1. Introduction and Overview of Computer Graphics

Computer Graphics Defination

It is the use of computers to create and manipulate pictures on a display device. It comprises of software techniques to create, store, modify, represents pictures.

It may be defined as Pictorial Representation or graphical representation of objects in a computer.

Uses / Applications of Computer Graphics

Computer graphics are used routinely in such diverse areas as science, engineering, medicine, business, industry, government, art, entertainment, ad- vertising, education, and training.

Following is a breif overview of some major fields using applications of Computer Graphics:

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

  • CAD, computer-aided design methods are used in the design of buildings, automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, space- craft, computers, textiles, and many, many other products.
  • Animations are often used in CAD applications. Real-time animations using wireframe displays on a video monitor which are useful for testing performance of a vehicles or system.
  • Architects use interactive graphics methods to lay out floor plans, that show the positioning of rooms, doon, windows, stairs, shelves, counters, and other building features.
  • Working from the display of a building layout on a video monitor, an electrical designer can try out arrangements for wiring, electrical outlets, and fire warning systems

Presentation Graphics

  • Presentation graphics is commonly used to summarize financial, statistical, mathematical, scientific, and economic data for research reports, managerial reports, consumer information bulletins, and other types of reports.
  • Typical examples of presentation graphics are bar charts, line graphs, surface graphs, pie charts, and other displays showing relationships between multiple parametem.

Computer Art

  • Computer graphics methods are widely used in both fine art and commercial art applications. Artists use a variety of computer methods, including special-purpose hardware, artist's paintbrush (such as Lumens), other paint packages (suchas Pixelpaint and Superpaint), specially developed software, symbolic mathematical packages (such as Mathematics), CAD packages, desktop publishing software, and animation packages that provide facilities for designing object shapes and specifiying object motions.
  • Animations are also used frequently in advertising, and television commercials are produced frame by frame, where each frame of the motion is rendered and saved as an image file.

Entertainment

  • Computer graphics methods am now commonly used in making motion pictures,music videos, and television shows.

Education and Training

  • Computer-generated models of physical, financial, and economic systems are often used as educational aids.
  • Examples of such specialized systems are the simulators for practice sessions or training of ship captains, aircraft pilots, heavy-equipment operators, and air trafficcontrol personnel.

Visualization

  • Scientists, engineers, medical personnel, business analysts, and others often need to analyze large amounts of information or to study the behavior of certain processes. Producing graphical representations for scientific, engineering, and medical data sets and processes is generally referred to as scientific visualization. And the term business visualization is used in connection with data sets related to commerce, industry, and other nonscientific areas.
  • Mathematicians, physical scientists,and others use visual techniques to analyze mathematical functions and processes or simply to produce interesting graphical representations.

Image Processing

  • Image processing applies techniques to modify or interpret existing pictures, such as photographs and TV scans.
  • Two principal applications of image processing are (1) improving picture quality and (2) machine perception of visual information, as used in robotics.
  • Medical applications also make extensive use of imageprocessing techniques for picture enhancements, in X-ray photography and in simulations of operations.

Graphical User Interface

  • It is common now for software packages to provide a graphical interface.
  • Icons represent options for painting, drawing, zooming, typing text strings, and other operations connected with picture construction.
  • The menus can allow selection of processing options, color values, and graphics parameters.