COMPUTER GRAPHICS

graphics primitive A basic nondivisible graphical element for input or output within a computer-graphics
system. Typical output primitives are polyline, polymarker, and fill area. Clipping of an output primitive
cannot be guaranteed to produce another output primitive. Output primitives have attributes such as line
style and pattern associated with them. Typical input primitives are locator, choice, and valuator. Input
primitives often have a style of echoing associated with them.

A display device is an output device for presentation of information for visual, tactile or auditive
reception, acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms. When the input information is
supplied as an electrical signal, the display is called electronic display. Electronic displays are
available for presentation of visual, tactile and auditive information.

Tactile electronic displays (aka refreshable Braille display) are usually intended for the blind or
visually impaired, they use electro-mechanical parts to dynamically update a tactile image
(usually of text) so that the image may be felt by the fingers.

Common applications for electronic visual displays are television sets or computer monitors

The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun (a source of
electrons) and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the
electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen.
The image may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictures (television, computer
monitor), radar targets and others.

The CRT uses an evacuated glass envelope which is large, deep, heavy, and relatively fragile.

Overview
A cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube which consists of one or more electron guns, possibly
internal electrostatic deflection plates, and a phosphor target.[2] In television sets and computer
monitors, the entire front area of the tube is scanned repetitively and systematically in a fixed
pattern called a raster. An image is produced by controlling the intensity of each of the three
electron beams, one for each additive primary color (red, green, and blue) with a video signal as
a reference.[3] In all modern CRT monitors and televisions, the beams are bent by magnetic
deflection, a varying magnetic field generated by coils and driven by electronic circuits around
the neck of the tube, although electrostatic deflection is commonly used in oscilloscopes, a type
of diagnostic instrument.[3]

raster-scan display
1. A widely used method of presenting graphical or pictorial images in which the electron beam of a
cathode-ray tube is swept across the screen, one row at a time and from top to bottom. As the electron
beam sweeps, the beam intensity is turned on and off dependent on information defining the picture to be
created. It is similar to the definition of a TV picture. Compare vector display.

2. A physical device operating in this way.

Plasma Display :-
A typical modern plasma screen television

A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays (80
cm/30 in or larger). They are called "plasma" displays because the pixels rely on plasma cells, or
what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent lamps. A panel typically
has millions of tiny cells in compartmentalized space between two panels of glass. These
compartments, or "bulbs" or "cells", hold a mixture of noble gases and a minuscule amount of
mercury. Just as in the fluorescent lamps over an office desk, when the mercury is vaporized and
a voltage is applied across the cell, the gas in the cells form a plasma. (A plasma is a collection
of particles that respond strongly and collectively to electromagnetic fields or electrical charges,
taking the form of gas-like clouds or ion beams.) With flow of electricity (electrons), some of the
electrons strike mercury particles as the electrons move through the plasma, momentarily
increasing the energy level of the molecule until the excess energy is shed. Mercury sheds the
energy as ultraviolet (UV) photons. The UV photons then strike phosphor that is painted on the
inside of the cell. When the UV photon strikes a phosphor molecule, it momentarily raises the
energy level of an outer orbit electron in the phosphor molecule, moving the electron from a
stable to an unstable state; the electron then sheds the excess energy as a photon at a lower
energy level than UV light; the lower energy photons are mostly in the infrared range but about
40% are in the visible light range. Thus the input energy is shed as mostly heat (infrared) but also
as visible light. Depending on the phosphors used, different colors of visible light can be
achieved. Each pixel in a plasma display is made up of three cells comprising the primary colors
of visible light. Varying the voltage of the signals to the cells thus allows different perceived
colors.

Plasma displays should not be confused with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), another lightweight
flat-screen display using very different technology. LCDs may use one or two large fluorescent
lamps as a backlight source, but the different colors are controlled by LCD units, which in effect
behave as gates that allow or block the passage of light from the backlight to red, green, or blue
paint on the front of the LCD panel.[1][2][3]

Advantages

 Slim profile
 Can be wall mounted
 Less bulky than rear-projection televisions
 Produces deep blacks allowing for superior contrast ratio[3][9][10]
  Wider viewing angles than those of LCD; images do not suffer from degradation at high angles
unlike LCDs[3][9]
 Virtually no motion blur, thanks in large part to very high refresh rates and a faster response
time, contributing to superior performance when displaying content with significant amounts of
rapid motion[3][9][11][12]

[edit] Disadvantages

 Heavier screen-door effect when compared to LCD or OLED based TVs

 Susceptible to screen burn-in and image retention, although most recent models have pixel
orbiter, that moves the entire picture faster than it's noticeable to the human eye, which
reduces the affect of burn-in but doesn't prevent burn-in. [13] However turning off individual
pixels does counteract screen burn-in on modern plasma displays. [14]
 Phosphors lose luminosity over time, resulting in gradual decline of absolute image brightness
(newer models are less susceptible to this, having lifespans exceeding 100,000 hours, far longer
than older CRT technology)[8][10]
 Susceptible to "large area flicker"[15]
 Generally do not come in smaller sizes than 37 inches[3][9]
 Susceptible to reflection glare in bright rooms
 Heavier than LCD due to the requirement of a glass screen to hold the gases
 Use more electricity, on average, than an LCD TV
 Do not work as well at high altitudes due to pressure differential between the gases inside the
screen and the air pressure at altitude. It may cause a buzzing noise. Manufacturers rate their
screens to indicate the altitude parameters. [16]
 For those who wish to listen to AM radio, or are Amateur Radio operators (Hams) or Shortwave
Listeners (SWL) , the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from these devices can be irritating or
disabling.[17]

[edit]
How plasma displays work
See also: Plasma (physics)
Composition of plasma display panel

The xenon, neon, and helium gas in a plasma television is contained in hundreds of thousands of
tiny cells positioned between two plates of glass. Long electrodes are also put together between
the glass plates, in front of and behind the cells. The address electrodes sit behind the cells, along
the rear glass plate. The transparent display electrodes, which are surrounded by an insulating
dielectric material and covered by a magnesium oxide protective layer, are mounted in front of
the cell, along the front glass plate. Control circuitry charges the electrodes that cross paths at a
cell, creating a voltage difference between front and back and causing the gas to ionize and form
a plasma. As the gas ions rush to the electrodes and collide, photons are emitted.[25][26]

In a monochrome plasma panel, the ionizing state can be maintained by applying a low-level
voltage between all the horizontal and vertical electrodes–even after the ionizing voltage is
removed. To erase a cell all voltage is removed from a pair of electrodes. This type of panel has
inherent memory and does not use phosphors. A small amount of nitrogen is added to the neon to
increase hysteresis.
In color panels, the back of each cell is coated with a phosphor. The ultraviolet photons emitted
by the plasma excite these phosphors to give off colored light. The operation of each cell is thus
comparable to that of a fluorescent lamp.

Every pixel is made up of three separate subpixel cells, each with different colored phosphors.
One subpixel has a red light phosphor, one subpixel has a green light phosphor and one subpixel
has a blue light phosphor. These colors blend together to create the overall color of the pixel, the
same as a triad of a shadow mask CRT or color LCD. Plasma panels use pulse-width modulation
(PWM) to control brightness: by varying the pulses of current flowing through the different cells
thousands of times per second, the control system can increase or decrease the intensity of each
subpixel color to create billions of different combinations of red, green and blue. In this way, the
control system can produce most of the visible colors. Plasma displays use the same phosphors
as CRTs, which accounts for the extremely accurate color reproduction when viewing television
or computer video images (which use an RGB color system designed for CRT display
technology).

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light
modulating properties of liquid crystals (LCs). LCs do not emit light directly.

They are used in a wide range of applications including: computer monitors, television,
instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, signage, etc. They are common in consumer devices
such as video players, gaming devices, clocks, watches, calculators, and telephones. LCDs have
displaced cathode ray tube (CRT) displays in most applications. They are usually more compact,
lightweight, portable, less expensive, more reliable, and easier on the eyes.[citation needed] They are
available in a wider range of screen sizes than CRT and plasma displays, and since they do not
use phosphors, they cannot suffer image burn-in.

LCDs are more energy efficient and offer safer disposal than CRTs. Its low electrical power
consumption enables it to be used in battery-powered electronic equipment. It is an
electronically-modulated optical device made up of any number of pixels filled with liquid
crystals and arrayed in front of a light source (backlight) or reflector to produce images in colour
or monochrome. The earliest discovery leading to the development of LCD technology, the
discovery of liquid crystals, dates from 1888.[1] By 2008, worldwide sales of televisions with
LCD screens had surpassed the sale of CRT units

Printers :-

In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics) of documents

stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many
printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most
newer printers, a USB cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers,
commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless
and/or Ethernet based, and can serve as a hard copy device for any user on the network.
Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the
same time. In addition, a few modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as
memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are
combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit, and can function as photocopiers.
Printers that include non-printing features are sometimes called multifunction printers (MFP),
multi-function devices (MFD), or all-in-one (AIO) printers. Most MFPs include printing,
scanning, and copying among their features.

Consumer and some commercial printers are designed for low-volume, short-turnaround print
jobs; requiring virtually no setup time to achieve a hard copy of a given document. However,
printers are generally slow devices (30 pages per minute is considered fast; and many
inexpensive consumer printers are far slower than that), and the cost per page is actually
relatively high. However, this is offset by the on-demand convenience and project management
costs being more controllable compared to an out-sourced solution. The printing press remains
the machine of choice for high-volume, professional publishing. However, as printers have
improved in quality and performance, many jobs which used to be done by professional print
shops are now done by users on local printers; see desktop publishing. The world's first computer
printer was a 19th century mechanically driven apparatus invented by Charles Babbage for his
Difference Engine.[1]

A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a
printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer.
Printing Technology :-

Printers are routinely classified by the technology they employ; numerous such technologies
have been developed over the years. The choice of engine has a substantial effect on what jobs a
printer is suitable for, as different technologies are capable of different levels of image/text
quality, print speed, low cost, noise; in addition, some technologies are inappropriate for certain
types of physical media, such as carbon paper or transparencies.

A second aspect of printer technology that is often forgotten is resistance to alteration: liquid ink
such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon becomes absorbed by the paper fibers, so documents
printed with a liquid ink are more difficult to alter than documents printed with toner or solid
inks, which do not penetrate below the paper surface.

Cheques should either be printed with liquid ink or on special cheque paper with toner
anchorage.[1] For similar reasons carbon film ribbons for IBM Selectric typewriters bore labels
warning against using them to type negotiable instruments such as cheques. The machine-
readable lower portion of a cheque, however, must be printed using MICR toner or ink. Banks
and other clearing houses employ automation equipment that relies on the magnetic flux from
these specially printed characters to function properly

Toner-based printers
Main article: Laser printer

A laser printer rapidly produces high quality text and graphics. As with digital photocopiers and
multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ
from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam
across the printer's photoreceptor.

Another toner-based printer is the LED printer which uses an array of LEDs instead of a laser to
cause toner adhesion to the print drum.
[edit] Liquid inkjet printers

Inkjet printers operate by propelling variably-sized droplets of liquid or molten material (ink)
onto almost any sized page. They are the most common type of computer printer used by
consumers.

[edit] Solid ink printers

Main article: Solid ink

Solid ink printers, also known as phase-change printers, are a type of thermal transfer printer.
They use solid sticks of CMYK-coloured ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are
melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. The printhead sprays the ink on a
rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is
transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as colour office
printers, and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink
printers can produce excellent results. Acquisition and operating costs are similar to laser
printers. Drawbacks of the technology include high energy consumption and long warm-up times
from a cold state. Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on, as
the wax tends to repel inks from pens, and are difficult to feed through automatic document
feeders, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. In addition, this type of
printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox, manufactured as part of their Xerox
Phaser office printer line, it is also available by various Xerox concessionaires [1].[2] Previously,
solid ink printers were manufactured by Tektronix, but Tek sold the printing business to Xerox in
2001.

[edit] Dye-sublimation printers

Main article: Dye-sublimation printer

A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a printer which employs a printing process
that uses heat to transfer dye to a medium such as a plastic card, paper or canvas. The process is
usually to lay one colour at a time using a ribbon that has colour panels. Dye-sub printers are
intended primarily for high-quality colour applications, including colour photography; and are
less well-suited for text. While once the province of high-end print shops, dye-sublimation
printers are now increasingly used as dedicated consumer photo printers.
[edit] Inkless printers

[edit] Thermal printers

Main article: Thermal printer

Thermal printers work by selectively heating regions of special heat-sensitive paper.

Monochrome thermal printers are used in cash registers, ATMs, gasoline dispensers and some
older inexpensive fax machines. Colours can be achieved with special papers and different
temperatures and heating rates for different colours; these coloured sheets are not required in
black-and-white output. One example is the ZINK technology.

[edit] UV printers

Xerox is working on an inkless printer which will use a special reusable paper coated with a few
micrometres of UV light sensitive chemicals. The printer will use a special UV light bar which
will be able to write and erase the paper. As of early 2007 this technology is still in development
and the text on the printed pages can only last between 16–24 hours before fading.[3]

Input Devices :-

An input device is any peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment) used to provide data and
control signals to an information processing system (such as a computer). Input and output devices
make up the hardware interface between a computer as a scanner or 6DOF controller.

Keyboard :-

In computing, a keyboard is typewriter keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys,

to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. After punch cards and paper tape, interaction
via teletype-style keyboards became the main input device for computers.

Despite the development of alternative input devices, such as the mouse (computing mouse),
touch sensitive screens, pen devices, character recognition, voice recognition, and improvements
in computer speed and memory size, the keyboard remains the most commonly used and most
versatile device used for direct (human) input into computers.

A keyboard typically has characters engraved or printed on the keys and each press of a key
typically corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires
pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. While most keyboard keys
produce letters, numbers or signs (characters), other keys or simultaneous key presses can
produce actions or computer commands.

In normal usage, the keyboard is used to type text and numbers into a word processor, text editor
or other program. In a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the
software. A computer keyboard distinguishes each physical key from every other and reports all
key presses to the controlling software. Keyboards are also used for computer gaming, either
with regular keyboards or by using keyboards with special gaming features, which can expedite
frequently used keystroke combinations. A keyboard is also used to give commands to the
operating system of a computer, such as Windows' Control-Alt-Delete combination, which
brings up a task window or shuts down the machine. It is the only way to enter commands on a
command

Trackball :-

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Kensington Expert Mouse trackball, it can use a standard American pool ball

A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect
a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding
ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor.
Large tracker balls are common on CAD workstations for easy precision. Before the advent of
the touchpad, small trackballs were common on portable computers, where there may be no desk
space on which to run a mouse. Some small thumbballs clip onto the side of the keyboard and
have integral buttons with the same function as mouse buttons. The trackball was invented by
Tom Cranston and Fred Longstaff as part of the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR system in
1952,[1] eleven years before the mouse was invented. This first trackball used a Canadian five-pin
bowling ball.

The world's first trackball invented by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor working on the
Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR project in 1952. It used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball.

When mice still used a mechanical design (with slotted 'chopper' wheels interrupting a beam of
light to measure rotation), trackballs had the advantage of being in contact with the user's hand,
which is generally cleaner than the desk or mousepad and does not drag lint into the chopper
wheels. The late 1990s replacement of mouseballs by direct optical tracking put trackballs at a
disadvantage and forced them to retreat into niches where their distinctive merits remained more
important. Most trackballs now have direct optical tracking which follows dots on the ball.

As with modern mice, most trackballs now have an auxiliary device primarily intended for
scrolling. Some have a scroll wheel like most mice, but the most common type is a “scroll ring”
which is spun around the ball. Kensington's SlimBlade Trackball similarly tracks the ball itself in
three dimensions for scrolling.

Three major companies Logitech, A4Tech, and Kensington currently produce trackball, although
A4Tech has not released a new model in several years. Microsoft was a major producer, but has
since discontinued all of its products. The Microsoft Trackball Explorer continues to be
extremely popular (it has no analogous design in production by another company), with used
models selling for ~$200 on ebay.

Joystick :-

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For other uses, see Joystick (disambiguation).

Joystick elements: #1 Stick; #2 Base; #3 Trigger; #4 Extra buttons; #5 Autofire switch; #6 Throttle; #7 Hat
Switch (POV Hat); #8 Suction Cup
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or
direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks are often used to control video games, and
usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer. A popular
variation of the joystick used on modern video game consoles is the analog stick.

The joystick has been the principal flight control in the cockpit of many aircraft, particularly
military fast jets, either as a center stick or side-stick.

Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned
vehicles, wheelchairs, surveillance cameras and zero turning radius lawn mowers. Miniature
finger-operated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment
such as mobile phones.

Mouse :-

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and
adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More
details may be available on the talk page. (May 2010)
A computer mouse with the most common standard features: two buttons and a scroll wheel, which can
also act as a third button

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion

relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the
user's hands, with one or more buttons. (Although traditionally a button is typically round or
square, modern mice have spring-loaded regions of their top surface that operate switches when
pressed down lightly.) It sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels", which allow the
user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features that can add
more control or dimensional input. The mouse's motion typically translates into the motion of a
cursor on a display, which allows for fine control of a graphical user interface

Light Pen :-

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This article is about the computer input device. For the pen-sized flashlight, see penlight.
Photo of the Hypertext Editing System (HES) console in use at Brown University, circa October 1969. The
photo shows HES on an IBM 2250 Mod 4 display station, including lightpen and programmed function
keyboard, channel coupled to Brown's IBM 360 mainframe.

A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction
with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or
draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy. A
light pen can work with any CRT-based display, but not with LCD screens (though Toshiba and
Hitachi displayed a similar idea at the "Display 2006" show in Japan[1]), projectors and other
display devices.

A light pen is fairly simple to implement. Just like a light gun, a light pen works by sensing the
sudden small change in brightness of a point on the screen when the electron gun refreshes that
spot. By noting exactly where the scanning has reached at that moment, the X,Y position of the
pen can be resolved. This is usually achieved by the light pen causing an interrupt, at which point
the scan position can be read from a special register, or computed from a counter or timer. The
pen position is updated on every refresh of the screen.

The light pen became moderately popular during the early 1980s. It was notable for its use in the
Fairlight CMI, and the BBC Micro. IBM PC compatible CGA, HGC and some EGA graphics
cards featured a connector for a light pen as well. Even some consumer products were given light
pens, in particular the Thomson MO5 computer family. Because the user was required to hold
his or her arm in front of the screen for long periods of time, the light pen fell out of use as a
general purpose input device.

The first light pen was created around 1952 as part of the Whirlwind project at MIT.[2][3]

Since the current version of the game show Jeopardy! began in 1984, contestants have used a
light pen to write down their wagers and responses for the Final Jeopardy! round.

Since light pens operate by detecting light emitted by the screen phosphors, some nonzero
intensity level must be present at the coordinate position to be selected.

Light pens can be used to do graphical representations on a computer

Tablet :-

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For other uses, see Tablet (disambiguation).

The Apple iPad tablet.

A "tablet computer", or simply "tablet", is a complete computer contained entirely in a flat

touch screen that uses a stylus, digital pen, or fingertip as the primary input device instead of a
keyboard or mouse - which may or may not be included.[1][1][2][2]

The name is derived from the resemblance to writing tablets, and presents a more natural user
interface when the touch screen is integrated with the display, as is customary on a tablet. Unlike
laptops, tablet personal computers may not be equipped with a keyboard, in which case they use
a virtual onscreen substitute.

In 2010 Apple inc. launched its iPad tablet computer, re-invigorating the tablet computer market,
[3]
which is projected to account for 15.1 to 19.5 million tablets in the year 2010.[4][5] iPad-like[6]
tablets are personal devices purposed to media consuming: accessing the web, viewing photos
and videos, gaming, or reading eBooks, newspapers and magazines

Input Techniques :-

Potentiometer :- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This article is about the electrical component. For the measuring instrument, see Potentiometer
(measuring instrument).

Potentiometer

A typical single-turn potentiometer

 Type Passive

Electronic symbol

(Europe)

(US)

A potentiometer (colloquially known as a "pot") is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding

contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider.[1] If only two terminals are used (one side and
the wiper), it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. Potentiometers are commonly used to control
electrical devices such as volume controls on audio equipment. Potentiometers operated by a
mechanism can be used as position transducers, for example, in a joystick.

Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant power (more than a watt), since the
power dissipated in the potentiometer would be comparable to the power in the controlled load.
Instead they are used to adjust the level of analog signals (e.g. volume controls on audio
equipment), and as control inputs for electronic circuits. For example, a light dimmer uses a
potentiometer to control the switching of a TRIAC and so indirectly control the brightness of
lamps.