Give the summary of the text using the key terms. Topics for essays (you might need additional information):

 

 

Topics for essays (you might need additional information):

 

· The Information Age and the increased vulnerability of sensitive data.

· Cryptography, cryptology, cryptanalysis, and their interrelation.

· Historical insight into the development of cryptography and cryptology.

· The evolution of modern encryption.

· The challenges of quantum cryptology.

 


 

COMPUTER GRAPHICS

 

 

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

 

Read the following words and word combinations and use them for understanding and translation of the text:

 

in a sense- в широком смысле

to be widespread- быть распространенным

to improve- улучшать

to emerge- возникать, появляться

visual content- визуальное содержание

rendering- передача

to be coined by- быть созданным

amendable- поддающийся улучшению

to be hooked up to- быть подключенным к чему-либо

forbidding- запрещающий

non-obvious uses- неявные, неосновные использования

 

The term computer graphics has been used in a broad sense to describe "almost everything on computers that is not text or sound".

Computer graphics is widespread today. The computer imagery is found on television, in newspapers, for example in weather reports, or for example in all kinds of medical investigation and surgical procedures. A well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to understand and interpret. In the media "such graphs are used to illustrate papers, reports, thesis", and other presentation material.

Many powerful tools have been developed to visualize data. Computer generated imagery can be categorized into several different types: 2D, 3D, and animated graphics. As technology has improved, 3D computer graphics have become more common, but 2D computer graphics are still widely used. Computer graphics has emerged as a sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content. Over the past decade, other specialized fields have been developed like information visualization, and scientific visualization more concerned with "the visualization of three dimensional phenomena (architectural, meteorological, medical, biological, etc.), where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps with a dynamic (time) component".

The phrase “Computer Graphics” was coined in 1960 by William Fetter, a graphic designer for Boeing. The field of computer graphics developed with the emergence of computer graphics hardware. Early projects like the Whirlwind and SAGE Projects introduced the CRT as a viable display and interaction interface and introduced the light pen as an input device.

Most early mainframe business computers produced out- put only in the form of punched cards, paper tape, or text printouts. However, system designers realized that some kinds of data were particularly amenable to a graphical representation. In the early 1950s, the first systems using the cathode ray tube (CRT) for graphics output found specialized application. For example, the MIT Whirlwind and the Air Force’s SAGE air defense system used a CRT to display information such as the location and heading of radar targets. By the late 1970s, the microcomputers from Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, and others either included CRT monitors or had adapters that allowed them to be hooked up to regular television sets. These machines generally came with a version of the BASIC language that included commands for plotting lines and points and filling enclosed figures with color. While crude by modern standards, these graphics capabilities meant that spreadsheet programs could provide charts while games and simulations could show moving, interacting objects. Desktop computers showed pictures on television-like screens. Research at the Xerox PARC laboratory in the 1970s demonstrated the advantages of a graphical user interface based on visual objects, including menus, windows, dialog boxes, and icons.

The Apple Macintosh, introduced in 1984, was the first commercially viable computer in which everything displayed on the screen (including text) consisted of bitmapped graphics. Microsoft’s similar Windows operating environment became dominant on IBM architecture PCs during the 1990s.

Today Apple, Microsoft, and UNIX-based operating systems include extensive graphics functions. Game and multimedia developers can call upon such facilities as Apple QuickDraw and Microsoft Directx to create high resolution, realistic graphics.

 

What is computer graphics used for?

Obvious uses of computer graphics include computer art, CGI films, architectural drawings, and graphic design — but there are many non-obvious uses as well and not all of them are "artistic." Scientific visualization is a way of producing graphic output from computer models so it's easier for people to understand. Computerized models of global warming produce vast tables of numbers as their output, which only a PhD in climate science could figure out; but if you produce a speeded-up animated visualization — with the Earth getting bluer as it gets colder and redder as it gets hotter — anyone can understand what's going on. Medical imaging is another good example of how graphics make computer data more meaningful. When doctors show you a brain or body scan, you're looking at a computer graphic representation drawn using vast amounts of data produced from thousands or perhaps even millions of measurements. The jaw-dropping photos beamed back from space by amazing devices like the Hubble Space Telescope are usually enhanced with the help of a type of computer graphics called image processing; that might sound complex, but it's not so very different from using a graphics package like Google Picasa or PhotoShop to touch up your holiday snaps).

And that's really the key point about computer graphics: they turn complex computer science into everyday art we can all grasp, instantly and intuitively. Back in the 1980s, when programming a Commodore PET, the only way to get it to do anything was to type meaningless little words like PEEK and POKE onto a horribly unfriendly green and black screen. Virtually every modern computer now has what's called a GUI (graphical user interface), which means you operate the machine by pointing at things you want, clicking on them with your mouse or your finger, or dragging them around your "desktop." It makes so much more sense because we're visual creatures: something like a third of our cortex (higher brain) is given over to processing information that enters our heads through our eyes. That's why a picture really is worth a thousand words (sometimes many more) and why computers that help us visualize things with computer graphics have truly revolutionized the way we see the world.

 

Notes:

CRT- мониторы (Cathode Ray Tube) - самый распростра­ненный тип. Как видно из названия, в основе всех подоб­ных мониторов лежит катодно-лучевая трубка, или, как принято говорить в отечественной литературе, электронно-лучевая трубка (ЭЛТ).

Microsoft Directx - Microsoft DirectX - это ряд технологий, благодаря которым компьютеры на основе Windows стано­вятся идеальной средой для запуска и отображения прило­жений, богатых элементами мультимедиа, такими как цветная графика, видео, трехмерная анимация и стерео­звук. DirectX включает обновления, повышающие безопас­ность и производительность, а также новые функции, отно­сящиеся к различным технологиям, к которым приложение может обращаться с помощью DirectX API.

Assignments

 

1. Translate the sentences from the texts into Russian in writing paying attention to the underlined words and phrases:

 

1. A well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to understand and interpret.

2. Many powerful tools have been developed to visualize data.

3. Over the past decade, other specialized fields have been developed like information visualization.

4. The phrase “Computer Graphics” was coined in 1960 by William Fetter.

5. The field of computer graphics developed with the emergence of computer graphics hardware.

6. By the late 1970s, the microcomputers from Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, and others either included CRT monitors or had adapters that allowed them to be hooked up to regular television sets.

2. Answer the following questions:

 

1. Where can the computer imagery be seen?

2. From what sub-field of computer science did the computer graphics emerge?

3. Who coined the term “computer graphics”?

4. What are the main steps of computer graphics development?

5. What are the main fields of computer graphiсs application?

 

3. Translate into English:

 

Область применения компьютерной графики не огра­ничивается одними художественными эффектами. Во всех отраслях науки, техники, медицины, в коммерческой и управленческой деятельности используются построенные с помощью компьютера схемы, графики, диаграммы, пред­назначенные для наглядного отображения разнообразной информации. Конструкторы, разрабатывая новые модели автомобилей и самолетов, используют трехмерные графи­ческие объекты, чтобы представить окончательный вид из­делия. Архитекторы создают на экране монитора объемное изображение здания, и это позволяет им увидеть, как оно впишется в ландшафт.