Visual Communication: Gateway to the Brain

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Visual Communication Gateway to the Brain

• Of the several senses giving us information
  about things and events in the world around us,
  none is richer than the visual one.
• In this chapter
• How important is vision to the communication
  process?
• How are pictures stored within the computer?
• What can be done with digitized pictures?
• How can pictures be created using a computer and
  software?

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Introduction

• A picture is worth a thousand words.

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Processing Existing Images

• Digitized image A picture that has been
  converted into digital form for storage within a
  computers memory.
• Hurricane Andrew making landfall.

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Processing Existing Images
Black and white images require only 1 bit for
each pixel.
Gray-scale pictures require more bits per pixel.
In this case, 8 shades of gray are used. 000
for white 001 for very light gray 010 011 shad
es between 100 white and black 101 110 for
very dark gray 111 for black

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Processing Existing Images

• Color images
• Standard Broadcast television images
• Use thousands of pixels, streamed together.
• To be displayed, each pixel needs 3 numbers for
  the amount of Red light, Green light, and Blue
  light (RGB).

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Processing Existing Images

• Computer and other digital graphics systems
  images
• Also work in RGB
• Each pixels color is derived from a single
  number containing the amount of red, green and
  blue.
• 8 bits are needed for 256 colors
• 16 bits gives thousands of colors
• 24 or 32 bits gives millions of colors

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Processing Existing Images

• Cape Cod.

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Processing Existing Images

• Processing Digital Images Once stored in a
  computers memory, an image can be altered.
• Image enhancement A type of processing whose
  goal is to highlight or enhance particular
  aspects of an image or even change the structure
  of the image itself.
• False-coloring An example of Image enhancement
  that changes the normal visual colors of an image
  so as to emphasize detail.

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Processing Existing Images

• Great lakes area.

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Processing Existing Images

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Processing Existing Images

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Processing Existing Images

• Image restoration The process of eliminating
  known, but unwanted, image flaws or degradations.

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Creating Images Line Art

• Bit-mapped
• or Raster graphical images
• Constructed of individual pixels
• Only crude manipulation can be done (modification
  of each pixel)
• Retains bit-mapped appearance

• Object-oriented
• or Vector graphic images
• Stored in the computer as lines, curves, or
  geometric shapes
• Formulas are used to draw (circles, twice the
  size, are still circles!)
• Objects can be moved or modified easily

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Designing 3-dimensional pictures drawn in
  2-dimensions
• Curved surfaces
• Color
• Texture
• Shading

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Hidden-line problem Concerns itself with how to
  hide the outlines or surfaces of a solid object
  that shouldnt be seen from the direction of the
  observation.
• Studies of and airline pilot in action.

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Perspective The quality that allows
  3-dimensional images to be drawn on 2-dimensional
  surfaces and yet retain the look of a
  3-dimensional image.

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Shading A technique used to give the appearance
  of illumination by some combination of light
  sources.

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Curved surfaces Shading is added to flat
  surfaces. Then the computer smears out or blends
  in the shading to smooth the facets.

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Creating Images Solid Forms to 3D

• Texture A property of a surface. It is observed
  and identified by how light is reflected off the
  surface of the object in the image.
• Incorporating perspective, shading, texture and
  color.

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Creating Images Animation

• Animation 20 years ago
• Cartoons had to have the figures drawn by artists
  
• The animator would make them move while taking
  pictures, frame by frame
• Now
• Computers are used to create full length feature
  cartoons

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Creating Images Animation

• A frame from the computer animated movie, Toy
  Story.

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Creating Images Animation

• Morphing A graphics technique used in animation
  where a beginning image will distort and change
  in a predetermined number of frames into a final
  image.

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Visualization of Information

• Images can reveal information that is not
  normally sensed by the human eye.
• False coloring of satellite images
• Blood flow of the heart
• Turbulence of a jet engine
• Population growth of the United States
• Population densities of the U.S. in 1979
• Sounds made by a flexing human knee

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Visualization of Information

• Population densities of the U.S. in 1979.

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Creating Images Visual Art

• Harold Cohen created an expert system called
  AAORN to create art.

Early drawings by AARON
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Creating Images Visual Art

• AARON draws and colors in the drawings.
• AARON continues to learn under Cohens tutelage.