points. Grids facilitate object constructions, because a new line can be
joined easily to a previously drawn line by selecting any position near the endpoint grid
intersection of one end of the displayed line.
Figure 6.3: Line drawing using a grid
Spacing between grid lines is often an option that can be set by the user. Similarly, grids
can be turned on and off, and it is sometimes possible to use partial grids and grids of
different sizes in different screen areas.
6.4.4 Gravity Field
In the construction of figures, we sometimes need to connect lines at positions between

endpoints. Since exact positioning of the screen cursor at the connecting point can be
difficult, graphics packages can be designed to convert any input position near a line to a
position on the line.
This conversion of input position is accomplished by creating a gravity field area around
the line. Any selected position within the gravity field of a line is moved ("gravitated") to
the nearest position on the line. A gravity field area around a line is illustrated with the
shaded boundary shown in Fig. 6.4. Areas around the endpoints are enlarged to make it
easier for us to connect lines at their endpoints. Selected positions in one of the circular
areas of the gravity field are attracted to the endpoint in that area. The size of gravity
fields is chosen large enough to aid positioning, but small enough to reduce chances of
overlap with other lines. If many lines are displayed, gravity areas can overlap, and it
may be difficult to specify points correctly. Normally, the boundary for the gravity field
is not displayed.
Figure 6.4: Gravity field around a line. Any selected point in the shaded area is
shifted to a position on the line
6.4.5 Rubber-Band Methods
Straight lines can be constructed and positioned using rubber-band method which stretch
out a line from a starting position as the screen cursor is move Figure 6.5 demonstrates
the rubber-band method. We first select a screen position for one endpoint of the line.
Then, as the cursor moves around, the line displayed from the start position to the current
position of the cursor. When we finally select a second screen position, the other line
endpoint is set.
Figure 6.5: Rubber-band method for drawing and positioning a straight line
segment
Rubber-band methods are used to construct and position other objects besides straight
lines. Figure 6.6 demonstrates rubber-band construction of a rectangle, and Fig. 6.7
shows a rubber-band circle construction.
Figure 6.6: Rubber-band method for constructing a rectangle

Figure 6.7: Constructing a circle using a rubber-band method
6.4.6 Sketching
Options for sketching, drawing, and painting come in a variety of forms. Straight lines,
polygons, and circles can be generated with methods discussed in the previous sections.
Curve-drawing options can be provided using standard curve shapes, such as circular arcs
and splines, or with freehand sketching procedures. Splines are interactively constructed
by specifying a set of discrete screen points that give the general shape of the curve. Then
the system fits the set of points with a polynomial curve. In freehand drawing, curves are
generated by following the path of a stylus on a graphics tablet or the path of the screen
cursor on a video monitor. Once a curve is displayed, the designer can alter the curve
shape by adjusting the positions of selected points along the curve path.
Figure 6.8 Uses rubber band methods to create objects consisting of connected line
segments
Line widths, line styles, and other attribute options are also commonly found in painting
and drawing packages. Various brush styles, brush patterns, color combinations, object
shapes, and surface-texture patterns are also available on many systems, particularly
those designed as artist's workstations. Some paint systems vary the line width and brush
strokes according to the pressure of the artist's hand on the stylus.
6.4.7 Dragging
A technique that is often used in interactive picture construction is to move objects into
position by dragging them with the screen cursor. We first select an object, then move the
cursor in the direction we want the object to move, and the selected object follows the
cursor path. Dragging objects to various positions in scene is useful in applications where
we might want to explore different possibilities before selecting a final location.
6.4.8 Inking and Painting

If we sample the position of a graphical input device at regular intervals and display a dot
at each sampled position, a trail will be displayed of the movement of the device. This
technique, which closely simulates the effect of drawing on paper, is called inking. For
many years the main use of inking has been in conjunction with on-line character-
recognition programs. With the advent of high-quality raster displays the technique has
found wider use for painting purposes.
6.4.9 Painting
A raster display incorporating a random-access frame buffer, can be treated as a painting

surface for interactive purposes. As the user moves the cursor around, a trace of its path
can be left on the screen. The user can build up freehand drawings of surprisingly good
quality.
It is possible to provide a range of tools for painting on a raster display: these tools
take the form of brushes that lay down trails of different thick nesses and colors. For
example, instead of depositing a single dot at each sampled input position, the program
can insert a group of dots so as to fill in a square or circle: the result will be a much
thicker trace. On a "black-and-white display the user needs brushes that paint in both
black and white, so that information can be both added and removed (Figure 6.9). When a
color display is used for painting, a menu of different colors can be provided.
Figure 6.9: Erasing with a white brush
6.5 Summary
• An interaction technique is a way of using a physical input/output device to perform a
generic interaction task in a human-computer dialogue. It represents an abstraction of
some common class of interactive task, for example, choosing one of several objects
shown on a display screen, so it is not bound to a single application.
• The basic interaction tasks for interactive graphics are positioning, selecting, entering
text, and entering numeric quantities.
• Input functions available in a graphics package can be defined in three input modes.
Request mode places input under the control of the application program. Sample
mode allows the input devices and program to operate concurrently. Event mode
allows input devices to initiate data entry and control processing of data. Once a
mode has been chosen for a logical device class and the particular physical device to
be used to enter this class of data, input functions the program are used to enter data
values into the program. An application program can make simultaneous use of
several physical input devices operating in different modes.
• Interactive picture-construction methods are commonly used in a variety applications,

including design and painting packages. These methods provide users with the
capability to position objects, to constrain figures to predefine orientations or
alignments, to sketch figures, and to drag objects around the screen. Grids, gravity
fields, and rubber-band methods are used to aid in positioning and other picture-
construction operations.
6.6 Key Words
Positioning, Pointing, Interactive Graphics, Inking, Painting, Dragging
1. Discuss some hardware interaction devices with their advantages and disadvantages.
2. Define in precise the various interactive techniques?
3. Discuss how pointing techniques are different are different form positioning techniques.
4. Discuss the functional characteristics of light pen and mouse.
5. Write a short note on Interactive computer Graphic device?
6. Discuss the following in details
a) Rubber Band methods
b) Inking and painting
c) Dragging
d) Constrained painting
Publisher.
15. Computer Graphics (C Version), Donald Hearn and M. Pauline Baker,

Prentice Hall
Lesson: 3-D Graphics Lesson No. : 07
7.0 Objectives
• Describe three dimensional transformation and viewing and clipping
• Describe parallel and perspective projections
• Describe concept of hidden line and surface elimination methods like Z-Buffer,
Scan line, Painter’s Subdivision
• Describe Wireframe model
• Describe Bezier curves and surfaces
Structure
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Three–Dimensional Transformations
7.3 Projections
7.4 Three – Dimensional Viewing and Clipping
7.5 Wireframe Models
7.6 Bezier Curves and Surfaces
7.7 Concept of Hidden Line and Surfaces
7.8 Summary
7.9 Key Words
7.11 References/ Suggested Readings
7.1 Introduction
We now turn to transformations in three dimensions. In most cases, the mathematics of
linear transformations is easy to extend from two dimensions to three, but the discussion
here demonstrates that certain transformations, most notably rotations, are more complex
in three dimensions because there are more directions about which to rotate and because
the simple terms clockwise and counterclockwise no longer apply. We start with a short
discussion of coordinate systems in three dimensions.
In two dimensions, there is only one Cartesian coordinate system, with two
perpendicular axes labeled x and y (actually, the axes don’t have to be perpendicular, but
this is irrelevant for our discussion of transformations). A coordinate system in three
dimensions consists similarly of three perpendicular axes labeled x, y, and z, but there are
two such systems, a left-handed and a right-handed (Figure 7.1a), and they are different.
A right-handed coordinate system is constructed by the following rule. Align your right
thumb with the positive x axis and your right index finger with the positive y axis. Your
right middle finger will then point in the direction of positive z. The rule for a left-handed
system uses the left hand in a similar manner. It is also possible to define a left-handed
coordinate system as the mirror image (reflection) of a right-handed one. Notice that one
coordinate system cannot be transformed into the other by translating or rotating it. The
difference between left-handed and right-handed coordinate systems becomes important
when a three-dimensional object is projected on a two-dimensional screen. We assume
that the screen is positioned at the xy plane with its origin (i.e., its bottom left corner) at
the origin of the three-dimensional system. We also assume that the object to be projected
is located on the positive side of the z axis and the viewer is located on the negative side,
looking at the projection of the image on the screen. Figure 7.1b shows that in a left-
handed three-dimensional coordinate system, the directions of the positive x and y axes
on the screen coincide with those of the three-dimensional x and y axes. In a right-handed
system (Figure 7.1c), though, the two-dimensional x axis (on the screen) and the three-
dimensional x axis point in opposite directions.
Figure 7.1 Three Dimensional Coordinate System
7.2 Three–Dimensional Transformations

The ability to represent or display a three-dimensional object is fundamental to the
understanding of the shape of that object. Furthermore, the ability to rotate, translate, and
project views of that object is also, in many cases, fundamental to the understanding of its
shape. Manipulation, viewing, and construction of three-dimensional graphic images
require the use of three-dimensional geometric and coordinate transformations. In
geometric transformation, the coordinate system is fixed, and the desired transformation
of the object is done with respect to the coordinate system. In coordinate transformation,
the object is fixed and the desired transformation of the object is done on the coordinate
system itself. These transformations are formed by composing the basic transformations
of translation, scaling, and rotation. Each of these transformations can be represented as a
matrix transformation. This permits more complex transformations to be built up by use
of matrix multiplication or concatenation. We can construct the complex objects/pictures,
by instant transformations. In order to represent all these transformations, we need to use
homogeneous coordinates.
As with two – dimensional transformations, two complementary points of view are

adopted: either the object is manipulated directly through the use of geometric
transformation, or the object remains stationary and the viewer’s coordinate system is
changed by using coordinate transformations. In addition, the construction of complex
objects and scene is facilitated by the use of instance transformations. The concepts and
transformations introduced here are direct generalizations of these introduced in for two-
dimensional transformations.
7.2.1 Geometric Transformations
With respect to some three- dimensional coordinate system, an object Obj is considered
as a set of points.
Obj = { P ( x,y,z)}
If the object moved to a new position, we can regard it as a new object Obj’, all of whose
coordinate points P’ (x’ , y’, z’) can be obtained from the original coordinate points
P(x,y,z) of Obj through the application of a geometric transformation.
Translation
An Object is displaced a given distance and direction from its original position. The
direction and displacement of the translation is prescribed by a vector
V = aI + bJ + cK
The new coordinates of a translated point can be calculated by using the transformation
⎧ x' = x + a
⎪
Tv : ⎨ y' = y + a
⎪ z' = z + a
⎩
(see Fig. 7.2). In order to represent this transformation as a matrix transformation, we

need to use homogeneous coordinate. The required homogeneous matrix transformation
can then be expressed as
⎛ x' ⎞ ⎛ 1 0 0 a⎞ ⎛x⎞
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ y' ⎟ ⎜ 0 1 0 b⎟ ⎜ y⎟
⎜ z' ⎟ = ⎜ 0 0 1 a⎟ ⎜ z⎟
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ 1 ⎟ ⎜0 0 0 1⎟⎠ ⎜ 1⎟
⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎝ ⎠
Figure 7.2
Scaling
The process of scaling changes the dimensions of an object. The scale factor s determines
whether the scaling is a magnification, s> I , or a reduction , s< 1.
Scaling with respect to the origin, where the origin remains fixed, is offered by the
transformation
⎧ x' = Sx . x
⎪
Ssx , sy,sz : ⎨ y' = Sy . y
⎪ z' = S . z
⎩ x
In matrix form this is
⎛ Sx 0 0 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
S s x , sy , s z =⎜ 0 Sy 0 ⎟
⎜0 0 S ⎟
⎝ z ⎠
Rotation
Rotation in three dimensions is considerably more complex then rotation in two
dimensions. In 2-D, a rotation is prescribed by an angle of rotation θ and a centre of
rotation, say P.
In two dimensions, a rotation is prescribed by an angle of rotations require the

prescription of an angle of rotation and an axis of rotation. The canonical rotations are
defined when one of the positive x, y or z coordinate axes is chosen as the axis of
rotation. Then the construction of the rotation transformation proceeds just like that of a
rotation in two dimensions about the origin (see. Fig. 7.3).
Figure 7.3
Rotation about the z Axis
⎧ x' = x cosθ − y sin θ

⎪
Rθ . K : ⎨ y' = x sin θ + y cosθ
⎪ z' = z
⎩
Rotation about the y Axis
An analogous derivation leads to
⎧x' = x cosθ + z sin θ

⎪
Rθ . J : ⎨ y' = y
⎪ z' = y sin θ + z cosθ
⎩
Rotation about the x Axis
Similarly:
⎧ x' = x
⎪
Rθ . I : ⎨ y' = y cosθ − z sin θ
⎪ z' = y sin θ + z cosθ
⎩
Note that the direction of a positive angle of rotation is chosen in accordance to the right-
hand rule with respect to the axis of rotation.
The Corresponding matrix transformations are
⎛ cosθ − sin θ 0 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
Rθ , K = ⎜ sin θ cosθ 0 ⎟
⎜ 0 0 1 ⎟⎠
⎝
⎛ cosθ 0 sin θ ⎞
⎜ ⎟
Rθ , J =⎜ 0 1 0 ⎟
⎜ − sin θ 0 cosθ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
⎛1 0 0⎞
⎜ ⎟
Rθ , I = ⎜ 0 cosθ − sin θ ⎟
⎜ 0 sin θ cosθ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
The general use of rotation about an axis L can be built up from these canonical using
matrix multiplication.
7.2.2 Rotation About an Arbitrary Axis in Space
The rotation about an arbitrary axis in space occurs in robotics animation and simulation.
This is accomplished using the procedure of translations and simple rotation about the
coordinate axes. (See figure 7.4) We know the technique for rotation about a coordinate
axis. The procedural idea is to make the arbitrary rotation axis coincident with one of the
coordinate axes.
Let use assume that an arbitrary axis in space passing through the point (x0, y0, z0) with
direction cosine (Cx, Cy, Cz). Rotation about this axis by some angle is accomplished
using the following procedure i.e.
y y’
x’
z’
Figure 7.4
1. Translate the body so that the point (x0, y0, z0) is reached at the origin of the
coordinate system.
2. Do appropriate rotations to make the axis of rotation coincident with the z-axis (the
selection of z-axis is arbitrary we can choose any axis).
3. Rotate the body by the angle about the z-axis.
4. Do the inverse of the combined rotation transformation.
5. Now perform the inverse of the translation.
Now our aim to make the arbitrary rotation axis coincident with the z-axis (It is an
arbitrary choice we can choose any axis), For this first rotate about the x-axis and them
about the y-axis.
To find the value of rotation angle about x-axis used to place the arbitrary axis in the xz-
plane, now first project the unit vector along the axis onto the yz-plane as shown in
fig 7.5 (a).
z
z
Cy
Cx
d
d β
α P(Cx, 0, d)
P Cz 1
0
d
y y
Cx
x x
(a) (b)
Figure 7.5 (a) Rotation about x-axis), (b) Rotation about y-axis
The projected component of the y and z vectors are Cy and Cz and the direction cosine of
the unit vector along the arbitrary axis. from the fig (a) we note that -
2 2
d = ÖCy + Cz - - - (1)
and
Cz Cy
cosα = sinα = - - - (2)

d d
After completion of rotation about the x-axis into the xz-plane the z-component of the
unit vector is d and the x-component is Cx and the direction cosine in the x-direction i.e.
shown in fig 7.5(b). We know the length of the unit vector is 1 (one). The rotation angle b
about the y-axis required to make the arbitrary axis coincident with z-axis is -
cosβ = d and sinβ = Cx - - - (3)
Now the total transformation or composite transformation is then.
[T] = [Tr] [Rx] [Ry] [Rd] [Ry]-1 [Rx]-1 [Tr]-1 - - - (4)
1 0 0 0
where 0 1 0 0
[Tr] = 0 0 1 0 - - - (5)
-x0 -y0 -z0 1
Tr is the translation matrix
Rx is the rotation matrix about x-axis
1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
[Rx] = 0 cosα sinα 0 0 Cx/d Cy/d 0 -(7)

0 -sinα cosα 0 0 -Cy/d Cz/d 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
Ry is the rotation matrix about y-axis is -

cos(-β) 0 -sin(-β) 0 d 0 Cx 0
[Ry] = 0 1 0 0 = 0 1 0 0 (7)
sin(-β) 0 cos(-β) 0 -Cx 0 d 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
cosd sind 0 0
and Rd = -sind cosd 0 0 - - - (8)
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
Rd is the rotation about the arbitrary axis is given by z-axis.
Now we take a second point on the axis i.e. (x1 y1 z1) to find the direction cosine
i.e.
[(x1 - x0) (y1 - y0) (z1 - z0)]
[cx cy cz] =
[(x1 - x0)2 + (y1 - y0)2 + (z1 - z0)2] 1/2
7.2.3 Coordinate Transformations
We can also achieve the effects of translation, scaling , and rotation by moving the
observer who views the object and by keeping the object stationary. This type of
transformation is called a coordinate transformation. We first attach a coordinate system
to the observer and then move the observer and the attached coordinate system. Next, we
recalculate the coordinates of the observed object with respect to this new observer
coordinate system. The new coordinate values will be exactly the same as if the observer
had remained stationary and the object had moved, corresponding to a geometric
transformation(see Fig. 7.6).
Figure 7.6
If the displacement of the observer coordinate system to a new position is prescribed by a

vector V = a1 + bj + cK , a point P9x,y,z) in the original coordinate system has
coordinate P(x’,y’,z’) in the new coordinate system, and
⎧ x' = x − a
⎪
T v : ⎨ y' = y − b
⎪ z' = z − c
⎩
The derivation of this transformation is completely analogous to that of the two-

dimensional transformation.
Similar derivations hold for coordinate scaling and coordinate rotation transformations.
As in the two-dimensional case , we summarize the relationships between the matrix

forms of the coordinate transformations and the geometric transformations:
Coordinate Transformations Geometric Transformations
Translation Tv T–v
Rotation Rθ R–
Scaling Ssx , sx ,sz S1/sx,1/sy,1/sz
Inverse geometric and coordinate transformations are constructed by performing the

reverse operation. Thus, for coordinate transformations (and similarly for geometric
transformation):
−1 −1 −1
T v = T −v Rθ = R −θ Ssx ,sy ,sz = S1 / x x ,1 / sy ,1 / sz
7.2.4 Composite Transformations
More complex geometric and coordinate transformations are formed through the process
of composition of functions. For matrix function, however, the process of composition is
equivalent to matrix multiplication or concatenation. The following more complex
transformations can be constructed :
1. AV,N = Aligning a vector V with a vector N.
2. Rθ,L = rotation about an axis is prescribed by giving a direction vector V and a point
P through which the axis passes.
3. SSx,Sy,Sz,P = scaling with respect to an arbitrary point P.
In order to build these more complex transformations through matrix connection, we

must be able to multiply translation matrices with rotation and sealing matrices. This
necessitates the use of homogeneous coordinates and 4 x 4 matrices. This necessitates the
use of homogeneous coordinates and 4 x 4 matrices. The standard 3 x 3 matrices of
rotation and scaling can be represented as 4 x 4 homogeneous matrices by adjoining an
extra row and column as follows:
⎛a b c 0⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜d e f 0⎟
⎜g h i 0⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜0 0 0 1⎟⎠
⎝
These transformations are then applied to points P ( x, y., z, ) having the homogeneous
form:
⎛x⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜ y⎟
⎜ z⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ 1⎟
⎝ ⎠
7.3 Projections
Once world-coordinate descriptions of the objects in a scene are converted to viewing
coordinates, we can project the three-dimensional objects onto the two-dimensional view
plane. There are two basic projection methods. In a parallel projection, coordinate
positions are transformed to the view plane along parallel lines, as shown in the example
of Fig. 7.7. For a perspective projection (Fig. 7.8), object positions are transformed to the
view plane along lines that converge to a point called the projection reference point (or
center of projection). The projected view of an object is determined by calculating the
intersection of the projection lines with the view plane.
Figure 7.7: Parallel projection of an object to the view plane
Figure 7.8: Perspective projection of an object to the view plane
A parallel projection preserves relative proportions of objects, and this is the method used
in drafting to produce scale drawings of three-dimensional objects. Accurate views of the
various sides of an object are obtained with a parallel projection, but this does not give us
a realistic representation of the appearance of a three-dimensional object. A perspective
projection, on the other hand, produces realistic views but does not preserve relative
proportions. Projections of distant objects are smaller than the projections of objects of
the same size that are closer to the projection plane.
7.3.1 Parallel Projections
1. Orthographic. The projection of a point by a projector parallel to the ith

co-ordinate axis onto a viewplane containing the other two axes is obtained by setting the
ith co-ordinate to zero.
Hence to project in the direction of the z-axis onto the xy plane can be carried out by:
scale(1.0.1.0,0.0)
2.Axonometric. The required transformation is produced in two stages, firstly the

direction of projection is rotated until it aligns with one of the co-ordinate axes and then
an orthographic projection along that axis is carried out.
For example in the isometric case the direction of projection must be symmetric with
respect to the three co-ordinate directions to allow equal foreshortening on each axis.
This is obviously achieved by using a direction of projection (1,1,1).
3.Oblique. It is usual to take the viewplane parallel to a face of the object. This face
(and these parallel to it) will remain undistorted(figure 7.9).
Figure 7.9
Assume that the viewplane is the xy plane and that in the required image the
foreshortening factor in the z direction is l and lines parallel to the z-axis make an angle
of alpha with the x-axis. Thus a cube of side l would appear in the image as
follows(figure 7.10):
Figure 7.10
In the image the point P is (lcos(alpha),lsin(alpha)), but this corresponds to the point
(0,0,-1) in three-dimensions hence the required transformation in matrix form using
homogeneous co-ordinates is:
which is a shear transformation. If l = 1 then it is called a Cavalier projection and if l =

½ then it is called a Cabinet projection.
7.3.2 Perspective Projections
In the following it is assumed that the Centre of Projection is at the origin and that the
viewplane is normal to the z-axis at a distance d from the origin(figure 7.11). This is the
situation that holds after view orientation and view mapping.
Figure 7.11
Using similar triangles gives:
Using homogeneous co-ordinates this can be expressed as follows:
where
that is:
hence dividing by the homogeneous term W gives:

which gives the projected point as previously and also gives z' = d as required.
From
it is seen that if x and y remain constant x'-> 0 and y'->0 while z->infinity, i.e. lines
parallel to the z-axis converge to the vanishing point (0,0) in the viewplane. If the
viewplane cuts two axes then two vanishing points result while if it cuts three axes then
three vanishing points will result.
7.4 Three – Dimensional Viewing and Clipping
An important step in photography is to position and aim the camera at the scene in order
to compose a picture. This parallel the specification of 3D viewing parameters in
computer graphics that prescribe the projector (the center of projection for perspective
projection or the direction of projection for parallel projection) along with the position
and orientation of the projection / view plane.
In addition, a view volume defines the spatial extent that is visible through a rectangular
window in the view plane. The bounding surfaces of this view volume is used to tailor /
clip the objects that have been placed in the scene via modeling transformations prior to
viewing . The clipped objects are then projected into the window area, resulting in a
specific view of the 3D scene that can be further mapped to the view-port in the NDCS.
In this chapter we are concerned with the specification of 3D viewing parameters,

including a viewing coordinate system for defining the view plane window, and the
formation of the corresponding view volume. We also discuss 3D clipping strategies and
algorithms. We then summarize the three-dimensional viewing process. Finally, we
examine the operational the organization of a typical 3D graphics pipeline.
7.4.1 Three – Dimensional Viewing

Three – dimensional viewing of objects requires the specification of a projection plane
(called the view plane), a center of projection, and a view volume in world coordinates.
Specifying the View Plane
We specify the view plane by prescribing (1) a reference point R0 (x0, y0, z0) in world
coordinates and (2) a unit normal vector N = n1I + n2J + n3K, |N|= 1, to the view plane.
From this information we can construct the projections used in presenting the required
view with respect to the given viewpoint or direction of projection.
Figure: 7.12
View Plane Coordinates
The view plane coordinates system or viewing coordinate system can be specified as
follows; (1) let the reference point R0 (x0, y0, z0) be the origin of the coordinates system
and ( 2) determine the coordinate axes To do this we first choose a reference vector U
called the up vector. A unit vector Jq define the direction of the positive q axis for the
view plane coordinate system . To calculate Jq we proceed as follows: with N being the
view plane unit normal vector , let Uq = U – ( N – U) N Then
Uq
Jq =
Uq
Is the unit vector that defines the direction of the positive q axis (see Fig. 7.13)
Figure 7.13
Finally, the direction vector Ip of the positive p axis is chosen so that it is perpendicular to
Jq and by convention, so that the triad Ip,Jq, and N form a left – handed coordinate system
. That is :
N × Jp
Ip =
N × Jp
This coordinate system is called the view plane coordinate system or viewing coordinate
system. A left-handed system is traditionally chosen so that, if one thinks of the view
plane as the face of a display device, then with the p and q coordinate axes superimposed
on the display device, the normal vector N will point away from an observer facing the
display. Thus the direction of increasing distance away from the observer is measured
along N [ see Fig. 7.14(a)].
Figure 7.14
Specifying the View Volume
The view volume bounds a region in world coordinate space that will be clipped and
projected onto the view plane. To define a view volume that projects onto a specified
rectangular window defined in the view plane, we use view plane coordinates (p, q)v to
locate points on the view plane. Then a rectangular view plane window is defined by
prescribing the coordinates of the lower left-hand corner L(pmin, qmin)v and upper right
hand corner R(pmax, qmax)v (see Fig. 7.15). We can use the vectors Ip and Jq to find the
equivalent world coordinates of L and R.
For a perspective , view the view volume, corresponding , to the given window , is a
semi-infinite pyramid, with apex at the viewpoint (Fig. 7.16). For views created using
parallel projections ( Fig. 7.17) the view volume is an infinite parallelepiped with sides
parallel to the direction of projection.
Figure 7.15 Figure 7.16
Figure 7.17
Clipping against a Finite View Volume
The view volumes created above are infinite in extent. In practice, we prefer to use a
finite volume to limit the number of points to be projected. In addition, for perspective
views, very distant objects from the view plane, when projected, appear as
indistinguisliable spots, while objects very close to the center of projection appear to
have disjointed structure. This is another reason for using a finite view volume.
A finite volume is deliminated by using front (near) and back ( far) clipping planes
parallel to the view plane. These planes are specified by giving the front distance f and
back distance b relative to the view plane reference point Ro and measured along the
normal vector N. The signed distance b and f can be positive or negative (Figs. 7.18 and
7.19).
Figure 7.18
Figure 7.19
7.4.2 Three Dimensional-Clipping
Two differing strategies have been devised to deal with the extraordinary computational
effort required for three-dimensional clipping:
1. Direct clipping: In this method, as the name suggests, clipping is done directly
against the view volume.
2. Canonical clipping: In this method, normalizing transformations are applied which

transform the original view volume into a so-called canonical view volume.
Clipping is then performed against the canonical view volume.
The canonical view volume for parallel projection is the unit cube whose faces are
defined by the planes x = 0, x = 1, y = 1, z = 0, and z = 1. The corresponding
normalization transformation Npar is constructed (See Figure 7.20).
Figure 7.20
The canonical view volume for perspective projection is the truncated pyramid whose
faces are defined by the planes x = z, x = -z, y = z , y = -z, z = zf, and z = 1 ( where zf is
to be calculated) (Fig. 7.21).
Figure 7.21
The basis of the canonical clipping strategy is the fact that the computations involved
such operations as finding the intersections of a line segment with the planes forming the
faces of the canonical view volume are minimal. This is balanced by the overhead
involved in transforming points many of which will be subsequently clipped.
For perspective views, additional clipping may be required to avoid the perspective
anomalies produced by projecting objects that are behind the viewpoint.
Clipping Algorithms
Three – dimensional clipping algorithms are often direct adaptations of their two-
dimensional counter parts. The modifications necessary arise from the fact that we are
now clipping against the six. Faces of the view volume, which are planes, as opposed to
the four edges of the two – dimensional window, which are lines
1. Finding the intersection of a line and a plane.
2. Assigning region codes to the endpoints of line segments for the Cohen-Sutherland
algorithm.
3. Deciding when a point is to the right (also said to be outside ) or to the left (inside)
of a plane for the Sutherland – Hodgman algorithm.
4. Determining the inequalities for points inside the view volume.

7.5 Wireframe Models
A wireframe model consists of edges, vertices, and polygons. Here vertices are connected
by edges, and polygons are sequences of vertices or edges. The edges may be curved or
straight line segments. In the latter case, the wireframe model is called a polygonal net or
polygonal mesh (Fig. 7.22).
Figure 7.22
7.5.1 Representing a Polygonal Net Model
There are several different ways of representing a polygonal net model.
1. Explicit vertex list V = {P0, P1, P2, …..PN). The points Pi(xi, yi, zi) are the vertices of
the polygonal net, stored in the order in which they would be encountered by
traveling around the model . Although this form of representation is useful for single
polygons, it is quite inefficient for a complete polygonal net, in that shared vertices
are repeated several times. In addition when displaying the model by drawing the
edges, shared edges are drawn several times.
2. Polygon listing . In this form of representation , each vertex is stored exactly once in
a vertex list V = (P0 ….PN), and each polygon is defined by pointing or indexing into
this vertex list. Again , shared edges are drawn several times in displaying the
model.
3. Explicit edge listing . In this form of representation, we keep a vertex list in which
each vertex is stored exactly once and an edge list in which each edge is stored
exactly once. Each edge in the edge list points to the two vertices in the vertex list
which define that edge. A polygon is now represented as a list of pointers or indices
into the edge list. Additional information, such as those polygon sharing a given
edge, can also be stored in the edge list. Explicit edge listing can be used to
represent the more general wireframe model. The wireframe model is displayed by
drawing all the edges, and each edge is drawn only once.
7.5.2 Polyhedron
A polyhedron is a closed polygonal net (i.e. one which encloses a define volume) in
which each polygon is planar. The polygon are called the faces of the polyhedron . In
modeling, polyhedrons are quite often treated as solid (i.e. block) objects as opposed to
wireframes or two –dimensional surfaces.
7.5.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Wireframe Models
Wireframe models are used in engineering applications. They are easy to construct and ,
if they are compound of straight lines, easy to clip and manipulate through the use of
geometric and coordinate transformations. However, for building realistic models,
especially of highly curved objects, we must use a very large number of polygons to
achieve the illusions of roundness and smoothness.
7.6 Bezier Curves and Surfaces
This spline approximation method was developed by the French engineer Pierre Bezier
for use in the design of Renault automobile bodies. Bezier splines have a number of
properties that make them highly useful and convenient for curve and surface design.
They are also easy to implement. For these reasons, Bezier splines are widely available in
various cad systems, in general graphics packages (such as GL on silicon graphics
systems), and in assorted drawing and painting pack-ages (such as Aldus superPaint and
cricket draw).
7.6.1 Bezier Curves

Bezier curves are used in computer graphics to produce curves which appear reasonably
smooth at all scales. This spline approximation method was developed by French
engineer Pierre Bezier for automobile body design. Bezier spline was designed in such a
manner that they are very useful and convenient for curve and surface design, and are
easy to implement Curves are trajectories of moving points. We will specify them as
functions assigning a location of that moving point (in 2D or 3D) to a parameter t, i.e.,
parametric curves.
Curves are useful in geometric modeling and they should have a shape which has a clear
and intuitive relation to the path of the sequence of control points. One family of curves
satisfying this requirement are Bezier curve.
The Bezier curve require only two end points and other points that control the endpoint
tangent vector.
Bezier curve is defined by a sequence of N + 1 control points, P0, P1,. . . , Pn. We defined
the Bezier curve using the algorithm (invented by DeCasteljeau), based on recursive
splitting of the intervals joining the consecutive control points.
A purely geometric construction for Bezier splines which does not rely on any
polynomial formulation, and is extremely easy to understand. The DeCasteljeau method
is an algorithm which performs repeated bi-linear interpolation to compute splines of any
order.
De Casteljeau algorithm: The control points P0, P1, P2 and P3are joined with line
segments called ‘control polygon’, even though they are not really a polygon but rather a
polygonal curve.
Figure 23
Each of them is then divided in the same ratio t : 1- t, giving rise to the another points.
Again, each consecutive two are joined with line segments, which are subdivided and so
on, until only one point is left. This is the location of our moving point at time t. The
trajectory of that point for times between 0 and 1 is the Bezier curve.
A simple method for constructing a smooth curve that followed a control polygon p with
m-1 vertices for small value of m, the Bezier techniques work well. However, as m grows
large (m>20) Bezier curves exhibit some undesirable properties.
Figure 24(a) Bezier curve defined by its endpoint vector (b) All sort of curves can be
specified with different direction vectors at end points
Figure 24(c ) Reflex curves appear when you set the vectors in different
directions
In general, a Bezier curve section can be fitted to any number of control points. The
number of control points to be approximated and their relative positions determine the
degree of the Bezier polynomial. As with the interpolation splines, a Bezier curve can be
specified with boundary conditions, with a characterizing matrix, or with blending
function. For general Bezier curves, the blending-function specification is the most
convenient.
7.6.2 Bezier Surfaces
Two sets of orthogonal Bezier curves can be used to design an object surface by
specifying by an input mesh of control points. The parametric vector function for the
Bezier surface is formed as the Cartesian product of Bezier blending functions:
m n
P(u, v ) = ∑ ∑ Pj ,kBEZj ,mBEZj, m(v)BEZk, n(u)
j =o k= o
With P j,k specifying the location of the (m + 1) by (n + 1) control points.
Figure 7.25 illustrates two Bezier surface plots. The control points are connected by
dashed lines, and the solid lines show curves of constant a and constant v. Each curve of
constant a is plotted by varying v over the interval from 0 to 1, with u fixed at one of the
values in this unit interval. Curves of constant v are plotted similarly.
Figure 7.25: Bezier surfaces constructed for (a) m = 3, n = 3, and (b) m = 4, n = 4.
Dashed lines connect the control points
Bezier surfaces have the same properties as Bezier curves, and they provide a convenient
method for interactive design applications. For each surface patch, we can select a mesh
of control points in the xy "ground" plane, then we choose elevations above the ground
plane for the z-coordinate values of the control points. Patches can then be pieced
together using the boundary constraints.
Figure 7.26 illustrates a surface formed with two Bezier sections. As with curves, a
smooth transition from one section to the other is assured by establishing both zero-order
and first-order continuity at the boundary line. Zero-order continuity is obtained by
matching control points at the boundary. First-order continuity is obtained by choosing
control points along a straight line across the boundary and by maintaining a constant
ratio of collinear line segments for each set of specified control points across section
boundaries.
Figure 7.26: A composite Bezier surface constructed with two Bezier sections, joined
at the indicated boundary line. The dashed lines connect specified control points.
First-order continuity is established by making the ratio of length L1 to length L2
constant for each collinear Line of control points across the boundary between the
surface sections.
7.7 Concept of Hidden Line and Surfaces
7.7.1 Hidden Surfaces
Opaque objects that are closer to the eye and in the line of sight of other objects will
block those objects those objects from view. In fact, some surfaces of these opaque
objects themselves are not
Visible because they are eclipsed by the objects' visible parts. The surfaces that are
blocked or hidden from view must be "removed" in order to construct a realistic view of
the 3D scene The identification and removal of these surfaces is called the hidden –
surface problem. The solution involves the determination of the closest visible surface
along each projection line.
There are many different hidden –surface algorithms. Each can be characterized as either
an image-space method, in which the pixel grid is used to guide the computational
activities that determine visibility at the pixel level, or an object-space method, in which
surface visibility is determined using continuous models in the object space (or its
transformation) without involving pixel based operations.
Notice that the hidden – surface problem has ties to the calculation of shadows. If we
place a light source, such as a bulb, at the viewpoint, all surfaces that are visible from the
viewpoint are lit directly by the light source and all surfaces that are hidden from the
viewpoint are in the shadow of some opaque objects blocking the light.
Depth Comparisons
We assume that all coordinates (x,y,z,) are described in the normalized viewing
coordinates system.
Any hidden-surface algorithm must determine which edges and surfaces are visible either
from the center of projection for perspective projections or along the direction of
projection for parallel projections.
The question of visibility reduces to this : given two points P1 (x1, y1, z1) and P2 (x2, y2,
z2), does either point obscure the other? This is answered in two steps:
1 Are P1 and P2 on the same projection line?
2 If not, neither point obscures the other. If so, a depth comparison tells us which point
is in front of the other.
For an orthographic parallel projection onto the xy plane, P1 and P2 are on the same
projector if
x1 = x2 and y1 = y2. In this case, depth comparison reduces to comparing z1 and z2. If z1 <
z2, then P1 obscures P2 [see Fig. 7.27(a)].
Figure 7.27
For a perspective projection [see. Fig. 7.27 (b)], the calculations are more complex.
However, this complication can be avoided by transforming all-three dimensional objects
so that parallel projection of the transformed object is equivalent to a perspective
projection of the original object (see Fig. 7.28). This is done with the use of the
perspective to parallel transform Tp.
If the original object lies in the normalized perspective view volume, the normalized
perspective to parallel transform
⎛1 1 ⎞
⎜ 0 0 ⎟
⎜2 2 ⎟
⎜ 1 1 ⎟
⎜0 0 ⎟
NT p = ⎜ 2 2
⎟
⎜0 1 −z ⎟
0
⎜ 1− zf 1− zf ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜0 0 1 0 ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Figure 7.28
(where zf is the location of the front clipping plane of the normalized perspective view
volume) transforms the normalized perspective view volume into the unit cube bounded
by 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1, 0 ≤ z ≤ 1. We call this cube the normalized display space. A
critical fact is that the normalized perspective to parallel transform preserves lines,
planes, and depth relationships.
If our display device has display coordinates H x V, application of the scaling matrix
⎛H 0 0 0⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜0 V 0 0⎟
SH ,V ,1 =⎜
0 0 1 0⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜0 0 0 1⎟⎠
⎝
transforms the normalized display space 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1, 0 ≤ z ≤ 1 onto the

region 0 ≤ x ≤ H, 0 ≤ y ≤ V, 0 ≤ z ≤ 1. We call this region the display space. The
display transform DTp.
DTp = SH,V,1 . NTp
transforms the normalized perspective view volume onto the display space.
Clipping must be done against the normalized perspective view volume prior to applying
the transform NTp. An alternative to this is to combine NTp with normalizing
transformation Nper, forming the single transformation NT’p = NTp.Nper. Then clipping is
done in homogeneous coordinate space.
We now describe several algorithms for removing hidden surfaces from scenes
containing objects defined with planar (i.e., flat), polygonal faces. We assumed that the
displays transform DTp has been applied (if a perspective projection is being used), so
that we always deal with parallel projections in display space.
7.7.2 Hidden Line/ Surface Elimination Methods
Although there are special-purpose hidden –line algorithms, each of the above algorithms
can be modified to eliminate hidden lines or edges. This is especially useful for wire
frame polygonal models where the polygons are unfilled. The idea is to use a color rule,
which fills all the polygons with the background color – say the edges and lines a
different color – say white. The use of a hidden surface algorithm now becomes a hidden
–line algorithm.
Z – Buffer Algorithm
We say that a point in display space is “ seen” from pixel (x,y) if the projection of the
point is scan converted to this pixel. The Z-buffer algorithm essentially keeps track of the
smaller z coordinate (also called the depth value) of those point which are seen from
pixel (x,y). These Z values are stored in what is called the Z buffer.
Let Zbuf (x, y) denote the current depth value that is stored in the Z buffer at pixel (x, y).
We work with the (already) projected polygons P of the scene to be rendered.
The Z-buffer algorithm consists of the following steps.
1. Initialize the screen to a background color. Initialize the Z buffer to the depth of the
back clipping plane. That is, set
Zbuf (x, y) = Zback, for every pixel (x, y)

2. Scan-convert each (projected) polygon P in the scene and during this scan–
conversion process, for each pixel (x, y) that lies inside the polygon.
a. Calculate Z (x,y) the depth of the polygon at pixel (x, y).
b. If Z (x,y) < Zbuf (x, y), set Zbuf(x,y) = Z(x,y), and set the pixel value at (x, y) to
the color of the polygon P at (x,y). In Fig. 7.40, points P1 and P2 are both scan-
converted to pixel (x, y); however, since z1 < z2, P1 will obscure P2 and the P1 z
value z1, will be stored in the Z buffer.
Figure 7.29
Although the Z-buffer algorithm requires Z-buffer storage proportional to the number of
pixels on the screen, it does not require additional memory for storing all the objects
comprising the scene. In fact, since the algorithm process polygons one at a time, the total
number of objects in a scene can be arbitrarily large.
Back-Face Removal
Object surfaces that are oriented away from the viewer are called back-faces. The back-
faces of an opaque polyhedron are completely blocked by the polyhedron itself and
hidden from view. We can therefore identify and remove these back-faces based solely o
their orientation without further processing (projection and scan-conversion) and without
regard to other surfaces and objects in the scene.
Let N = (A,B,C) be the normal vector of a planar polygonal face, with N pointing in the
direction the polygon is facing. Since the direction of viewing is the direction of the
positive z axis (see Fig. 7.30), the polygon is facing away from the viewer when C > 0,
(the angle between N and the z axis is less than 90°). The polygon is also classified as a
back-face when C =0 since in this case it is parallel to the line of sight and its projection
is either hidden as a back-face when C = 0, since in this case it is parallel to the line of
sight and its projection is either hidden or overlapped by the edge(s) of some visible
polygon(s).
Although this method identifies or removes back-faces quickly it does not handle
polygons that face the viewer but are hidden (partially or completely) behind other
surfaces. It can be used as a preprocessing step for other algorithms.
The Painter’s Algorithm
Also called the depth sort or priority algorithm, the painter`s algorithm processes
polygons as if they were been painted onto the view plane in the order of their distance
from the viewer. More distance polygons are painted first. Nearer polygons are painted
on or over more distance polygons, partially or totally obscuring them from view. The
key to implementing this concept is to find a priority ordering of the polygons in order to
determine which polygons are to be painted (i.e. scan-converted) first.
Any attempt at a priority ordering based on depth sorting alone results in ambiguities that
must be resolved in order to correctly assign priorities. For example, when two polygons
overlap, how do we decide which one obscures the other? (See. Fig. 7.30).
Figure 7.30
Assigning Priorities
We assign priorities to polygons by determining if a given polygon P obscures other

polygon. If the answer is no, then P should be painted first. Hence the key test is to
determine whether polygon P does not obscure polygon Q.
The z extent of a polygon is the region between the planes z = zmin and z = zmax (Fig.
7.31).Here
zmin is the smallest of the z coordinates of all the polygon`s vertices, and zmax is the
largest.
Similar definitions hold for the x and y extents of a polygon. The intersection of the x, y,
and z, extents is called the extent, or bounding box, of the polygon
Figure 7.31
Testing Whether P Obscures Q
Polygon P does not obscure polygon Q if any one of the following tests, applied in
sequential order, is true.
Test 0 : the z extents of P and Q do not overlap and zQ max of Q is smaller than z p max of
P. Refer to Fig. 7.32.
Test 1 : The y extents of P and Q do not overlap, Refer to Fig. 7.33.

Test 2 : The x extents of P and Q do not overlap.
Figure 7.32
Figure 7.33
Test 3 : All the vertices of P lie on that side of the plane containing Q which is
farthest from the viewpoint. Refer to Fig. 7.34.
Figure 7.34
Test 4: All the vertices of Q lie on that side of the plane containing P which is
closest to the viewpoint. Refer to Fig. 7.35.
Figure 7.35
Test 5 : The projections of the polygons P and Q onto the view plane do not
overlap. This is checked by comparing each edge of one polygon against
each edge of the other polygon to search for intersections.
The Algorithm
1. Sort all polygons into a polygon list according to z max (the largest z coordinate of
each polygon`s vertices). Starting from the end of the list, assign priorities for each
polygon P, in order, as describes in steps 2 and 3 (below).
2. Find all polygons Q (proceeding P) in the polygon list whose z extents overlap that
of P (test 0).
3. For each Q, perform tests 1 through 5 until true.
a. If every Q passes, scan-convert polygon P.
b. If false for some Q, swap P and Q on the list. Tag Q as swapped. If Q has
already been tagged, use the plane containing polygon P to divide polygon Q
into two polygons. Q1 and Q2. Remove Q from the list and place Q1 and Q2 on
the list, in sorted order.
Sometimes the polygons are subdivided into triangles before processing, thus reducing
the computational effort for polygon subdivision in step 3.
Scan – Line Algorithm
A scan-line algorithm consists essentially of two nested loops, an x–scan loop nested
within a
y-scan loop.
y-Scan
For each y value, say y = α , interested the polygons to be rendered with the scan plane y
= α . This scan plane is parallel to the xz plane, and the resulting intersections are line
segments in this plane (see Fig. 7.36).
Figure 7.36
x-scan
1. For each x value, say x = f, intersect the line segments found above with the x scan
line
x = β lying on the y–scan plane. This intersection results in a set of points that lies
on the
x–scan line.
2. Sort these points with respect to their z coordinates. The point (x,y,z) with the
smallest z value is visible, and the color of the polygon containing this point is the
color set at the pixel corresponding to this point.
In order to reduce the amount of calculation in each scan –line loop, we try to take
advantage of relationships and dependencies, called coherences, between different
elements that comprise a scene.
Types of Coherence
1. Scan-line coherence: If a pixel on a scan line lies within a polygon, near it will most
likely lie within the polygon.
2. Edge coherence: If an edge of a polygon intersects a given scan line, it will not
likely intersect scan lines near the given one.
3. Area coherence: A small area of an image will most likely lie within a single
polygon.
4. Spatial coherence: Certain properties of an object can be determined by examining

the extent of the object, that is, a geometric figure which circumscribes the given
object. Usually the extent is a rectangle or rectangle solid (also called a bounding
box).
Scan-line coherence and edge coherence are both used to advantage in scan–converting
polygons.
Spatial coherence is often used as a preprocessing step. For example, when determining
whether polygons intersect, we can eliminate those polygons that don`t intersect by
finding the rectangular extent of each polygon and checking whether the extents intersect
– a much simpler problem (see Fig. 7.36). Note in Fig. 7.37) objects A and B do not
intersect; however, objects A and C and B and C, do intersection. For example, the edge
of object A is at coordinate P3 = (7,4) and the edge of object B is at coordinate P4 = (7,3)
]. Of course, even if the extents intersect, this does not guarantee that the polygons
intersect. See Fig. 7.38 and note that the extents A` and B` overlap even though the
polygon do not.
Figure 7.37
Figure: 7.38
Coherences can simplify calculations by making them incremental, as opposed to

absolute.
A Scan – line Algorithm
In the following algorithm, scan line and edge coherence are used to enhance the
processing done in the y-scan as follows. Since the y-scan loop constructs a list of
potentially visible line segments, instead of reconstructing this list each time the y–scan
line changes (absolute calculation), we keep the list and update it according to how it has
changed (incremental calculation). This processing is facilitated by the use of what is
called the edge list, and its efficient construction and maintenance is at the heart of the
algorithm, under “ a scan-line Algorithm”).
The following data structure are created:

1. The edge list – contains all non horizontal edges (horizontal edges are automatically
displayed) or the projections of the polygons in the scene. The edges are sorted by
the edge`s smaller y coordinate (ymin). Each edge entry in the edge list also contain.
a. The x coordinates of the end of the edge with the smaller y

coordinate.
b. The y coordinate of the edge`s other end (ymax).
c. The increment Δx = 1/m.
d. A pointer indicating the polygon to which the edge belongs.
2. The polygon list – for each polygon, contains
a. The equation of the plane within which the polygon lies – used for depth
determination, i.e., to find the z value at pixel (x, y,).
b. An IN/OUT flag, initialized to OUT (this flag is set depending on whether

a given scan line is in or out of the polygon).
c. Color information for the polygon.
The algorithm proceeds as follows.
I. Initialization
a. Initialize each screen pixel to a background color.
b. Set y to the smallest y min value in the edge list.
Repeat steps II and III (below) until further processing can be performed.
II. y-scan loop. Activate edges whose y min is equal to y. Sort active edges in order of
increasing x.
III. x – scan loop. Process, from left to right, each active edge as follows:
a. Invert the IN / OUT flag of the polygon in the polygon list which contains
the edge. Count the number of active polygon whose IN/OUT flag is set to IN.
If this number is I, only one polygon is visible. All pixel values from this edge
and up to the next edge are set to the color of then polygon. If this number is
greater than 1, determine the visible polygon by the smallest z value of each
polygon at the pixel under consideration. These z values are found from the
equation of the plane containing the polygon, unless the polygon becomes
obscured by another before the next edge is reached, in which case we set the
remaining pixels to the color of the obscuring polygon. If this number is 0,
pixels from this edge and up to the next one are left unchanged.
b. When the last active edge is processed, we then proceed as follows

:
1. Remove those edges for which the value of y max equals the present scan-
line value y. If no edges remain, the algorithm has finished.
2. For each remaining active edge, in order, replace x by x + 1/ m. This is the

edge intersection with the next scan line y + 1.
3. Increment y to y + 1, the next scan line, and repeat step II.
Subdivision Algorithm
The subdivision algorithm is a recursive procedure based on a two – step strategy that
first decides which projected polygons overlap a given area A on the screen and are
therefore potentially visible in that area. Second, in each area these polygons are further
tested to determine which ones will be visible within this area and should therefore be
displayed. If a visibility decision cannot be made, this screen area, usually a rectangular
window, is further subdivided either until a visibility decision can be made, or until the
screen area is a single pixel.
Starting with the full screen as the initial area, the algorithm divides an area at each stage
into four smaller areas, thereby generating a quad tree (see Fig. 7.39).
Figure 7.39
The processing exploits area coherence by classifying polygon P with respect to a given
screen A into the following categories ; (1) surrounding polygon – polygon that
completely contains the area [Fig.7.40(a)], (2) intersecting polygon – polygon that
intersects the area [ Fig. 7.40(b)], (3) contained polygon – polygon that is completely
contained within the area [ Fig. 7.40(c)], and (4) disjoint polygon – polygon that is
disjoint from the area [ Fig. 7.40 (d)].
Figure 7.40
The Classification of the polygons within a picture is the main computational expense of
the algorithm and is analogous to the clipping algorithms discussed in. With the use of
one of these clipping algorithms, a polygon in category 2 (intersecting polygon) can be
clipped into a contained polygon and a disjoint polygon (see Fig. 7.41). Therefore, we
could proceed as if category 2 were eliminated.
Figure 7.41
For a given screen area, we keep a potentially visible polygons list (PVPL), those in
categories 1,2, and 3 (Disjoint polygons are clearly not visible). Also, note that on
subdivision of a screen area, surrounding and disjoint polygons remain surrounding and
disjoint polygons of the newly formed areas. Therefore, only contained and interesecting
polygons need to be reclassified.
Removing Polygons Hidden by a Surrounding Polygon
The key to efficient visibility computation lies in the fact that a polygon is not visible if it
is in back of a surrounding polygon. Therefore, it can be removed from the PVPL. To
facilitate processing, this list is sorted by zmin, the smallest z coordinate of the polygon
within this area. In addition for each surrounding polygon S, we also record its largest z
coordinate zs man .
If, for a polygon P on the list zp > zs man (for a surrounding polygon S), then P is hidden
min
by S and thus is not visible. In addition, all other polygons after P on the list will also be
hidden by S, so we can remove these polygons from the PVPL.
Subdivision Algorithm
1. Initialize the area to be whole screen.

2. Create a PVPL with respect to an area sorted on z min (the smallest z coordinate of
the polygon within the area). Place the polygons in their appropriate categories.
Remove polygons hidden by a surrounding polygon and remove disjoint polygons.
3. Perform the visibility decision tests:
a. If the list is empty, set all pixels to the background color.
b. If there is exactly one polygon in the list and it is a classified as

intersecting (category 2) or contained (category 3), color (scan – convert) the
polygon, and color the remaining area to the background color.
c. If there is exactly one polygon on the list and it is surrounding one, color
the area the color of the surrounding polygon.
d. If the area is the pixel (x, y) and neither a, b, nor c applies, compute the z
coordinate z(x, y) at pixel (x, y) of all polygons on the PVPL. The pixel is
then set to the color of the polygon with the smallest z coordinate.
4. If none of the above cases has occurred, subdivide the screen area into fourths. For
each area, go to step 2.
7.8 Summary
• To transform an object from its own model space to a common coordinate space,
called world space, in which all objects, light sources, and the viewer coexist.
This step is called the modeling transformation stage.
• Manipulation, Viewing , and construction of three-dimensional graphics images

requires the use of three – dimensional geometric and coordinate transformation.
These transformations are formed by composing the basic transformations
translation, scaling, and rotation.
• An Object is displaced a given distance and direction from its original position.
• The process of scaling changes the dimensions of an object.

• Rotation in three dimensions is considerably more complex than rotation in two
dimensions. In two dimensions, a rotation is prescribed by an angle of rotations
require the prescription of an angle of rotation and an axis of rotation.
• The rotation about an arbitrary axis in space occurs in robotics animation and
simulation.
• Once world-coordinate descriptions of the objects in a scene are converted to

viewing coordinates, we can project the three-dimensional objects onto the two-
dimensional view plane. There are two basic projection methods. In a parallel
projection, coordinate positions are transformed to the view plane along parallel
lines.
• A parallel projection preserves relative proportions of objects, and this is the

method used in drafting to produce scale drawings of three-dimensional objects.
• To obtain a perspective projection of a three-dimensional object, we transform

points along projection lines that meet at the projection reference point.
• The process of constructing a perspective view introduces certain anomalies

which enhance realism in terms of depth cues but also distort actual sizes and
shapes.
7.9 Key Words
Three dimensional graphics, rotation, scaling, translation, parallel, perspective,
projection, hidden line, surface elimination, viewing, clipping, wireframe , Bezier curves.
1. What happens when two polygons have the same z value and the Z-buffer
algorithm is used?
2. Show that the alignment transformation satisfies the relation Av-1 = AvT.
3. How many view planes (at the origin) produce isometric projections of an object?
4. Find the equations of the planes forming the view volume for the general parallel
projection.
5. Hoe is the depth of a polygon determined by the painter’s algorithm?
6. How does the subdivision algorithm exploit are coherence?
7. How can hidden-surface algorithms be used to eliminate hidden lines as applied to

polygonal mesh models?
8. Find a normalization transformation from the window whose lower left corner is
at(0,0) and upper right corner is at (4,3) onto the normalized device screen so that
aspect ratios are preserved.
7.11 References/ Suggested Readings
Publisher.
Hall,
Lesson: The Concept of Multimedia and GKS Lesson No. : 0 8
8.0 Objectives
• Describe the concept of multimedia
• Describe multimedia hardware and software
• Describe multimedia authoring tools
• Describe Graphic software
• Describe GKS attributes, primitives, window, viewport and display routines
Structure
8.1 Introduction
8.2 What is Multimedia?
8.3 Hardware and Software for Multimedia
8.4 Applications Area for Multimedia
8.5 Components of Multimedia
8.6 Multimedia Authoring Tools
8.7 Computer Graphic Software
8.8 GKS Primitive
8.9 GKS Attributes
8.10 GKS Window and Viewport
8.11 GKS Display Subroutines
8.12 Summary
8.13 Key Words
8.14 Self Assessment Questions
8.1 Introduction
As the name suggests, multimedia is a set of more than one media element used to
produce a concrete and more structured way of communication. In other words
multimedia is simultaneous use of data from different sources. These sources in
multimedia are known as media elements. With growing and very fast changing
information technology, Multimedia has become a crucial part of computer world. Its
importance has realised in almost all walks of life, may it be education, cinema,
advertising, fashion and what not.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, computers have been restricted to dealing with
two main types of data - words and numbers. But the cutting edge of information
technology introduced faster system capable of handling graphics, audio, animation and
video. And the entire world was taken aback by the power of multimedia.
8.2 What is Multimedia?
Multimedia is nothing but the processing and presentation of information in a more

structured and understandable manner using more than one media such as text, graphics,
animation, audio and video. Thus multimedia products can be an academic presentation,
game or corporate presentation, information kiosk, fashion-designing etc. Multimedia
systems are those computer platforms and software tools that support the interactive uses
of text, graphics, animation, audio, or motion video. In other words, a computer capable
of handling text, graphics, audio, animation and video is called multimedia computer. If
the sequence and timing of these media elements can be controlled by the user, then one
can name it as Interactive Multimedia.
8.3 Hardware and Software for Multimedia
Multimedia Software
Multimedia software comprises a wide variety of software that allows you to combine
images with text, music and sound, animation, video, and other special effects. Many
kinds of multimedia software are available. Multimedia software is sometimes broadly
grouped as:
• Multimedia Authoring Tools

• Multimedia Tools for the Web
• Multimedia Presentation Software
Multimedia Authoring can be used to create anything from simple slide shows to full-
blown games and interactive applications. A professional multimedia development
program is called an authoring tool or authoring software. An authoring tool allows you
to give the user interactive control over the sequence and timing of videos, graphics and
animation. It also provides a scripting language, also called a macro or authoring
language to control the action.
8.3.1 Multimedia Authoring Tool
A multimedia authoring tool is a program that helps you write multimedia applications. A
multimedia authoring tool enables you to create a final application merely by linking
together objects, such as a paragraph of text, an illustration, or a song. Attractive and
useful multimedia applications can be produced by defining the objects' relationships to
each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order. A multimedia authoring tool
requires less technical knowledge to master and are used exclusively for applications that
present a mixture of textual, graphical, and audio data. Multimedia authoring tools are
used to create interactive presentations, screen savers, games, CDs and DVDs. A
multimedia authoring tool supports a wide variety of multimedia file formats including
images, video, and sound. Clip-art and sound libraries are rarely bundled with a
multimedia authoring tool.
8.3.2 Multimedia Presentation
A Multimedia Presentation can be described as an intuitive book. Each page of the book
can include pictures, animations, sounds and other controls. The pages can turn
themselves or wait for their users to click on Next. Unlike the pages of a traditional book,
they can talk to their readers too. No matter what your particular need may be, whether to
e-mail an electronic photograph album to your relatives, allow users of your web page to
download a multimedia catalog, show prospective clients samples of your work or make
a dull subject come alive in class, multimedia presentation software can transform your
ideas into a complete, professional application. In a live multimedia presentation, the
slides are commonly projected onto large screens or printed on overhead transparencies.
The slides may be distributed in printed form as handouts to accompany the live
presentation.
8.3.3 Multimedia Presentation Software
Multimedia Presentation Software can build self-displaying, interactive slide shows,

electronic books and brochures, clickable advertisements, distributable portfolios and all
sorts of other multimedia applications. Almost everything it can accomplish requires
nothing more than a few mouse clicks. It has a short learning curve. Some multimedia
presentation software documents are EXE files - they can be opened on any system. They
can be freely distributed on disks and CD-ROMs, and over the Internet. Multimedia
Presentation Software has some great features like the ability to:
• Build and distribute slide show style presentations.

• Write your own clickable advertisements, to distribute alone or with other
products.
• Design training materials that include pictures, sounds and interactive elements.
• Compile a distributable portfolio.
• Completed presentations are frequently published in multiple formats, which may
include print, the Web, or electronic files.
Multimedia Presentation Software requires a faster processor. A display adapter and

screen driver capable of displaying more than 16 million colors is needed to get the best
out of it.
Multimedia Hardware
For producing multimedia you need hardware, software and creativity. In this section we
will discuss the multimedia equipment required in a personal computer (PC) so that
multimedia can be produced.
(a) Central Processing Unit
As you know, Central Processing Unit (CPU) is an essential part in any computer. It is
considered as the brain of computer, where processing and synchronization of all
activities takes place. The efficiency of a computer is judged by the speed of the CPU in
processing of data. For a multimedia computer a Pentium processor is preferred because
of higher efficiency. However, the CPU of multimedia computer should be at least 486
with math coprocessor. The Pentium processor is one step up the evolutionary chain from
the 486 series processor and Pentium Pro is one step above the Pentium. And the speed of
the processor is measured in megahertz. It defines the number of commands the computer
can perform in a second. The faster the speed, the faster the CPU and the faster the
computer will be able to perform. As the multimedia involves more than one medial
element, including high-resolution graphics, high quality motion video, and one need a
faster processor for better performance.
In today’s scenario, a Pentium processor with MMX technology and a speed of 166 to
200 MHz (Megahertz) is an ideal processor for multimedia. In addition to the processor
one will need a minimum 16 MB RAM to run WINDOWS to edit large images or video
clips. But a 32 or 64 MB RAM enhances the capacity of multimedia computer.
(b) Monitor
As you know that monitor is used to see the computer output. Generally, it displays 25
rows and 80 columns of text. The text or graphics in a monitor is created as a result of an
arrangement of tiny dots, called pixels. Resolution is the amount of details the monitor
can render. Resolution is defined in terms of horizontal and vertical pixel (picture
elements) displayed on the screen. The greater the number of pixels, better visualization
of the image.
Like any other computer device, monitor requires a source of input. The signals that
monitor gets from the processor are routed through a graphics card. But there are
computers available where this card is in-built into the motherboard. This card is also
called the graphics adapter or display adapter. This card controls the individual pixels or
tiny points on a screen that make up image. There are several types of display adapter
available. But the most popular one is Super Virtual Graphics Arrays (SVGA) card and it
suits the multimedia requirement. The advantage of having a SVGA card is that the
quality of graphics and pictures is better.
Now the PCs, which are coming to the market, are fitted with SVGA graphics card. That
allows images of up to 1024 ´ 768 pixels to be displayed in up to 16 millions of colours.
What determines the maximum resolution and color depth is the amount of memory on
the display adapters. Often you can select the amount of memory required such as
512KB, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB, etc. However, standard multimedia requirement is a 2MB of
display memory (or Video RAM). But one must keep in mind that this increases the
speed of the computer, also it allows displaying more colours and more resolutions. One
can easily calculate the minimum amount of memory required for display adapter as
(Max. Horizontal Resolution x Max. Vertical Resolution ´ Colour Depths. in Bits )/8192
= The minimum video (or display) memory required in KB.
For example, if SVGA resolution (800´600) with 65,536 colours (with colour depth of
16) you will need
(800 x 600 x 16) / 8192 = 937.5 KB, i.e., approximately 1 MB of display memory.
Another consideration should be the refresh rate, i.e., the number of times the images is
painted on the screen per second. More the refresh rate, better the image formation. Often
a minimum of 70-72Mhz is used to reduce eye fatigue. As a matter of fact higher
resolution requires higher refresh rates to prevent screen flickers.
(c) Video Grabbing Card

As we have already discussed, we need to convert the analog video signal to digital signal
for processing in a computer. Normal computer will not be able to do it alone. It requires
special equipment called video grabbing card and software to this conversion process.
This card translates the analog signal it receives from conventional sources such as a
VCR or a video camera, and converts them into digital format. The software available
with it will capture this digital signal and store them into computer file. It also helps to
compress the digitized video so that it takes lesser disk space as compared to a non-
compressed digitized video.
This card is fitted into a free slot on the motherboard inside the computer and gets
connected to an outside source such as TV, VCR or a video camera with the help of a
cable. This card receives both video and audio signal from the outside source and
conversion from analog to digital signal takes place. This process of conversion is known
as sampling. This process converts the analog signal to digital data streams so that this
signal can be stored in binary data format of 0’s and 1’s. This digital data stream is then
compressed using the video capturing software and stores them in the hard disk as a file.
This file is then used for incorporation into multimedia. This digitized file can also be
edited according to the requirements using various editing software such as Adobe
Premiere.
A number of digitizer or video grabbing cards are available in the market. However, one
from Intel called Intel Smart Video Recorder III does a very good job of capturing and
compressing video.
(d) Sound Card
Today’s computers are capable of creating the professional multimedia needs. Not only
you can use computer to compose your own music, but it can also be used for recognition
of speech and synthesis. It can even read back the entire document for you. But before all
this happens, we need to convert the conventional sound signal to computer
understandable digital signals. This is done using a special component added to the
system called sound card. This is installed into a free slot on the computer motherboard.
As in the case of video grabber card, sound card will take the sound input from outside
source (such as human voice, pre-recorded sounds, natural sounds etc.) and convert them
into digital sound signal of 0’s and 1’s. The recording software used alongwith the sound
card will store this digitised sound stream in a file. This file can latter be used with
multimedia software. One can even edit the digitised sound file and add special sound
effects into it.
Most popular sound card is from Creative Systems such as Sound Blaster-16, AWE32,
etc. AWE32 sound card supports 16 channel, 32 voice and 128 instruments and 10 drums
sound reproduction. It also has CD-ROM interface.
(e) CD-ROM Drive
CD-ROM is a magnetic disk of 4.7 inches diameter and it can contain data up to 680
Megabytes. It has become a standard by itself basically for its massive storage capacity,
faster data transfer rate. To access CD-ROM a very special drive is required and it is
known as CD-ROM drive. Let us look into the term ROM that stands for ‘Read Only
Memory’. It means the material contained in it can be read (as many times, as you like)
but the content cannot be changed.
As multimedia involves high resolution of graphics, high quality video and sound, it
requires large amount of storage space and at the same time require a media, which can
support faster data transfer. CD-ROM solves this problem by satisfying both
requirements.Similar to the hard disk drive, the CD-ROM drive has certain specification
which will help to decide which drive suit best to your multimedia requirement.
(i) Transfer Rate
Transfer rate is basically the amount of data the drive is capable of transferring at a
sustained rate from the CD to the CPU. This is measured in KB per second. For example,
1x drive is capable of transferring 150KB of data from the CD to the CPU. In other terms
1x CD drive will sustain a transfer rate of 150KB/sec, where x stands for 150 KB. This is
the base measurement and all higher rates are multiple of this number, x. Latest CD-
ROM drive available is of 64x, that means it is capable of sustaining a data transfer rate
of 64x150=9600 KB =9.38MB per second from the CD to the CPU.
(ii) Average Seek time
The amount of time lapses between request and its delivery is known as average seeks
time. The lower the value better the result and time is measured in milliseconds. A good
access time is 150ms.
Recently computer technology has made tremendous progress. You can now have CDs
which can ‘write many, read many’ times. This means you can write your files in to a
blank CD through a laser beam. The written material can be read many times and they
can even be erased and re-written again. Basically this re-writable CD’s can be used a
simple floppy disk.
(f) Scanner
Multimedia requires high quality of images, graphics to be used. And it takes lot of time
creating them. However there are ready-made sources such as real life photographs,
books, arts, etc. available from where one easily digitized the required pictures. To
convert these photographs to digital format, one need a small piece of equipment called
scanner attached to the computer. A scanner is a piece of computer hardware that sends a
beam of light across a picture or document and records it. It captures images from various
sources such as photograph, poster, magazine, book, and similar sources. These pictures
then can be displayed and edited on a computer. The captured or scanned pictures can be
stored in various formats like;
File Format Explanation
PICT - A widely used format compatible with most Macintosh
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group - a format that compresses files and lets you
choose compression versus quality
TIFF - Tagged Image File Format - a widely used format compatible with both
Macintosh and Windows systems
Windows BMP - A format commonly used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows computers
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format - a format used on the Internet, GIF supports only
256 colours or grays
Scanners are available in various shapes and sizes like hand-held, feed-in, and flatbed
types. They are also for scanning black-and-white only or color. Some of the reputed
vendors of scanner are Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Microtek and Relisys.
(g) Touchscreen
As the name suggests, touchscreen is used where the user is required to touch the surface
of the screen or monitor. It is basically a monitor that allows user to interact with
computer by touching the display screen. This uses beams of infrared light that are
projected across the screen surface. Interrupting the beams generates an electronic signal
identifying the location of the screen. And the associated software interprets the signal
and performs the required action. For example, touching the screen twice in quick
succession works as double clicking of the mouse. Imagine how useful this will be for
visually handicapped people who can identify things by touching a surface. Touchscreen
is normally not used for development of multimedia, it is rather used for multimedia
presentation arena like trade show, information kiosk, etc.
8.4 Applications Area for Multimedia
Placing the media in a perspective within the instructional process is an important role of
the teacher and library professional. Following are the possible areas of application of
multimedia:
• Can be used as reinforcement

• Can be used to clarify or symbolize a concept
• Creates the positive attitude of individuals toward what they are learning and the
learning process itself can be enhanced.
• The content of a topic can be more carefully selected and organized
• The teaching and learning can be more interesting and interactive
• The delivery of instruction can be more standardized.
• The length of time needed for instruction can be reduced.
The instruction can be provided when and where desired or necessary
8.5 Components of Multimedia
(i) Text
Inclusion of textual information in multimedia is the basic step towards development of

multimedia software. Text can be of any type, may be a word, a single line, or a
paragraph. The textual data for multimedia can be developed using any text editor.
However to give special effects, one needs graphics software which supports this kind of
job.
(ii) Graphics
Another interesting element in multimedia is graphics. As a matter of fact, taking into

consideration the human nature, a subject is more explained with some sort of
pictorial/graphical representation, rather than as a large chunk of text. This also helps to
develop a clean multimedia screen, whereas use of large amount of text in a screen make
it dull in presentation.
Unlike text, which uses a universal ASCII format, graphics does not have a single agreed
format. They have different format to suit different requirement. Most commonly used
format for graphics is .BMP or bitmap pictures. The size of a graphics depends on the
resolution it is using. A computer image uses pixel or dots on the screen to form itself.
And these dots or pixel, when combined with number of colors and other aspects are
called resolution. Resolution of an image or graphics is basically the pixel density and
number of colors it uses. And the size of the image depends on its resolution. A standard
VGA (Virtual Graphics Arrays) screen can display a screen resolution of 640 ´ 480 =
307200 pixel. And a Super VGA screen can display up-to 1024 ´ 768 = 786432 pixel on
the screen. While developing multimedia graphics one should always keep in mind the
image resolution and number of colors to be used, as this has a direct relation with the
image size. If the image size is bigger, it takes more time to load and also requires higher
memory for processing and larger disk-space for storage.
(iii) Animation
Moving images have an overpowering effect on the human peripheral vision. Followings
are few points for its popularity.
Showing continuity in transitions:
Animation is a set of static state, related to each other with transition. When something
has two or more states, then changes between states will be much easier for users to
understand if the transitions are animated instead of being instantaneous. An animated
transition allows the user to track the mapping between different subparts through the
perceptual system instead of having to involve the cognitive system to deduce the
mappings.
Indicating dimensionality in transitions:
Sometimes opposite animated transitions can be used to indicate movement back and
forth along some navigational dimension. One example used in several user interfaces is
the use of zooming to indicate that a new object is "grown" from a previous one (e.g., a
detailed view or property list opened by clicking on an icon) or that an object is closed or
minimized to a smaller representation. Zooming out from the small object to the
enlargement is a navigational dimension and zooming in again as the enlargement is
closed down is the opposite direction along that dimension.
Illustrating change over time

Since animation is a time-varying display, it provides a one-to-one mapping to
phenomena that change over time. For example, deforestation of the rain forest can be
illustrated by showing a map with an animation of the covered area changing over time.
Multiplexing the display
Animation can be used to show multiple information objects in the same space. A typical
example is client-side imagemaps with explanations that pop up as the user moves the
cursor over the various hypertext anchors.
Enriching graphical representations
Some types of information are easier to visualize with movement than with still pictures.
Consider, for example, how to visualize the tool used to remove pixels in a graphics
application.
Visualizing three-dimensional structures
As you know the computer screen is two-dimensional. Hence users can never get a full
understanding of a three-dimensional structure by a single illustration, no matter how
well designed. Animation can be used to emphasize the three-dimensional nature of
objects and make it easier for users to visualize their spatial structure. The animation
need not necessarily spin the object in a full circle - just slowly turning it back and forth a
little will often be sufficient. The movement should be slow to allow the user to focus on
the structure of the object.
You can also move three-dimensional objects, but often it is better if you determine in
advance how best to animate a movement that provides optimal understanding of the
object. This pre-determined animation can then be activated by simply placing the cursor
over the object. On the other hand, user-controlled movements requires the user to
understand how to manipulate the object (which is inherently difficult with a two-
dimensional control device like the mouse used with most computers - to be honest, 3D is
never going to make it big time in user interfaces until we get a true 3D control device).
Attracting attention
Finally, there are a few cases where the ability of animation to dominate the user’s visual
awareness can be turned to an advantage in the interface. If the goal is to draw the user’s
attention to a single element out of several or to alert the user to updated information then
an animated headline will do the trick. Animated text should be drawn by a one-time
animation (e.g., text sliding in from the right, growing from the first character, or
smoothly becoming larger) and never by a continuous animation since moving text is
more difficult to read than static text. The user should be drawn to the new text by the
initial animation and then left in peace to read the text without further distraction.
One of the excellent software available to create animation is Animator Pro. This
provides tools to create impressive animation for multimedia development.
(iv) Video
Beside animation there is one more media element, which is known as video. With latest
technology it is possible to include video impact on clips of any type into any multimedia
creation, be it corporate presentation, fashion design, entertainment games, etc.
The video clips may contain some dialogues or sound effects and moving pictures. These
video clips can be combined with the audio, text and graphics for multimedia
presentation. Incorporation of video in a multimedia package is more important and
complicated than other media elements. One can procure video clips from various
sources such as existing video films or even can go for an outdoor video shooting.
All the video available are in analog format. To make it usable by computer, the video
clips are needed to be converted into computer understandable format, i.e., digital format.
Both combinations of software and hardware make it possible to convert the analog video
clips into digital format. This alone does not help, as the digitised video clips take lots of
hard disk space to store, depending on the frame rate used for digitisation. The computer
reads a particular video clip as a series of still pictures called frames. Thus video clip is
made of a series of separate frames where each frame is slightly different from the
previous one. The computer reads each frame as a bitmap image. Generally there are 15
to 25 frames per second so that the movement is smooth. If we take less frames than this,
the movement of the images will not be smooth.
To cut down the space there are several modern technologies in windows environment.
Essentially these technologies compress the video image so that lesser space is required.
However, latest video compression software makes it possible to compress the digitised
video clips to its maximum. In the process, it takes lesser storage space. One more
advantage of using digital video is, the quality of video will not deteriorate from copy to
copy as the digital video signal is made up of digital code and not electrical signal.
Caution should be taken while digitizing the video from analog source to avoid frame
droppings and distortion. A good quality video source should be used for digitization.
(v) Audio
Audio has a greater role to play in multimedia development. It gives life to the static state
of multimedia. Incorporation of audio is one of the most important features of
multimedia, which enhance the multimedia usability to its full potential. There are several
types of sound, which can be used in multimedia. They are human voices, instrumental
notes, natural sound and many more. All these can be used in any combination as long as
they give some meaning to their inclusion in multimedia.
• There are many ways in which these sounds can be incorporated into the
computer. For example;
• Using microphone, human voice can directly be recorded in a computer.
• Pre-recorded cassettes can be used to record the sound into computer.
• Instrumental sound can also be played directly from a musical instrument for
recording into the computer.
8.6 Multimedia Authoring Tools
See section 8.3.1

8.7 Computer Graphic Software
To Graphics Kernel System (GKS) was development in to the need for a standardized
method of developing graphic program. It represent a standard graphic interface with
consistent syntax. Furthermore, GKS was designed so that it may be bound by means of
subroutines to most common programming language such as C, FORTRAN 77,
PASCAL, and BASIC.
GKS represents a programming language in the sense that it presents the programmer
with a consistent set of reserved words with specific language bindings used within a
specific syntactical structure. For example, the GKS reserved word for plotting points is
“POLYMARKER.” (the reserved word POLYMAKER is followed by its corresponding
parameters, n, X, Y, where n is the number of points, X is the array of the x co-ordinates
and Y is the array of the y co-ordinates.) Thus the GKS statements
X(1) = 3 Y (1) =2
POLYMARKER (1,X,Y)
Represents a language-independent command-data list that would plot the point (3,2). In
actual implementation with a programming language, in this case FORTRAN, the
command-data structure would appear in this form:
DIMENSION X(1), Y(1)
X(1) =3
Y(1) =2
CALL GPM (n, X, Y)
(Note: in the BASIC implementation, an ampersand interpreter is used.)
It is important to remember that GKS presents a standardized body of consistence

commands, producers, and language binding and syntax. This allows a GKS-based
system to be portable and take advantage of improved algorithm. For example, a system
using the slope method of line plotting could easily be upgraded to make use of
Bresenham’s line algorithm.
To avoid confusion. From this point on only the GKS names of commands will be
shown. For example, the FORTRAN implementation CALL GPM (n, X, Y,) will be
shown only as POLY MARKER (n, X, Y,)
8.8 GKS Primitive
The graphic kernel system is based on four basic primitive: POLYLINE,

POLYMAKER,FILL AREA, and TEXT. The syntax of each of the primitive is as
follows:
POLYLINE (n, X, Y)
POLIMARKER (n, X, Y)
FILL AREA (n, X, Y)
Where n= number of data points
X = X array
Y = Y array
TEXT (x, y, “string”)
Where (x, y)= the starting coordinates for the starting and “string” = the text that is to be
out put.
8.9 GKS Attributes
Each GKS primitive can have many attributes, which are set with an index number and
the SET command. For example, the default value for POLYLINE INDEX is 1. a
POLYLINE INDEX of generates a solid line. Therefore, if the X array = (1, 4) and the Y
array= (2, 8), the following would generate a solid line from point (1, 2) to point (4, 8)
(see fig. 8.1).
Set Polyline Index(1)
6
5
1
2
1 2 3 4 5
Figure 8.1
The GKS POLYLINE INDEX of 2 creates a dashed line. Thus, using the same data, X array =(1,
4) and Y array = (2, 8), the following code would generate a dashed line from (1, 2) to (4, 8) (see
fig. 8.2).
Set Polyline index(2)
Figure 8.2
In addition to the POLYLINE INDEX, there are also index settings for POLYMARKER,
FILL AREA, and TEXT. In each case, the SET function INDEX is used to set the
attributes of the command prior to its use. For example, using the data X array = (2, 6, 6,
2) and Y array = (2, 2, 6, 6) with the commands
SET POLYLINE INDEX (1)
POLYMARKER (4, X, Y)
Would appear as shown in fig. 8.3 (a),

SET POLYMARKER INDEX (3)
Would appear as shown in fig. 8.3 (b), and
Figure 8.3
SET FILL AREA INDEX(0)
FILL AREA (4,X,Y)
Note that FILL AREA always connects the first and last points in the array 8.3 (c )
Other attributes supported by GKS allow the programmer to set the width of lines,
change, color, select the style of marker used by POLYMAKER, and change the style
and pattern used by FILL AREA. For example, the attribute value 3 for POLYMAKER
gives an asterisk [see Fig. 8.3 (c)].
Text font is selected with the SET TEXT INDEX (n) command. However, text has
several other attributes which can be changed with other set commands. These set
commands allow the programmer to select character height, slant, color, spacing, and
angle. Unique to text are the SET CHARACTER UO VECTOR (X, Y) and the SET
TEXT PATH (path) commands. CHARACTER UP VECTOR (X, Y) sets the slope at
which text will be printed. Here , X represents the change in x, and Y, the change in y.
For example
SET CHARACTER UO VECTOR (1, 1)
TEXT (2, 2, “HELLO”)
Would appear as in Fig. 8.4, while
SET CHARACTER UP VECTOR (1, 0)
Would appear as in Fig. 8.4.
H
HE LL O
Figure 8.4
(a) (b)
(d)
(c)
Figure 8.5
The character path attribute sets the direction in which the characters will be printed. The
programmer can set character path UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT [see Figs. 8.5 (a)
through 8.5 (d)].
8.10 GKS Window and Viewport
The format of the GKS VIEWPORT command is as follows
SET VIEWPORT(n, x1, x2, y1, y2)
Where n = nth view port
(x1. y1) = lower left corner of view port in word coordinates.
(x2 . y2) = upper right corner of view port in world coordinates
for example.
SET VIEWPORT (n, 10, 100,10, 100)
Would define the area shown in fig. 8.6.
VIEWPORT
100
20
10
10 20 100
Figure 8.6
The GKS WINDOW command is as follows:

SET WINDOW (n, x1, x2, , y1, y2,)
Where n = nth window
(x1 , y1) = value of lower left corner of window in user coordinates
(x2 , y2) = value of upper right of window in user coordinates
the WINDOW command thus specifies how data will be mapped onto the display. For
example, the following would result in fig. 8.7:
X (1) = 10, Y(1) = 10
SET VIEWPORT (1, 10, 100, 10, 100)
SET WINDOW (1, 0, 20, 0, 10)
As GKS supports multiple view ports and windows, a provision to indicate which view
port is to be written to is required. View port selection is done with the SELECT
NORMALIZATION TRANFORMATION (n) command, where n represents the
numb3er of the view port to be selected.
(0,10) (20,10)
WINDOW
(10,0) (20,0)
Figure 8.7
8.11 GKS Display Subroutines
While the four basic primitives supported by GKS-POLYLINE, POLY MARKER,

FILLAREA, and TEXT-along with their attributes allow the programmer to construct a
wide range of images, most developers would like to have access to some other
commonly used primitives. For example, in a charting application, use of an axis
command would be valuable.
When constructing commands, it is important to allow for future flexibility.
For example, an axis command should allow control over tick mark intervals, length of
tick marks, style of tick marks, length of axes, and axes intersection point. For the
s9implest case, no tick marks are used; the axes run the length of the current window and
intersect at the origin. The resulting code for simple axes might appear as follows:
SUBROUTINE AXIS (X, Y)
DIMINSION XA (2)YA (2)
XA (1) =X(1)
YA (1) = 0
XA(2)=X(2)
YA(2)=0
CALL GPL (2, XA, YA)
XA(1=0
YA(1)=Y(1)
XA(2)=0
YA(2)=Y(2)
CALL GPL (2, XA, YA)
Where X(1)= X MIN
X(2)=X MAX
Y(1)=Y MIN
Y(2)=Y MIN
GPL is the subroutine to draw a POLYLINE
8.12 Summary
1. Multimedia is a set of more than one media element used to produce a concrete
and more structured way of communication.
2. Multimedia is nothing but the processing and presentation of information in a
more structured and understandable manner using more than one media such as
text, graphics, animation, audio and video.
3. If the sequence and timing of these media elements can be controlled by the user,
then one can name it as Interactive Multimedia.
4. A hypertext system consists of nodes - which contain the text - and links between
the nodes, which define the paths the user can follow to access the text in non-
sequential ways. The links represent associations of meaning and can be thought
of as cross-references.
5. Hypermedia represents an evolution of the hypertext concept. In hypermedia
systems the nodes within the web may each contain one or more types of data,
from simple text to audio and video clips.
6. Text, graphics, animation, audio and video are the elements of multimedia.
7. Musical Instrument Digitisation Interface or MIDI provides a protocol or a set of
rules, using which the details of a musical note from an instrument is
communicated to the computer.
8. Multimedia Authoring Tools are the tools for the development of multimedia
applications represent the essential part of the system for organization and
arrangement of multimedia project elements, such as graphics, sound, animation
and video clips. They are used for designing interactively and user interface, for
presenting the project on the screen and for synthesizing of multimedia elements
into cohesive project.
9. GKS represents a standard graphic interface with consistent syntax
10. The graphic kernel system is based on four basic primitive: POLYLINE,
POLYMAKER,FILL AREA, and TEXT
11. GKS WINDOW command is as follows:
12. SET WINDOW (n, x1, x2, , y1, y2,)
Where n = nth window
(x1 , y1) = value of lower left corner of window in user coordinates
(x2 , y2) = value of upper right of window in user coordinates
13. The Programmers Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System, an internationally

agreed standard for three-dimensional graphics
14. GKS clipping function can be set to either of two states, CLIP or NOCLIP
15. The graphics kernel system allows multiple users to work on a single application.
8.13 Key Words
Multimedia, Multimedia Software, Multimedia Hardware, Multimedia Authoring Tools,

Multimedia Components, GKS, Window, Viewport, Subroutines
8.14 Self Assessment Questions
1. Define the concept of multimedia?

2. Define Hypermedia and how it is different from Hypertext?
3. What are the various elements of multimedia? Define.
4. What is the mechanism of digitized sound? How does the computer reconstruct
sound wave from a sample data?
5. Explain the concept of video on multimedia..
6. What common programming language is GKS based on?
7. What do the elements in the POLYLINE X and Y arrays represent?
8. What do the elements in the X and Y arrays represent in the POLYMARKER

command?
9. Assuming that X= (10, 20, 20, 10) and Y=(10, 10, 20, 20), the commands
SET FILL AREA INDEX (0)
FILL AREA (4, X, Y)
10. Will generate a square with only four instead of five elements in the X and y
ARRAYS. WHY?
11. What are some of the types of attributes that can be changed for (a) FILL AREA,
(b) POLYMAKER, and (c) POLYLINE?
12. What are some of the types of attributes that can be changed for TEXT?
13. What would a display look like after the following commands?
SET CHARACTER UP VECTOR (1, -1)
14. How would the display appear after the following commands were executed?
SET TEXT PATH (DOWN)
Hall,
Publisher.

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Index

SNo Lesson Lesson Name Author Vetter

1.2 Interactive Graphics

Figure 1.1: Conceptual model for interactive graphics

1.3 Passive Graphics

A computer graphics operation that transfers automatically and without operator

1.4 Advantages of Interactive Graphics

Interactive computer graphics thus permits extensive, high-bandwidth user-computer

1.5 How The Interactive Graphics Display Works

00000000 00000001 Scan Line Data

Classification of Computer Graphics by Object and

Computer graphics is used today in many different areas of industry, business,

Cartography: Computer graphics is used to produce both accurate and schematic

Computer-aided drafting and design: In computer-aided design (CAD), interactive

Simulation and animation for scientific visualization and entertainment: Computer

z Much of the task of creating effective graphic communication, whether 2D or

1.9 Self Assessment Questions (SAQ)

1. Write a short note on the interactive computer graphics.

2. Discuss the relative advantage of interactive and passive graphics.

1.10 References/Suggested Readings

1. Computer Graphics, Principles and Practice, Second Edition, by James D. Foley,

2.2 Refresh CRT

Basic Operation of CRT

Figure 2.1: Basic Design of a magnetic-deflection CRT

Figure 2.2: Operation of an electron gun with an acceleration anode

Figure 2.3: Electrostatic deflection of the electron beam in a CRT

Figure 2.4: Intensity distribution of an illuminated phosphor spot on a CRT screen

2.3 Random-Scan and Raster Scan Monitor

Refresh rate on a random-scan system depends on the number of lines to be displayed.

2.3.2 Raster-Scan Displays

2.4 Color CRT Monitors

To display colour pictures, combination of phosphorus is used that emits different

1. Beam Penetration Method

2. Shadow Mask Method

Beam Penetration Method

2.5 Direct-View Storage Tubes (DVST)

This is an alternative method to monitor a screen image, as it sores the picture

2.6 Flat-Panel Displays

2.7 Light-emitting Diode (LED) and Liquid-crystal Displays (LCDs)

2.7.1 Light-emitting Diode (LED)

2.7.2 Liquid-crystal Displays (LCDs)

2.8 Hard Copy Devices

The printer is an important accessory of any computing system. In a graphics system, it is

Figure 2.10: Small-footprint laser printers

2.10 Key Words

2.11 Self Assessment Questions (SAQ)

1. Write a short note on hard copy devices.

2. How the colours are focused in coloured CRT? Discuss

3. Is the refreshing is necessary? Explain.

4. Discuss the detailed of DVST.

2.12 References/Suggested Readings

9. Computer Graphics, Principles and Practice, Second Edition, by James D. Foley,

3.2 Scan-converting a Point

Putpixel(int x, int y);

Figure 3.1: Scan-converting point

2. The line should have equal brightness throughout their length.

3. The line must be drawn rapidly.

1. Calculate only the approximate line length.

2. Make use of simple arithmetic computations, preferabley integer arithmetic.