Outline for Today
Introduction
Administration
Response to Responses
- How is the discretization of a continuous phenomenon achieved with regards to understanding the pixels of a display or an image?
- Each pixel on a display of an image shows the value of a discrete sample of the continuous phenomenon
- Do pixels have a specific size?
- Can you provide a full course syllabus on UR Courses?
- I had a hard time understanding some concepts
- Please don’t hesitate to ask questions during the meeting (if you are comfortable with that), send me email using UR Courses, or post to the class discussion forum on UR Courses.
- The concept of pixels being a continuous concept rather than a discrete concept. It seems to go against what I understood pixels to be before today.
- Pixels are discrete samples of a continuous phenomenon
- If a pixel can be any shape and size how do all screen appear to show non-stretched images?
- Pixels as discrete samples of a continuous phenomenon do not have size nor shape. On modern screens, these samples are displayed equally spaced in x and y (resulting in a grid of squares). To avoid stretching an image, preserve the aspect ratio
- I would like to know more about what is aliasing
- Aliasing in computer graphics refers to jagged features apparent on what should be smooth lines and curves. It is a problem of insufficient sampling
- It was mentioned that a part of our participation marks could be gained through wiki contribution. What is meant by this and how do we contribute to the wiki?
- I’ve added some information in UR Courses (under the Participation topic). It is not strictly necessary to sign up to edit the wiki, you can just do it (see Using Wiki for an introduction to wiki editing
- How can we get to volunteer to participate in research through the participant pool?
- Opportunities to participate in research will be advertised on UR Courses
- Would it be possible to get the course lecture slides?
- Yes. I am adding the textbook slides in a folder under the Meetings topic in UR Courses. The meeting pages will have other information covered during our class meetings
Today
For Next Meeting
Wiki
Link to the UR Courses wiki page for this meeting
Media
Transcript
Audio Transcript
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How's that for? Is that
helping?
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What about now? What if I talk
right into it?
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Let's See if that helps.
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How about this better? Does this
sound better? Okay, we'll try
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that. Let me know if you have
problems hearing Me.
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I Okay, so this is on my laptop.
I was going to publish it to my
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website before class, but then I
realized I needed to do
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something else. It was going to
make me late for class, so I'm
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going to do it right afterwards,
and you'll be able To see this
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on my public website. You Thank
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you. How's everyone doing today?
Good, first Monday of the
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semester.
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Anyone like Mondays? No, usually
we have two meetings a week,
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classes go, Tuesday, Thursday.
So this is a bit of a change of
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pace.
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How does that look better size?
Okay, so we started yesterday by
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going over the class structure,
and we started a discussion of
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computer graphics.
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So I just wanted to show you
what we'll get. So here's a link
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to the wiki,
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and so I've added in your
courses scheduled for wiki
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editors. So I didn't describe
this very well, or I didn't
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describe it at all the other
day, this is a place where and
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we can still so you can still
put your name down for
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yesterday's Meet, last meeting,
because
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it's just a matter of
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we can still go through the
records that were created that
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are on the page. I
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it. So that's just a way. That's
a way to participate in class,
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if you'd like to do that, get
some of those 4% marks for that.
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Another way to do that is to
attend classes and participate
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in class discussions.
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So my thought for the wiki is
that you'll take the media
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through the photos of the board.
There are nine of them here.
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Anyway go through there, and
then there's also
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transcript of my recording of
the meeting, and I'm recording
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that now, so I'll have the
pictures and the recording done
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and posted online later today.
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So the transcript may be
helpful, but
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some words are not well
transcribed. You
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so I included a bit of
discussion after class.
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I So then here I've got the
responses from last day. I i
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would say a wiki someone might
put I'd invite you to do some
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editing of those things that
have put together a highlights
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package, so to speak. If you
want to do that,
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get the key points of our of our
meetings, and possible some rep
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possibly some references to new
material, or that would support
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our discussion. Does that make
sense? Do
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so I've tried this in the past,
and it hasn't taken off, but
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maybe making it more front and
center this year this semester,
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will help.
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Anyway, so there's that. So this
is there'll be page like This
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for everything, every meeting we
have, I
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those attendance in your
courses, you can do that for
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yourselves. If the class
calendar for today, I
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now I'm wondering, Where does go
back? So upcoming events should
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show the quiz as well. I
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so from 6pm tomorrow until the
start of class on Wednesday, the
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quiz will be available. So
what'd you think of the setup so
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far? And we had some you. A
reasonably good participation. I
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guess.
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Any thoughts on that? Yeah, I
think the
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quiz room for class and response
after class model, the the epi
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class from last year. I don't
hope that quite fits the middle
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currently graphics, so I find it
kind of difficult to clear what
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service so on to after like a
given thing for like, something
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where it's really technical,
whereas with that it's more like
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open ended, like we had to go
Quandt, like big tech and like
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data harvesting from last year
was, like, something's really
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big, but I don't know If it
quite works as well for this
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class. So as well for this
class,
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okay? Well, the idea is it's not
necessarily big ideas or small
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or small ideas or technical
issues. It's just to keep the
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it's a way to in the way I see
it as a way to for you to give
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feedback. If there are questions
you're having problems with,
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hard to explain, you still have
questions about it after a
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discussion, then we'll take it
up the next day. So maybe,
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maybe it's not asking for a
philosophical answer about what
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are the important concepts? So
maybe you could focus on the
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things that get causing
difficulty, or the things you'd
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like to know more about. Maybe
the lizard.
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So I appreciate your comment,
and we'll see how it goes. But
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it's going to be still a way for
you to get
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some rewarded for your
engagement in our ongoing
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discussion this semester. Does
that make sense? I
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Okay, so I opened the can of
worms by Asking about pixels and
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1000 of that in Georgia.
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So we talked about pixels that
need samples last day, so I want
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to focus on the fact that we
don't have geometry associated
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with the pixel. So
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I wonder that wasn't a very good
way to start the class, perhaps
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talk about things that might be
difficult to Understand, but
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we'll
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talk a Little bit more today. I
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so Just a quick look at the
response, my responses, your
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responses from last day. So I
wanted to say everyone who
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submitted a response received
full marks, although I did see a
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few nos, meaning the
instructions weren't followed.
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So I'm wondering if that's Maybe
not a thoughtful response. So
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so I'll get the PDF of the
syllabus online today, later
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today, I've just had a few
technical issues.
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So who's got the textbook sorted
already. So I've had a
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discussion with the text with
the bookstore on the campus
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store, and I asked them about
this. So here's a query for the
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course materials.
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So I asked them about this,
because I go To the publisher's
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website. I
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so
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I would invite you to talk to
the campus store about this
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discrepancy, Because the manager
knows about The difference in
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price. I
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So we want to talk about the
textbook issue.
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Are there other alternatives to
get the eighth edition that are
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better still than two that I
have? I i
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guess I'm thinking about
unconsciously writing smaller
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ears so I don't have to go over
the this. Because this this
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board is fairly clean, but the
other ones are already have A
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good portion of chalk dust on
them. Anyway, I
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so just say earlier editions may
be helpful if you if you have a
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copy of the
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can you say what's being passed
around? I don't
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know. It's like a job or
opportunity then,
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Oh, okay. Thank
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so literally, additions may be
helpful the
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website for the text and
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is there? Interact computer
graphics.com, so you can see the
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source code and other details. I
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pixels ensemble and
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I should Have a chalk sharpener.
I think that would help that
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like they exist. Are you
laughing with me or at me? Okay,
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yeah, so anyway, I'm not doing
well with writing magically
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today. How many samples do we
need to reconstruct a continuous
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phenomenon?
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Any thoughts about that
theoretically,
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the more the better the
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so we're so it depends on about
the resolution of our the
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capability of our sampling
device See how much, how close
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we can Get to infinite.
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So to go back to my sifter or
strainer analogy from last day,
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how what size mesh do we need?
Or what is the size of the mesh
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we're Using? How does that
determine what we can
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reconstruct the
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smaller than a mesh and
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okay
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to know what's happening for CD
audios, audio Compact Discs. How
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many people know about audio
compact discs
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used to be that actually own
several audio discs, but maybe I
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don't think they're very popular
item these days, although vinyl
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is making a comeback, So my
turntable is as Life again once
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more. I
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so the audio, CD, format
sampling at 44 kilohertz and
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so what can you hear? 44 exams.
So people with good hearing,
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young people with good hearing.
May they want to know offhand
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with the answers, what's the
highest frequency people can
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hear you?
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So what's the so not everybody
has compared to 22 kiloHertz,
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that's a common so the one I
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so can sample 44 kilohertz, And
we can reconstruct sounds of the
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22 kiloHertz i
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Let's turn it again. So if we're
Dealing with graphics, I
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so for graphics from the sample
of twice the resolution of the
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smallest feature we want to
capture.
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So the mesh should be half as
big as the
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thing we want to capture, the
smallest thing we want to
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capture. Does that make sense? I
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behind that are Nyquist And
Shannon i
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So I
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so pixels of samples of a
continuous phenomenon don't have
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shape and just the value. So I
want to take a sample of this
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classroom.
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We which should i What would be
the most representative sample?
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Maybe the color of the chairs,
maybe the
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wood paneling or the desktops,
or thinking
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about being one, but this is
zoom down. The way these you may
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only have one pixel. So you
might only have one pixel to use
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for this, say for looking
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from the drone or further out
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in space, not
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feeling
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I feel like for every region of
space that we're sounding, we
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need To decide on the value
associated with that sound.
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So then that value we choose To
represent the sample gets so
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so the samples on display their
range, so that they're
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equidistant. So it's going to be
written with squares. So pixel,
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according
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at that grid position, displays
the value of the sound. So we're
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going to talk about this more in
detail. So
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so arch is red, green, blue.
We'll talk about that in the
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coming weeks as well, how we can
depict color, store color in the
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images that we work with. So
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so I wanted to talk a little bit
of it, since we broached the
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subject, a bit about vector
graphics, let's talk about that
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as Well. I
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So there bit about displays,
like on your my laptop and your
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laptop and so on, they have a
resolution So that and those
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pixels are addressable, and we
get so we make an image by if we
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take a picture of this
classroom, let's say, this
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continuous phenomenon. Then we
decide which the size of the
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image we're making. That we
choose the value for each of
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those samples you
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so the screens on devices are
discrete. Do we have any did
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anyone have any experience with
continuous output devices.
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Yeah,
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yes.
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So, my knowledge of
oscilloscopes is limited, but so
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there are I
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so another One that I'm thinking
of is a modern it's has anyone
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worked with the plotter before?
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So that is has a large sheet of
paper and a set of pens, and you
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can direct the pens to go and
trace out shapes and so forth.
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Maybe it's similar to a CNC
machine.
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Is that? Is that a more current
reference? I
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so the idea is we're not we're
not limited by the excellent
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addresses. We're we have a 256
by 256 image and
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so we're constraining the
element to the coordinates we
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have in the image, but in a
plotter or an oscilloscope, we
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don't have addressable units
that we're not lock step
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required.
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So that allows us to get more
fluid, fluid imagery without
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charging interest you.
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So Anyone familiar with the
cathode ray tube? I
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so We can produce drawings as we
stimulate the phosphorus from
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the back of The screen
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that where the electron beam
hits will Be we'll light up the
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screen at that position we're
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so you do the same. You
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so we can have continuous shapes
if we don't have any
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restrictions on how the beam can
move.
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So the downside is the phosphor
will only stay, will only
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continue to admit emit late for
a period of time. So we have to
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go back and refresh The image if
we want to. We
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complexity and
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effect. So alternatively, Here's
how
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Okay, shadow mask, which only
allows the electron Beam to hit
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at certain spots. So this is
development with TV.
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You scan. We're not
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having to lean on continuously
to make a shape On the spray
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when we scan through the lines
and
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so early TVs divided the image
into the frame so they would do
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the odd lines At once, and then
the even lines at a certain
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time. So you could, we still
have a problem of refresh, but
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the complexity of the graphics
can be more advanced because
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we're decided we're assigning
them to positions on the on the
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display you
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so you may have heard the word
roster before Anyone heard the
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word roster before. So that just
talks about how you scan from
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top to bottom.
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Okay, so let's say our modern
displays are dealing with
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bitmaps. So the question is,
well, how do how do we deal with
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vector graphics, where we are
drawing shapes without without
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directly being discretized. Does
that Question make sense? I
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Okay, So I
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so let's Say we have a square
filled with right to a grid,
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five by five, and at this
resolution we can draw, let's
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Say we can draw a
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so let's say we have a
resolution that where this shape
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that we've drawn is of
acceptable quality, but if we
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zoom in or make that, there's no
more data in that image. So if
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we make it larger or zoom in, I
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it. So if we store it into
Bitmap, then we're decided which
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what the resolution you want to
store it within.
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And so once we have a bitmap,
we're limited to the display
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size that we can. We
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can the size of display is
limited by the precision of the
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graphic that we've created that
we stored In bitmap form,
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if we Have a vector image.
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So this would be a higher
resolution than say,
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I'm not going to draw it. Says
I'm not going to draw it. What
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kind of resolution would you
like to see? I
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256 by 256
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so we have a description of the
shape I'm going to draw, and
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we reevaluate The formulas or
the mathematical description of
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the shape for the screen
resolution that we have. Does
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that make sense? I
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for the little graphic on the
science, it's maybe a clear
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explanation so we can so SVG,
format, Scalable Vector Graphics
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that's stores the mathematical
description of the shapes of the
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elements of the image. And so
based on the resolution that we
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choose, we're not stuck with a
very low resolution type Path,
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and we need to redo or work with
native
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a poor approximation to the so
you can see, when you zoom in on
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the raster image, we get
artifacts of the
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discretization and a lower
reservation, and we zoom in on
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the vector graphics in SVG, for
example,
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we can recompute the
discretization at the resolution
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we have so We always have smooth
graphics. Does that make sense?
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I
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so if we have a vector graphics
image, it'll take more time to
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render it, because we have to
compute the new bitmap at the
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current resolution and so, and
also save space, because
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generally the mathematical
description will be less storage
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consuming than then the set of
pixel samples, pixel values for
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the image. So bitmaps, once
they're done, they're easier to
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they're quicker to render, but
they take up more space. So
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there's a trade off between
those two kinds of graphics and
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so have I cleaned up issues that
I created on questions that I
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created on Monday or Wednesday
last week?
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They see a bit more, little
better contextualized now
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and I'm not going to
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go another day without getting
this website sorted out, both on
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your courses and on my own site,
so you can look forward to
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seeing Some posts from me today
for that i want i
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I just I had the Text open
Somewhere here i
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So I invite you to look at
chapter one for Wednesday. I
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think I recognize this from it's
part of the visible healing
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project,
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speaking about ethics. So this
was, I believe, prior my memory
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serves. This was a person who is
in prison who decided that upon
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his death, he would be frozen
and cut into slices and scanned.
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So this is why we have
exceptionally high resolution
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images of people of a person
now,
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anyway, I just seem to since
we're talking about ethics,
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ethics is never far from any
discussion that we have, I
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think. But we're going to have a
computer graphics this semester.
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Okay, any questions or concerns
before I let you go? You
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okay. Thank you for today, see
you on Wednesday
Responses
What important concept or perspective did you encounter today?
- An important concept from last meeting that was brought up was the difference between vector and bitmap graphics.
- Audio sample rates
- I started to get a grasp of raster and vecotr graphic types and how their differences affect the final product along with how they are affected by different resolution types.
- We discussed the differences between bitmapping and vector graphics and how both have advantages and disadvantages. Much like data structures and algorithms, there is never a one size fits all solution to problems in computer science. It's up to the designer to choose what tool is best for a given problem.
- The intoduction to a method of anti-aliasing known as Super-Sampling (SSAA), which can greatly improve image quality, however the method of rendering at a higher resolution does put into question the affect on performance.
- intro to vector graphics
- pixels and framebuffer
- Nature of pixels
- I loved the concept of vector graphics.Though I didn't get it very well.
- We looked at the concept of bitmap and vector graphics, which are discrete and continuous respectively.
- We encountered about pixels and vector graphics
- Bitmaps v/s Vector Graphics. Cathode Ray Tube. Pixels and Sampling. Audio CD's
- There are two types of computer graphics - vector graphics and bitmap graphics. Vector graphics can give us a clearer image, but they are too slow when compared to bitmapping/raster, which is used for most modern devices
- Today, I encountered several important concepts. Pixels are samples of continuous phenomena and don’t have shapes. I learned about display technology, distinguishing between discrete screens and continuous output devices like oscilloscopes and plotters. The professor explained how drawings are produced on Cathode Ray Tubes. Another interesting concept is that vector graphics use mathematical calculations to maintain image quality when zoomed in, saving space but potentially taking longer to render.
- We learned about vector graphics versus bitmaps. It was cool to see how vector graphics use math to describe shapes, letting them scale without like losing quality.
Was there anything today that was difficult to understand?
Was there anything today about which you would like to know more?