FB 4 Internationale Media and Computing MeSoII: Media Software II Sommersemester 2003

Okay, here we go! You folks now know so much about making Java programs work, we are going to develop our own IMI PicShop in the lab! Just kidding. We want to look at how Photoshop works on the pictures from the inside. The is done in Java with the JAI libraries. I can get the tutorial to work on the Windows side in the lab, and the demo to work on the Unix side.

1. There's a demo under /usr/lib/java/demo/jai on the Unix side. Go there and use the script runjai.sh to have a look at the amazing possibilities that JAI offers. Then reboot to the Windows side, so that we can see the tutorial. Don't ask my why, I don't know. Ms. Schmiedecke has tried it in VG 207, she can get the demo to run in 207, check out the screen shots.
2. Try and make a little tiny program that is an applet or an application and that has a titlebar proudly proclaimint it to be IMI PicShop and having some menu buttons. I suggest starting out with File / (New / Open / Save / Exit) and perhaps a Help. Open should open a picture file and display it on the frame. Make sure this works before going on.
3. Now start looking at the Advanced Imaging tutorial found at http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/javaai/. Do not panic! There are two panes, one written in a language resembling English but full of graphics art terminology, and one with a tabbed pane. The first tab shows the results, the second one shows the code behind the scenes. Spend no more than an hour looking around at the cool stuff here. Report on what you play with.
4. Can you take the code for resizing the image, add a menu item to your IMI PicShop such as Edit / Size, and make this work? That is, can your IMI PicShop now read in a file, resize it and write it back out again? Check out the Image API for hints on storing images.
5. Now choose some other feature such as histogramm. Can you include it into your IMI PicShop?
6. The bored can now go hog-wild* and keep stuffing in features until they can't look straight any more! I want to hear about all the cool stuff you got to work!

* From Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language:

hog-wild, adj. Informal. wildly or intemperately enthusiastic or excited.

The URL to your report, which will describe what you did during the exercise and include links to your code, is due in email box of your instructor by 8.00 next Wednesday. Do not forget to put your names on the top of the report! It is also a good idea put the number of the exercise somewhere in the title of your report.... When you send the URL of the report to your instructor, always include your partner in the CC. That way we don't get either 2 emails or none, because each or your thought the other was sending it. This has the added advantage that when we answer you, we can immediately answer both of you without having to look up the email account of your partner.