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Computer Graphics as anIntroduction to ComputingC. K. Clutterbuck a & T Ishwarwood aa Lecturer in Technical and Computer Graphics, BristolPolytechnic Department of Graphics, Faculty of Art andDesign , Clanage Road, Bristol, Englandb Lecturer in Mathematics and Computing, BristolPolytechnic Department of Computer Studies andMathematics, Faculty of Computing, Mathematics andScience , Unity Street, Bristol, EnglandPublished online: 17 May 2010.

To cite this article: C. K. Clutterbuck & T Ishwarwood (1974) Computer Graphics as anIntroduction to Computing, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science andTechnology, 5:3-4, 463-470, DOI: 10.1080/0020739740050322

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Int. J. Math. Educ. Sci. Technol., VOL. 5, 463-470 (1974)

Computer Graphics as an Introduction to Computing

C. K. CLUTTERBUCK

Lecturer in Technical and Computer Graphics, Bristol Polytechnic Department of Graphics,Faculty of Art and Design, Clanage Road, Bristol, England

AND

T. ISHERWOOD

Lecturer in Mathematics and Computing, Bristol Polytechnic Department of Computer Studies andMathematics, Faculty of Computing, Mathematics and Science, Unity Street, Bristol, England

SummaryA paper presenting the proposition that Computer Graphics is a form of introduction tocomputing in Further and Higher Education for students from Secondary Education withsome knowledge of the subject, but particularly a method of capturing the interest of theuninitiated or sceptical student. The integration of computer studies into the Bristol Poly-technic Graphic Design courses is briefly explained and the co-operation of Graphics Depart-ment staff and Computing Mathematics and Science Department staff to ensure a broadcoverage of computing principles. Co-operation with staff in the University of Bristol Com-puter Unit provided satisfactory studies for students in the early stages of development ofcomputing in the graphics courses by achieving suitable output from limited computer powerby the adaptation of existing packages. Graphics packages are suggested, even for studentswith little graphics knowledge because of their clearly defined requirements for standardcomputing practice—data preparation, visualizing, error identification, up-dating, informationretrieval and data files. The Bristol Polytechnic Graphics Department philosophy is thatthe computer studies for their design students are 'middle-of-the-road'; neither biasedtowards Computer Aided Design in the engineer's or architect's terms, nor the abstractterms of the Computer Arts Society.

Development within the Bristol Polytechnic Faculty of Art and Design

Computer studies within the Graphics Department of Bristol Polytechnic developedfrom the Technical Illustration studies established in the courses from 1957 and thelogical problem-solving techniques in the Diploma of Art and Design Graphics course.

The disciplines of scale perspective and metric drawing lead directly to translation intocomputer graphics, where output is to be in the form of illustrations or diagrams.1 Thefinite logical determination of all aspects of any problem in order to obtain a solutionby computer processing is exactly the same as that which must be applied by a graphicdesigner.2 An encouraging degree of co-operation from the staff of the PolytechnicComputer Centre and the Bristol University Computer Centre to get some actual outputproved the value of electronic data processing as a design tool.

Philosophy of Computer Graphics in a Graphic Design Course

The policy within the Bristol Polytechnic Graphics Department is to direct computerstudies, not particularly towards Computer Aided Design as it is understood in engineer-ing or architecture, nor the 'Cybernetic Serendipity' terms of the Computer Arts Society.

Received 8 April 1974© 1974 by CAMET

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464 C. K. CLUTTERBUCK AND T. ISHERWOOD

The policy is a very broadly based approach where computer processing can be used toextend the designer's capacity for visualising ideas; allow much more experiment with theillustration of forms and shapes than is possible manually; and take over repetitivedrawing work which is time-consuming. This policy includes the conviction that thecombined work of the graphic designer and the typographer will ensure that the generaloutput from computers is also visually acceptable in human rather than just machineterms.

This paper presents the details of the Bristol Polytechnic Computer Graphics studieswith the suggestion that other areas of Further and Higher Education may find graphicsa suitable and indeed fascinating method of introducing electronic data processing tostudents who already realize the potential of the computer, and also disinterested studentswho may reject, through ignorance, something which could immensely increase theiroutput capacities in their special subjects with a consequent increase in job satisfaction,whether that job is academic or vocational.

Introductory DifficultiesThe problems of introducing computer studies in the Bristol Polytechnic GraphicsDepartment were many and varied:

(a) The staff had a limited knowledge of programming and general computer processingprinciples.

(b) Computer equipment within the Polytechnic was limited at first to an ICL 1900series computer with only card input and line-printer output.

(c) Integration of computer studies was difficult in an already very full graphic designsyllabus.

The Polytechnic situation made it possible to call on the expertise of staff in the Comput-ing, Mathematics and Science Department to augment the work of the design staff inthe Graphics Department. The introductory difficulties as the mathematics departmentstaff saw them were:

(a) A vast range of mathematical background amongst the graphics students.(b) Indifference, and in some cases, antagonism.(c) The need to show the widest possible area of applications to meet the varying

interests of the students.(d) The stimulation of particular student's ideas and help to develop them.

Encouragement to overcome initial difficulties came from correspondence with WilliamFetter in the United States, reference to his book3 and conversations in his office inSeattle where he was in charge of computer graphics applications for the Boeing AircraftCorporation. At this point, too, co-operation appeared from Ian Parsons of the Univer-sity of Bristol Computer Centre. Ian had developed a computer perspective program andhad been experimenting with geometric shapes to prove the mathematical functions ofthe sub-routines.

Making Use of Limited Computer EquipmentAt first the Bristol Polytechnic was without any computer peripheral capable of producingdrawings or plots, but Ian Parsons wrote into his program instructions to produce line-printer listings of XYZ co-ordinates, transformed to AT perspective co-ordinates. TheseXY co-ordinates could then be plotted on to graph paper to produce scale perspectivedrawings.

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COMPUTER GRAPHICS AS AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING 465

By using this line-printer output, computer studies developed within the GraphicsDepartment, as any student was able to produce any number of perspectives of a givensubject reasonably quickly, although the plotting on to graph paper was somewhattime-consuming.

Diversification of Graphics SubjectsBristol students now experiment with almost any subject that appeals to them, such as:

Contours of Bristol District using Ordnance Survey data.Time-lapse camera effects using a conventionalized daffodil shape.Sequential drawings simulating movement along a corridor in the Faculty building—

intended to be developed into a project to determine the design of motorway signingsystems.

Movements of an Austin Maxi using the overall measurements taken from an actualcar.

The beginnings of an ergonomic exercise using a human figure form with 600 co-ordinate points.

The ergonomic exercise is an example of the determination that can be aroused incertain students when they are 'given their heads' and at the same time, have 'hands-on'access to some computer power. All these varying subjects are experiments in the secondyear of a Graphic Design Course and are encouraging students to use a computer along

(OX ANIMATION PROJICT

lltVATIOH A CltVATION D

Figure 1. Part of the data preparation for a telephone kiosk animation sequence—allocation of sequentialnumbers to points on the object

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466 C. K. CLUTTERBUCK AND T. ISHERWOOD

Figure 2. 'Cybernetic serendipity' (happy accident)—an example of scale error in the compilation ofexecutive instructions in a graphics program

with all the other 'tools-of-the-trade'—typewriters, typescales, drafting machines,drawing instruments—to achieve professional design results.

The Method of Introduction to Principles of Computing

Computer usage via the Graphics Package. How does this work?

Item 1. Students new to computing are introduced to the fact that programs exist forspecific purposes.

Some guidance may be needed on graphics terminology and determination ofXYZ co-ordinates, but most will have touched on basic geometry and/ortechnical drawing at school (Figure 1).

The package description of how to prepare a listing of co-ordinates for pro-cessing should not be difficult to follow, and is as good an introduction as any todata preparation.

Item 2. Students must now practice another essential of computer processing—visualiz-ing the required end result precisely so that explicit executive instructions can beprepared in a correct sequence.

This visualizing of a pictorial end-product may cause some difficulties for

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COMPUTER GRAPHICS AS AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING 467

Figure 3. Error identification on initial graph-plotter output of section lines of a Britannia yacht

Figure 4. Varying results of output from one list of co-ordinate data illustrated by an original representa-tion of a human figure compiiedfrom a few basic shapes, and a later development with the co-ordinatesincreased to make use of seven shape systems. A program devised in the 1960's under the direction ofWilliam A. Fetter for engineering development projects with the Boeing Aircraft Corporation, Seattle,

U.S.A.

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C. K. CLUTTERBUCK AND T. ISHERWOOD

those no, used «o worWns on a

changeable lenses on a camera, or the prmoptaItem 3. What comes from a student'S grapta " ^

to

details are

4. i o n ! r e q u i r e d t 0 v a r y i n gresults from a given data listing (Figure 4).

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COMPUTER GRAPHICS AS AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING 469

i • • , • ' •

:::::::! I M :: : !s ,

• - S i , j

r r-

- ' S I

!

i 1

- - • - 1

E -.. -

Figure 6. Co-ordinate data listing for the telephone kiosk animation sequence retrieved by the ICLgraphics package in the form of XY co-ordinates for plotting onto graph paper

Calling for a number of alternative views from a perspective package is aneasy introduction to information retrieval from a data file.

Accumulating a Package LibraryThe Ian Parsons perspective program is prepared as a standard package for the BristolPolytechnic computer library. It allows the user to produce a number of differentperspectives and gives an introduction to sub-routines with a basic computer program.

One sub-routine gives sequential drawings showing the subject turning round andround. Another makes the subject appear to go away in the distance or come closer to theobserver. (In one experiment with the Austin Maxi data an eye position was given, inerror, in the centre of the car. The plotter coped with the computer's calculations to drawthe front of the car but admitted defeat when trying to draw the calculated view of therear as though it had 'eyes-in-the-back-of its head'. Proving, incidently, that it would bepossible to illustrate the effect of being run over by the same Maxi!) Other sub-routinesallow movement of the eye position and enlargement or reduction of the co-ordinates of

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470 C. K. CLUTTERBUCK AND T. ISHERWOOD

LINE REPRESENTING

A PICTURE PLANE

EYE POSITION

DATUM POINT

PERSPECTIVE POINT-INTERSECTION ON LINE FROMEYE POSITION TO POINT IN SPACE

POINT IN SPACEOR ON A GIVEN OBJECT

INTERSECTION -DATUM TO POINT IN SPACE

Figure 7. Triangulation principle for the production of scale perspective illustrations

width or height. Using a combination of these sub-routines a student begins to competewith Tom and Jerry!

Students also make use of the ICL Perspective Program which is fully documented inthe ICL Graph Plotter Manual. This gives the executive instructions required to producevariations of perspective views or an isometric drawing from one data file of co-ordinates(Figures 5 and 6).

This ICL program deals with a limited number of co-ordinates, but any complicatedsubject can be broken down into separate parts. The program includes a facility forproducing mirror images by which data compilation for some subjects may be halved.

A RecommendationIn presenting this description of the computer graphics work at Bristol Polytechnic, itis suggested that others may be encouraged to work in a similar way to extend the scopeof computing to students from secondary education with some knowledge of the subjectand as an original way of introduction for the uninitiated or sceptical student.

It is the relative ease of getting 'hands-on' to a computer by using graphics packagesand seeing a visually understandable output which is stressed. Once over the initial'driving-test' of actually obtaining some interesting output, students can then make theirown way in any direction of computing science that fires their interest—and at their ownspeed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. C. K. Clutterbuck, 3-D Scale Drawing, English Universities Press, 1966.2. R. Taylor, A Basic Course in Graphic Design, Studio Vista, 1971.3. W. A. Fetter, Computer Graphics in Communication, McGraw-Hill, 1965.4. M. H. Pirenne, Optics, Painting and Photography, Cambridge University Press, 1970.5. R. Court, Fortran for Beginners, Holmes McDougall, 1970.

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