The Merging Of Computer Graphics And Image Processing Technologies And Applications

Historically, computer graphics and image processing technologies and applications have been distinct, both in their research communities and in their hardware and software product suppliers. Computer graphics deals with synthesized visual depictions of outputs from computer models*, whereas image processing (and analysis) deals with computational operations on input data from "imaging sensors"**. Furthermore, the fundamental storage and computational aspects of these two fields are different from one another. For example, many computer graphics applications store data using vector formats whereas image processing applications generally use raster formats. Computer graphics applications may involve polygonal representations, floating point operations, and mathematical models of physical phenomena such as lighting conditions, surface reflecting properties, etc. Image processing applications may involve pixel operations, fixed point representations, global operations (e.g. image rotations), and nonlinear signal processing algorithms.