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Computer Graphics and Image
Processing
Lecturer: Dr P. Robinson
No. of lectures: 16
Prerequisite courses: Data Structures and Algorithms, Continuous Mathematics (for the Image Processing part only)
This course is a prerequisite for Advanced Graphics (Part II).
Aims
To introduce the necessary background, the basic algorithms, and the
applications of computer graphics and image processing. A large
proportion of the course considers the design and optimisation of
algorithms, so can be considered a practical application of the
lessons learnt in the Data Structures and Algorithms course.
Lectures
- Background.
What is an image? What are computer graphics, image processing, and
computer vision? How do they relate to one another? Image
capture. Image display. Human vision. Resolution and quantisation.
Colour and colour spaces.
Storage of images in memory, and double buffering.
Display devices: the inner workings of CRTs, LCDs, and
printers.
[3 lectures]
- 2D Computer graphics.
Drawing a straight line. Drawing circles and ellipses. Cubic curves:
specification and drawing. Clipping lines. Filling polygons. Clipping
polygons. 2D transformations, vectors and matrices, homogeneous
co-ordinates. ``Tricks of the trade.'' Uses of 2D graphics: HCI,
typesetting, graphic design.
[5 lectures]
- 3D Computer graphics.
Projection: orthographic and perspective. 3D transforms and
matrices. 3D clipping. 3D curves. 3D scan
conversion. z-buffer. A-buffer. Ray tracing. Lighting: theory, flat
shading, Gouraud, Phong.
Texture mapping.
[5 lectures]
- Image processing.
Operations on images: filtering, point processing, compositing.
Halftoning and dithering, error diffusion. Encoding and compression:
difference encoding, predictive, run length, transform encoding
(including JPEG). [3 lectures]
Objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to
- explain the basic function of the human eye and how this
impinges on resolution, quantisation, and colour representation
for digital images;
describe a number of colour spaces and their relative merits;
explain the workings of cathode ray tubes, liquid crystal
displays, and laser printers
- describe and explain the following algorithms: Bresenham's line
drawing, mid-point line drawing, mid-point circle drawing, Bezier
cubic drawing, Douglas and Pucker's line chain simplification,
Cohen-Sutherland line clipping, scanline polygon fill,
Sutherland-Hodgman polygon clipping, depth sort, binary space
partition tree, z-buffer, A-buffer, ray tracing, error diffusion
- use matrices and homogeneous coordinates to represent and
perform 2D and 3D transformations;
understand and use 3D to 2D projection, the viewing volume, and
3D clipping
- understand Bezier curves and patches;
understand sampling and super-sampling issues;
understand lighting techniques and how they are applied to both
polygon scan conversion and ray tracing; understand texture mapping
- explain how to use filters, point processing, and arithmetic
operations in image processing and describe a number of examples of
the use of each; explain how halftoning, ordered dither, and error
diffusion work; understand and be able to explain image compression
and the workings of a number of compression techniques
Recommended books
* Foley, J.D., van Dam, A., Feiner, S.K. & Hughes, J.F. (1990). Computer graphics: principles and practice. Addison-Wesley (2nd
ed.).
Gonzalez, R.C. & Woods, R.E. (1992). Digital image
processing. Addison-Wesley. [Gonzalez, R.C. & Wintz, P. (1977). Digital image processing is the earlier edition and is almost as
useful.]
Next: Digital Communication
Up: Lent Term 2004
Previous: Computation Theory
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Christine Northeast
Thu Sep 4 13:12:26 BST 2003