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The scientific computer user presents a unique challenge to the graphics system designer. If the graphics system is properly designed and implemented, computer graphics becomes a vital research tool for the scientific user. These users' desires and expectations play an important role in every phase of the design process. This paper describes the philosophy of the graphics system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its implementation. Details of algorithms are not presented; rather the purpose has been to describe a successful computer graphics system which may serve as a guide for other designers who desire to provide practical computer graphics. This graphics system operates under a batch-mode computer system without using interactive terminals.

Summary Both on‐line computing and the use of graphics terminals offer an exciting environment for teaching and research in geography. This paper looks at the hardware and software needed to make such an environment possible. Then, by concentrating on the spatial and temporal dimensions of geographical studies, it shows through a series of applications how such a system could develop.

The description of an interactive interpretive on-line computer-television system for studying the behavior of organisms is presented. The movements of organisms in a wet-slide preparation is recorded on video tape with the aid of a microscope and rendered to a computer in outline form by a video-to-digital processor. Parameters relating to the behavior of the organisms, such as velocity and rate of change of direction, are extracted with an interactive graphics system. The objective of the system is to provide the human operator a set of both high-level and primitive keyboard operations which, in conjunction with the graphics terminal, provide the tools for the successful acquisition, analysis, and display of these behavioral data.

Computer Graphics is one of the most important, far-reaching, sophisticated, and glamorous endeavors of the computer field. It can be useful to every discipline that employs to advantage the computer. At the present time it is available for all the major computer areas—input, output, programming, and debugging. Whence did it originate? Exactly what is it and how can it be used? What are its future trends? These questions are considered in this article which divides Computer Graphics into two main divisions—passive and interactive. This article describes the most popular subdivisions of passive graphics—microfilm recorders and plotters—in detail. Computer Animation and Computer-generated movies as well as the main types of display devices are included under interactive graphics. This survey article considers the history of all the main types of computer graphics; discusses the typical hardware and main attributes as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type; presents a section on computer-aided design, and a section on computer graphics professional groups and societies; and in its conclusion indicates some of the pit-falls of this powerful computing tool.

Deals with the emerging uses of computer graphics in the field of structural engineering and design, especially in the transference of numerical output into visual graphical form. Describes a Two-Dimensional Structure Analysis program through an IBM 360/50 Computer system at Lockheed-Georgia Laboratory. Civil Engineering is considered as a prime field for implementation of computer graphics, which would reduce calculation time; quantity of input would be reduced greatly by IBM program. Future expansion of computer graphics in engineering is described. Uses being developed presently include some which will display three-dimensional structural arrangements and permit broader man-machine interaction in input and output phases. Also under development is the kinematic analysis of three-dimensional mechanisms to optimize space requirements and maintain clearance. Computer graphics points the way toward better man-machine communication in all phases of design.

In these four pages, this paper can be neither a complete introduction nor a complete survey of the role of computer graphics in simulation. However, these examples drawn from the experience of the Naval Post graduate School computer laboratory will illustrate a wide class of applications which may suggest uses in other fields. The interested reader should refer to the January 1971 issue of SIMULATION (which was devoted entirely to computer graphics applications in simulation) and to the supplementary reading list at the end of this paper.

A survey of basic ideas and approaches to computer art is given. Statements are presented by several computer artists as well as illustrations of their work. Comments are made about the relationship of computer graphics to art including a brief historical sketch of developments in this area. A conceptual framework is presented for interactive art objects as an art form. Suggestions are made about the future of computer art and the importance of a relationship between art and science.

The article discusses the proximities between the concepts of scientific visualization and information architecture, understood as precursors of data visualization in its contemporary setting. In dialog with authors that shape the are, it proposes a dialog between data visualization and art, considered as a field of unexplored possibilities concering the tangibilization of complex information. O artigo discute as proximidades entre os conceitos de visualização científica e arquitetura da informação, entendidos como precursores da visualização de dados em sua configuração contemporânea. Em diálogo com autores que balizam a área, procura formular um diálogo entre a visualização de dados e a arte, considerada como campo de possibilidades não exploradas para a tangibilização de informações complexas.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS has been defined in many ways. The clearest definition, however, is still that it is an efficient (perhaps the most efficient) technique for exchanging useful information between computer and user, primarily through pictures. We will be interested here in exploring the uses of computer graphics in physics: the techniques now used and their strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the well-known methods of computer graphics, especially those useful in simulation, are reviewed qualitatively, to serve as an introduction for readers in less related fields, to the succeeding papers. Operations necessary to display points, lines, polygons, and polyhedra, both stick-figure and solid-face, including hidden line and surface removal, are discussed.© (1975) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Stand alone graphic systems and time-shared graphics provide different benefits to a user. The same is true of refresh graphics and storage displays. An operating system is described which supports these combined modes through the integration of graphics into the operating system. Realization of the role of the system, generality, and flexibility were the major factors in the development of the system. The result is a computer graphic system providing high-level interactive graphics at a relatively low cost.

SIMULATION AND COMPUTER AIDED GEOMETRIC DESIGN*Richard F. RiesenfeldUniversity of UtahSalt Lake City, Utah 84112AbstractThis paper discusses the traditional design process as it often applies to geometric design, and thenit examines a new organization of the design process in which computer simulation plays a central role.Some future developments in computer aided geometric design are anticipated.While the term computer simulation has had a rather strong statistical connotation in the past, it iscoming into more common use as a broader term that refers to a procedure that invokes a computer model, notnecessarily a statistical computer model. Computer graphics, or more precisely, image synthesis, hasdeveloped to the degree that it is now possible to generate relatively complex scenes in real -time with aconvincing semblance to "reality." This is to say, computer generated pictures are approaching the"reality" that one would see on a television monitor or on a photograph that reproduces a real life scene.We might say that in certain cases computer graphics has already passed the visual Turing test of synthe-sizing images which are indistinguishable to an observer from a corresponding nonsynthesized image.The advancement of computer graphics has also brought on a wide acceptance and preponderance of inex-pensive basic line drawing computer graphics equipment and techniques. A modern computing facility isexpected to offer some line drawing graphical devices like a storage tube terminal and a plotter for hard

Computer graphics was conceived as, and remains for the most part, a line-drawing phenomenon. The cautious management of display lists or of in-line vector generators has captured most of the attention of researchers in computer graphics. Cathode ray tubes with randomly positionable beams have served as the primary medium for this research and development. The underlying position of this paper is that the future of computer graphics does not lie in ‘vectored’ displays but in raster scan television, conceivably as we know it in our homes. This posture is motivated by arguments of cost and compatibility, but the most salient motivation comes in view of the ubiquitous nature of raster scan display technologies. This paper explains a way to implement an image processing approach to computer graphics, one that is conceptually straightforward and, in terms of hardware, fairly easy to design. A device is being built that encompases as much as is known about raster scan, multi-bit per point displays. The work described is conducted, principally, to produce a multi-bit per point graphics output device that dynamically shares its image storage with the memory space of an expanded mini-computer.

A new two-dimensional graphics modeling program which has been fully implemented is introduced. Features include a generalized extendable graphics editor, an open-ended library of elements, a translator -macro processor for interface with a wide range of analysis routines, and on-line operating system control.

This article outlines some of the problems associated with the use of computer graphics and describes some applications in the physical and biological sciences.

One of the most important, far-reaching, sophisticated, and glamorous endeavors of the computer field is computer graphics. It reaches into the major computer areas of input, output, programming and debugging. It can be useful to every discipline that employs to advantage the computer. From whence came this powerful tool? What is is? What is its future? Answers to these questions are included in the scope of this article. It divides computer graphics into two main divisions - passive and interactive. The passive division includes microfilm recorders, ink pen recorders, plotters, and printers. Under the interactive division are grouped computer animation and computer-generated movies. This survey article considers the history of all the major groups of computer graphics: a discussion of the typical hardware of each; and a section on computer-aided design as well as one on computer graphics professional groups and societies, In the appendicies are a comprehensive glossary of computer graphics terminology and a bibliography of over 650 items.

The views and comments expressed here are not from a computer scientist but rather from a user of computer graphics who has only a very limited understanding of the machine and the processes that instruct these machines to perform certain functions However, I am involved in developing some systems and programs that will assist the architect or engineer in the practice of his profession, namely that of creating buildings or physical structures, from their early planning stage to their final occupancy.

The scientific computer user presents a unique challenge to the graphics system designer. If the graphics system is properly designed and implemented, computer graphics becomes a vital research tool for the scientific user. These users' desires and expectations play an important role in every phase of the design process.This paper describes the philosophy of the graphics system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its implementation. Details of algorithms are not presented; rather the purpose has been to describe a successful computer graphics system which may serve as a guide for other designers who desire to provide practical computer graphics. This graphics system operates under a batch-mode computer system without using interactive terminals.

Computer graphics is already proving itself to be an extremely valuable and exciting field. The previous sections dealing with hardware and software systems and their applications inspire an atmosphere of confident anticipation for the future of graphics. It appears to be generally accepted that the present trend towards decreasing terminal costs and increasing system flexibility will be maintained and even accelerated.