TITLE: Monitor Scanner
NAME: Karl Sack
COUNTRY: Canada (Bradford, Ontario)
EMAIL: an692@torfree.net
WEBPAGE: None
TOPIC: Glass
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: emr2000.jpg
ZIPFILE: emr2000.zip
RENDERER USED: POV-Ray 3.0
TOOLS USED: LView Pro 1.A/16-bit for Windows 3.1 (mmedia@world.std.com)
RENDER TIME: 23h 42m 17s (3489 frame level objects and 1 infinite)
HARDWARE USED: IBM 486; Pentium 133; Hewlett Packard ScanJet IIc
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

 MY LATEST PROJECT IS LYING ON THE WORKBENCH COMPLETED AND WORKING!
 FROM L TO R YOU SEE: A COMPUTER MONITOR DISPLAYING A SCENE; THE PHOTO-
 SENSITIVE MATRIX WHICH TRANSLATES THE SCENE ON THE MONITOR INTO AN
 ARRAY OF VOLTAGE LEVELS; THE MAIN RAYTRACER UNIT DECODING THE INPUT
 SIGNALS INTO COMMANDS FOR THE ROBOT ARMS; THE ARMATRON (TM) ASSEMBLING
 THE IMAGE ONTO THE LITE BRITE (TM) MONITOR.

 A HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTO SENSITVE MATRIX (NOT SHOWN) WAS USED IN THE
 SAME WAY TO CREATE THE ETCH-A-SKETCH PICTURE WHICH WAS DONE BY THE SAME
 RAYTRACER BUT ONLY IN 'VECTOR GRAPHICS MODE' INSTEAD OF 'RASTER
 GRAPHICS MODE'.

 FOR A FEW DAYS I WAS TRYING TO COME UP WITH A SCENE ABOUT GLASS (OR
 SOMETHING THAT IS SEMI-TRANSPARENT) AND THEN IT HIT ME! MY YOUNGER SON
 WAS PLAYING WITH HIS LITE BRITE TOY, GOT MAD, THREW THE PEGS UP IN THE
 AIR AND THAT'S WHEN IT HIT ME...RIGHT ON THE HEAD! MY OLDER SON WAS
 PLAYING WITH THE ARMATRON, THAT I HAD BOUGHT MANY MANY YEARS AGO,
 PICKING UP THE LITTLE LITE BRITE PEGS. I PUT THEM BOTH TOGETHER; ADDED
 THE ETCH-A-SKETCH, AS ANOTHER SOURCE OF RAYTRACING, THAT I USED TO PLAY
 WITH WHEN I WAS A KID...AND VOILA!! THERE WAS A PROJECT IN THE MAY 1985
 ISSUE OF RADIO ELECTRONICS (R) THAT I HAD BUILT TO CONTROL THE ARMATRON
 AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE NEAT TO HAVE THE ROBOT DO THE LITE BRITE
 PICTURE. THE LOW RESOLUTION IMAGE SCANNER TO 'READ IN' THE IMAGE FROM
 THE SCREEN CAN BE USED WITH ANY OTHER IMAGE SOURCE AS LONG AS THERE IS LIGHT
 COMING FROM THE IMAGE (EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY).


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

 ALL OBJECTS WERE CREATED BY HAND USING CSG. THAT IS WHY THERE ARE NO
 COMPLICATED OBJECTS IN THE SCENE. I'M FAIRLY NEW TO POVRAY AND HAVE
 NOT MASTERED THE GREAT THINGS IT CAN DO (HALO; BEZIER PATCHES; ETC.).

 I WAS TRYING TO THINK OF A WAY TO COLOUR EACH PEG WITH THE CORRECT
 COLOUR WITHOUT ACTUALLY HAVING TO DEFINE EACH PEG SEPARATELY. WHAT I
 DID WAS TO TAKE A 640 BY 480 IMAGE AND RESIZE IT TO 32 BY 24 THEN
 RESIZE IT AGAIN BACK TO 640 BY 480. THIS GAVE ME A 'MOSAIC' IMAGE OF
 COLOURED SQUARES 20 PIXELS IN SIZE. THIS IMAGE WAS THEN MAPPED OVER THE
 32 BY 24 ARRAY OF PEGS IN POVRAY. THERE ARE MORE 'PIXELS' IN THE
 ACTUAL LITE BRITE TOY BUT IT SLOWED DOWN THE RAYTRACING TIME AND USED
 UP A LOT MORE MEMORY (SOMETHING I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF...YET!).

 THE ETCH-A-SKETCH DRAWING WAS DONE BY TAKING THE SAME INPUT IMAGE
 TURNING IT INTO A B/W IMAGE AND APPLYING A FILTER TO DEFINE THE EDGES.
 THE FILE NAMES ARE PCIMAGE.TGA (FOR THE MONITOR IMAGE), LBIMAGE.TGA
 (FOR THE LIE BRITE IMAGE), ESIMAGE.TGA (FOR THE ETCH-A-SKETCH IMAGE).

 THE LOW-RESOLUTION SCANNER IS AN ARRAY (32 x 24) OF SHAPED MAGNIFYING GLASSES.
 EACH UNIT FOCUSES THE LIGHT FROM AN AREA OF PIXELS ON THE MONITOR (20 x 20)
 ONTO A PHOTO-ELECTRIC SENSOR WIRED IN A MATRIX FORM.

 THE TWO PARTS CABINETS ARE MADE OF PLASTIC WITH PLEXIGLASS DRAWERS.
 

