An Interactive Computer Graphics System for the Teaching of Undergraduate Optics

本项目的目的是开发一个交互式计算机图形系统，用于物理系和各工程系的高级光学课程。目前，物理和工程专业的学生从用二维黑白图纸说明基本原理的教科书和在黑板上画图形或在投影仪上展示图形的讲座中学习光学知识。这些传统的通信方法不太理想，不能提供对许多光学现象的全面和直观的了解。所需要的是一种系统，在该系统中，用户(无论是讲课的教授还是自己工作的学生)可以调用感兴趣的现象，输入他们感兴趣的参数值，然后观看该现象的三维动画可视化。我们项目的目标是开发这样一个系统，我们已经在这方面取得了重大进展。我们的系统，我们称之为光学项目(TOP)，是用C语言编写的，它使用OpenGL和Motif库分别用于图形和用户界面。完成后，TOP将包含八个模块，涉及初级/高级光学课程通常涵盖的八个主题，以及两个附加模块，涵盖因时间不足而在一学期课程中通常被省略的重要主题。每个模块将包含几个选项，用于调查不同的现象。Top将有一个“帮助”屏幕系统，以帮助用户运行可视化，并为他/她提供有关正在研究的现象的信息。这些帮助屏幕将类似于Mosaic和/或Netscape，因为它们将以HTML编写，并包含超文本链接。我们的项目将有一个由六个光学和计算机图形专家组成的顾问委员会，他们将研究模块并给我们建议。来自东南部七所大学的物理系已经同意观察TOP，并考虑将其用于他们的光学课程。

The purpose of our project is to develop an interactive computer graphics system to be used in upper-level optics courses taught in physics departments and various engineering departments.Currently physics and engineering students learn about optics from textbooks which illustrate the basic principles by means of two-dimensional black and white drawings, and from lectures in which figures are drawn on the board or presented on overhead projectors. These traditional methods for communication are less than ideal for imparting a comprehensive and intuitive understanding of many optical phenomena. What is needed is a system in which the user (be it the professor lecturing or students working on their own) can call up the phenomenon of interest, enter the parameter values they are interested in, and then watch a three-dimensional, animated visualization of the phenomena. The goal of our project is to develop such a system, and we have already made significant progress towards it. Our system, which we call The Optics Project (TOP), is written in the C programming language, and it uses the OpenGl and Motif libraries for, respectively, the graphics and the user interface. When completed, TOP will contain eight modules which address eight topics typically covered in a junior/senior optics course and two additional modules which cover important topics which are usually omitted in a one-semester course due to lack of time. Each module will contain several options which investigate different phenomena. TOP will have a system of "help" screens to aid the user run the visualizations and give him/her information on the phenomenon being studied. These help screens will be similar to Mosaic and/or Netscape in that they will be written in HTML and contain hypertext links. Our project will have an advisory board of six optics and computer graphics experts who will look at the modules and give us suggestions. Physics departments from seven universities in the Southeast have agreed to look at TOP and consider it for use in their optics courses.