Lighting/shading Patents (Class 345/426)
  • Patent number: 11341738
    Abstract: A probabilistic model is provided based on an output of a matching procedure that matches a particular object to representations of objects, where the probabilistic model relates a probability of an object being present to a number of matching features. The probabilistic model is used for detecting whether a particular object is present in received visual data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Open Text Corporation
    Inventor: George Saklatvala
  • Patent number: 11341709
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for merging primitives and coordinating between vertex and ray transformations on a shared transformation unit. For example, one embodiment of a graphics processor comprises: a queue comprising a plurality of entries; ordering circuitry/logic to order triangles front to back within the queue; pairing circuitry/logic to identify triangles in the queue sharing an edge and to merge the triangles sharing an edge to produce merged triangle pairs; and shared transformation circuitry to alternate between performing vertex transformations on vertices of the merged triangle pairs and to performing ray transformations on ray direction/origin data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Woop, Prasoonkumar Surti, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Carsten Benthin, Joshua Barczak, Saikat Mandal
  • Patent number: 11341110
    Abstract: A hierarchy is a multi-level linked structure of nodes, wherein the hierarchy represents data relating to a set of one or more items to be processed. Where there are multiple input hierarchies, it may improve the efficiency of the processing of the items to merge the input hierarchies to form a merged hierarchy. The hierarchies are merged by identifying two or more sub-hierarchies within the input hierarchies which are to be merged, and determining one or more nodes of the merged hierarchy which reference nodes of the identified sub-hierarchies. The determined nodes of the merged hierarchy are stored and indications of the references between the determined nodes of the merged hierarchy and the referenced nodes of the identified sub-hierarchies are also stored. In this way, the merged hierarchy is formed for use in processing the items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Matthew Harrison, John W. Howson, Luke T. Peterson, Steven J. Clohset
  • Patent number: 11334762
    Abstract: A method and system for synthetic data generation and analysis includes generating a synthetic dataset. A set of parameters is determined and scenarios are generated from the parameters that represent three-dimensional scenes. Synthetic images are rendered for the scenarios. A synthetic dataset may be formed to have a controlled variation in attributes of synthetic images over a synthetic dataset. The synthetic dataset may be used for training or evaluating a machine learning model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventor: Carl Magnus Wrenninge
  • Patent number: 11333340
    Abstract: A touch controller for an LED light string or light strip is disclosed. The touch controller includes a housing, an end cover connected with the housing, a liquid-sealed accommodating cavity being defined between the end cover and the housing, a printed circuit board positioned in the accommodating cavity, a light-emitting control circuit being arranged on the printed circuit board, a touch input unit positioned in the accommodating cavity, the touch input unit being electrically connected with the light-emitting control circuit, one part of the touch input unit being matched with the housing or the end cover, and when a touch behavior is applied to the part, matched with the touch input unit, of the housing or the end cover, a trigger signal is provided for the light-emitting control circuit through the touch input unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: CHANGZHOU JUTAI ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jun Lin, Wei Huang, Chengqian Pan, Bin Chen
  • Patent number: 11328397
    Abstract: An image collection device for light splitting and fusion is provided. In the image collection device, a light splitter splits incident light into a visible light and a non-visible light; a visible spectrum imaging module performs photosensitive imaging according to the visible light split by the light splitter to form a first visible light image; a non-visible spectrum imaging module performs photosensitive imaging according to the non-visible light split by the light splitter to form a first non-visible light image; a registration unit performs position registration on the first visible light image and the first non-visible light image to obtain a target visible light image and a second non-visible light image; a pre-processing synthesizing unit performs brightness adjustment on the second non-visible light image to obtain a target non-visible light image; a fusion unit performs image fusion on the target visible light image and the target non-visible light image to obtain a fused image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Lihong Luo, Xinxin Nie, Meng Fan, Hai Yu
  • Patent number: 11327329
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus determines a plurality of sampling points in a range of a target object's silhouette having different specular reflectances in polarization images in a plurality of azimuths, extracts polarization luminance at the sampling points in question, and derives change in luminance relative to the polarization azimuth, thus acquiring, as a phase angle, the azimuth that provides the highest luminance. Then, the information processing apparatus evaluates a characteristic of the change in phase angle relative to the change in the specular reflectance, thus identifying a subject's surface roughness. Further, the information processing apparatus generates data to be output by performing a process according to the surface roughness and outputs the generated data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
    Inventor: Shinya Wada
  • Patent number: 11321910
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for efficient BVH construction. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a memory to store graphics data for a scene including a plurality of primitives in a scene at a first precision; a geometry quantizer to read vertices of the primitives at the first precision and to adaptively quantize the vertices of the primitives to a second precision associated with a first local coordinate grid of a first BVH node positioned within a global coordinate grid, the second precision lower than the first precision; a BVH builder to determine coordinates of child nodes of the first BVH node by performing non-spatial-split binning or spatial-split binning for the first BVH node using primitives associated with the first BVH node, the BVH builder to determine final coordinates for the child nodes based, at least in part, on an evaluation of surface areas of different bounding boxes generated for each of the child node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Doyle, Karthik Vaidyanathan
  • Patent number: 11321935
    Abstract: A three-dimensional (3D) modeling method of clothing considering background factors includes determining a first observation direction in which the clothing is to be observed based on a user input in a first space that is a background of a clothing display; determining a display shape of the clothing according to the first observation direction; determining a display shape of the first space according to the first observation direction; when overlapping and displaying the display shape of the clothing on the display shape of the first space, extracting a fusion part requiring a fusion of the display shape of the first space and the display shape of the clothing on the display shape of the clothing and determining a shape of the extracted fusion part; and overlapping and displaying the display shape of the clothing on the display shape of the first space, comprising the fusion part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Z-EMOTION CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Dong Soo Han, Dong Wook Yi
  • Patent number: 11315302
    Abstract: A ray tracing unit is implemented in a graphics rendering system. The ray tracing unit comprises: processing logic configured to perform ray tracing operations on rays, a dedicated ray memory coupled to the processing logic and configured to store ray data for rays to be processed by the processing logic, an interface to a memory system, and control logic configured to manage allocation of ray data to either the dedicated ray memory or the memory system. Core ray data for rays to be processed by the processing logic is stored in the dedicated ray memory, and at least some non-core ray data for the rays is stored in the memory system. This allows core ray data for many rays to be stored in the dedicated ray memory without the size of the dedicated ray memory becoming too wasteful when the ray tracing unit is not in use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: John W. Howson, Steven J. Clohset, Ali Rabbani
  • Patent number: 11315300
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for leveraging rendering engines to perform multi-spectral rendering by reusing the color channels for additional spectral bands. A digital asset represented by a three dimensional (3D) mesh and a material reference pointer may be rendered using a first material spectral band data set and additionally rendered using a second material spectral band data set, and the results combined to create a multi-spectral rendering. The multi-spectral rendering may then be used as part of a synthetics service or operation. By abstracting the material properties, a material translator is able to return a banded material data set from among a plurality of spectral band sets, and asset material information may advantageously be managed apart from managing each asset individually.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Ebstyne, Jonathan C. Hanzelka, Emanuel Shalev, Trebor L. Connell, Pedro U. Escos
  • Patent number: 11315308
    Abstract: A method for representing virtual information in a view of a real environment is provided that includes: providing a system setup including at least one display device, wherein the system setup is adapted for blending in virtual information on the display device in at least part of the view, determining a position and orientation of a viewing point relative to at least one component of the real environment, providing a geometry model of the real environment, providing at least one item of virtual information and a position of the at least one item of virtual information, determining whether the position of the item of virtual information is inside a 2D or 3D geometrical shape, determining a criterion which is indicative of whether the built-in real object is at least partially visible or non-visible in the view of the real environment, and blending in the at least one item of virtual information on the display device in at least part of the view of the real environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Lejing Wang, Peter Meier, Stefan Misslinger
  • Patent number: 11310528
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for coding information of a point cloud that includes obtaining the point cloud including a set of points in a three-dimensional space; determining whether a current node in the set of points is isolated; and coding the current node in isolation mode based on a determination that the current node is isolated and coding the current node in non-isolation mode, based on a determination that the current node is not isolated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: TENCENT AMERICA LLC
    Inventors: Xiang Zhang, Wen Gao, Shan Liu
  • Patent number: 11308684
    Abstract: In various examples, a virtual light meter may be implemented along with ray tracing techniques in order to determine incident light values—e.g., incoming irradiance, incident radiance, etc.—for adjusting auto exposure values of rendered frames. For example, one or more rays may be used to sample incident light over a sampling pattern—such as a hemispherical sampling pattern—for any position in a virtual game environment. As a result, the incident light values may be sampled near a subject of interest in a scene or frame such that exposure values are consistent or stable regardless of the composition of the rendered frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Jakub Boksansky, Oliver Mark Wright
  • Patent number: 11301983
    Abstract: An improved technique for determining height difference in patterns provided on semiconductor wafers uses real measurements (e.g., measurements from SEM images) and a height difference determination model. In one version of the model, a measurable variable of the model is expressed in terms of a function of a change in depth of shadow (i.e. relative brightness), wherein the depth of shadow depends on the height difference as well as width difference between two features on a semiconductor wafer. In another version of the model, the measurable variable is expressed in terms of a function of a change of a measured distance between two characteristic points on the real image of a periodic structure with respect to a change in a tilt angle of a scanning electron beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Applied Materials Israel Ltd.
    Inventors: Ishai Schwarzband, Yan Avniel, Sergey Khristo, Mor Baram, Shimon Levi, Doron Girmonsky, Roman Kris
  • Patent number: 11302057
    Abstract: Systems can identify visible surfaces for pixels in an image (portion) to be rendered. A sampling pattern of ray directions is applied to the pixels, so that the sampling pattern of ray directions repeats, and with respect to any pixel, the same ray direction can be found in the same relative position, with respect to that pixel, as for other pixels. Rays are emitted from visible surfaces in the respective ray direction supplied from the sampling pattern. Ray intersections can cause shaders to execute and contribute results to a sample buffer. With respect to shading of a given pixel, ray results from a selected subset of the pixels are used; the subset is selected by identifying a set of pixels, collectively from which rays were traced for the ray directions in the pattern, and requiring that surfaces from which rays were traced for those pixels satisfy a similarity criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Gareth Morgan, Luke T. Peterson
  • Patent number: 11302067
    Abstract: Realistic augmented reality (AR) augmentations are produced in reliance on a 3D virtual model modeled after a real world environment. Light and shadow parameters for the augmentations are produced not only from real world parameters such as, for example, a real present position of the actual sun, but also from virtual world parameters which characterize the virtual model or virtual objects within the virtual model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: EDX Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Roger Ray Skidmore
  • Patent number: 11302066
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide away to render edges of an object defined by multiple tessellation triangles. More particularly, systems, apparatuses and methods may provide a way to perform anti-aliasing at the edges of the object based on a coarse pixel rate, where the coarse pixels may be based on a coarse Z value indicate a resolution or granularity of detail of the coarse pixel. The systems, apparatuses and methods may use a shader dispatch engine to dispatch raster rules to a pixel shader to direct the pixel shader to include, in a tile and/or tessellation triangle, one more finer coarse pixels based on a percent of coverage provided by a finer coarse pixel of a tessellation triangle at or along the edge of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Prasoonkumar Surti, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Murali Ramadoss, Michael Apodaca, Abhishek Venkatesh, Joydeep Ray, Abhishek R. Appu
  • Patent number: 11295515
    Abstract: The present invention facilitates efficient and effective image processing. A network can comprise: a first system configured to perform a first portion of lighting calculations for an image and combing results of the first portion of lighting calculations for the image with results of a second portion of lighting calculations; and a second system configured to perform the second portion of lighting calculations and forward the results of the second portion of the lighting calculations to the first system. The first and second portion of lighting calculations can be associated with indirect lighting calculations and direct lighting calculations respectively. The first system can be a client in a local location and the second system can be a server in a remote location (e.g., a cloud computing environment). The first system and second system can be in a cloud and a video is transmitted to a local system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Morgan McGuire, Cyril Crassin, David Luebke, Michael Mara, Brent L. Oster, Peter Shirley, Peter-Pike Sloan, Christopher Wyman
  • Patent number: 11295512
    Abstract: Described herein are apparatuses, systems and methods for generating an interactive three-dimensional (“3D”) environment using virtual depth. A method comprises receiving a pre-rendered media file comprising a plurality of frames, receiving depth data related to the media file, wherein the depth data corresponds to each of the plurality of frames, creating an invisible three-dimensional (“3D”) framework of a first frame of the media file based on the corresponding depth data, and rendering a new first frame in real time to include the pre-rendered first frame, one or more virtual visible 3D objects and the invisible 3D framework.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: Tamer Eskander, Isaac Steele
  • Patent number: 11295514
    Abstract: Inverse rendering estimates physical scene attributes (e.g., reflectance, geometry, and lighting) from image(s) and is used for gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality, and robotics. An inverse rendering network (IRN) receives a single input image of a 3D scene and generates the physical scene attributes for the image. The IRN is trained by using the estimated physical scene attributes generated by the IRN to reproduce the input image and updating parameters of the IRN to reduce differences between the reproduced input image and the input image. A direct renderer and a residual appearance renderer (RAR) reproduce the input image. The RAR predicts a residual image representing complex appearance effects of the real (not synthetic) image based on features extracted from the image and the reflectance and geometry properties. The residual image represents near-field illumination, cast shadows, inter-reflections, and realistic shading that are not provided by the direct renderer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Jinwei Gu, Kihwan Kim, Jan Kautz, Guilin Liu, Soumyadip Sengupta
  • Patent number: 11295507
    Abstract: A graphics processing unit (GPU) or other apparatus includes a plurality of shader engines. The apparatus also includes a first front end (FE) circuit and one or more second FE circuits. The first FE circuit is configured to schedule geometry workloads for the plurality of shader engines in a first mode. The first FE circuit is configured to schedule geometry workloads for a first subset of the plurality of shader engines and the one or more second FE circuits are configured to schedule geometry workloads for a second subset of the plurality of shader engines in a second mode. In some cases, a partition switch is configured to selectively connect the first FE circuit or the one or more second FE circuits to the second subset of the plurality of shader engines depending on whether the apparatus is in the first mode or the second mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Leather, Michael Mantor
  • Patent number: 11288855
    Abstract: Rendering system combines point sampling and volume sampling operations to produce rendering outputs. For example, to determine color information for a surface location in a 3-D scene, one or more point sampling operations are conducted in a volume around the surface location, and one or more sampling operations of volumetric light transport data are performed farther from the surface location. A transition zone between point sampling and volume sampling can be provided, in which both point and volume sampling operations are conducted. Data obtained from point and volume sampling operations can be blended in determining color information for the surface location. For example, point samples are obtained by tracing a ray for each point sample, to identify an intersection between another surface and the ray, to be shaded, and volume samples are obtained from a nested 3-D grids of volume elements expressing light transport data at different levels of granularity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Cuneyt Ozdas, Luke Tilman Peterson
  • Patent number: 11282267
    Abstract: A system and method for automated data visualization and modification of visualized data is disclosed. The present invention provides for identifying data points and data types associated with the selected data. Further, one or more visual representations for rendering the selected data are evaluated based on the identified data points and the data types. Yet further, the selected data is optimally visualized based on an identification of a display device type. The present invention further provides for evaluating a theme of visual representations using a real-time lighting information of the real world environment based on identification of the display device type. The selected data is visualized using the evaluated theme of visual representations and the evaluated one or more visual representations. Yet further, the present invention provides for identifying user actions and interpreting inputs from the identified user actions to update or modify visualized data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INDIA PVT. LTD.
    Inventors: Shubam Gupta, Pooja Gupta, Siddhartha Das, Nitesh Awasthi
  • Patent number: 11282171
    Abstract: In some implementations, a method includes obtaining a computer graphic generated based on one or more visual elements within a first video frame. In some implementations, the first video frame is associated with a first time. In some implementations, the method includes obtaining a second video frame associated with a second time. In some implementations, the second time is different from the first time. In some implementations, the method includes applying an intensity transformation to the computer graphic in order to generate a transformed computer graphic. In some implementations, the intensity transformation is based on an intensity difference between the first video frame and the second video frame. In some implementations, the method includes rendering the transformed computer graphic based on one or more visual elements within the second video frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Daniel Kurz
  • Patent number: 11276211
    Abstract: A technique for performing rasterization and pixel shading with decoupled resolution is provided herein. The technique involves performing rasterization as normal to generate quads. The quads are accumulated into a tile buffer. A shading rate is determined for the contents of the tile buffer. If the shading rate is a sub-sampling shading rate, then the quads in the tile buffer are down-sampled, which reduces the amount of work to be performed by a pixel shader. The shaded down-sampled quads are then restored to the resolution of the render target. If the shading rate is a super-sampling shading rate, then the quads in the tile buffer are up-sampled. The results of the shaded down-sampled or up-sampled quads are written to the render target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2022
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Skyler Jonathon Saleh, Andrew S. Pomianowski
  • Patent number: 11270161
    Abstract: When a computer image is generated from a real-world scene having a semi-reflective surface (e.g. window), the computer image will create, at the semi-reflective surface from the viewpoint of the camera, both a reflection of a scene in front of the semi-reflective surface and a transmission of a scene located behind the semi-reflective surface. Similar to a person viewing the real-world scene from different locations, angles, etc., the reflection and transmission may change, and also move relative to each other, as the viewpoint of the camera changes. Unfortunately, the dynamic nature of the reflection and transmission negatively impacts the performance of many computer applications, but performance can generally be improved if the reflection and transmission are separated. The present disclosure uses deep learning to separate reflection and transmission at a semi-reflective surface of a computer image generated from a real-world scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Orazio Gallo, Jinwei Gu, Jan Kautz, Patrick Wieschollek
  • Patent number: 11268713
    Abstract: There are provided an air conditioner automatic control method, an air conditioner automatic control apparatus, a recording medium, and an air conditioner. The air conditioner automatic control method receives occupancy detection data indicating whether a user occupies a room, receives temperature data and humidity data indicating indoor temperature and humidity, predicts future occupancy probability information of the user by using the occupancy detection data, derives an optimal PMV by using the temperature data and the humidity data, and calculates an optimal temperature by using the optimal PMV, and controls the air conditioner based on the occupancy detection data, the future occupancy probability, and the optimal temperature. Accordingly, the air conditioner can be driven at the optimal temperature suitable for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: KOREA ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Ki Woong Kwon, Sang Hak Lee, Jung Mee Yun, Sang Hun Kim
  • Patent number: 11262935
    Abstract: Distributed deduplication wherein runtime performance of dedup pipelines in all nodes is monitored. The bottleneck for each pipeline is identified and machine resources from different nodes are reallocated to seek to balance the costs of each stage of each task in each of the pipelines. While the overall cost for each task may remain the same, stalls may be eliminated such that the total cost to complete all the tasks is reduced. The global dedup ratio and the local compression ratio may be used to weight certain stage costs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
    Inventors: Bing Liu, George Mathew
  • Patent number: 11263060
    Abstract: Embodiments for dynamically distributing loads in computational rendering in a computing environment. A computational rendering model on a computational rendering to exploit nested recursive parallelism within a heterogenous computing architecture to enable communication overlap, memory transfer, and data and task management, wherein the computational rendering model is developed for the heterogenous computing architecture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fearghal O'Donncha, Emanuele Ragnoli, Albert Akhriev
  • Patent number: 11263791
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a computer-implemented system and method for generation of an interactive color workspace, the method including: generating a workspace; receiving successive inputs from a user to create two or more controllable color swatches, the controllable color swatches including an associated color; generating the controllable color swatches on the workspace; and upon receiving a command from a user to select and associate at least two of the controllable color swatches, generating a gradient of colors with the colors of the selected controllable color swatches as endpoints to the gradient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Inventors: Maria Shugrina, Wenjia Zhang, Fanny Chevalier, Sanja Fidler, Karan Singh
  • Patent number: 11250620
    Abstract: A method of operating a graphics processor that comprises a renderer that can render primitives to generate a render output using different shading rates is disclosed. A shading rate for rendering a primitive is determined based on a depth value for the primitive. This can reduce processing effort required to render a render output while maintaining an acceptable image quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Olof Henrik Uhrenholt, Sandeep Kakarlapudi
  • Patent number: 11250611
    Abstract: A method of operating a graphics processor that executes a graphics processing pipeline that can generate a render output using different shading rates is disclosed. First and second input shading rates are combined prior to rasterisation, and a combined shading rate may be propagated through the pipeline instead of the first and second input shading rates. The combined shading rate may then be combined with a third input shading rate at or after the rasterisation stage. This can reduce bandwidth, hardware and energy requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Ole Magnus Ruud, Rafal Stepuch, Toni Viki Brkic
  • Patent number: 11250586
    Abstract: A photographed image acquiring section 50 acquires data associated with a polarized image obtained through photographing of an object from an imaging apparatus 12, and stores the data in an image data storing section 52. A polarized image processing section 58 of a real space recognizing section 54 obtains distributions of degrees of polarization or normal vectors in an image plane by using the polarized image. A shadow area specifying section 60 specifies an area having peculiarity in the distribution of the degrees of polarization or the normal vectors in an image representing one surface of a subject as an area of a shadow. A state specifying section 62 acquires information associated with a state of a real object or the shadow in the real space on the basis of the area of the image of the shadow. An output data generating section 56 executes information processing by using state information in the real space, and outputs a processing result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT INC.
    Inventor: Hidehiko Ogasawara
  • Patent number: 11238639
    Abstract: In a computer graphics processing unit (GPU) having a texture unit, when pixel sample locations are based on a non-orthonormal grid in scene space, the texture unit receives texture space gradient values directly, e.g., from a shader unit or generates them from texture coordinates supplied, e.g., by a shader unit, and then applies a transformation to the gradient values configured to adjust the gradient values to those which would arise from the use of a orthonormal screen space grid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LLC
    Inventor: Mark Evan Cerny
  • Patent number: 11238646
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for calculating dynamic ambient occlusion (AO) values for character models to yield high-quality approximations of global illumination effects. The approach utilizes a dual component machine-learning model that factorizes dynamic AO computation into a non-linear component, in which visibility is determined by approximating spheres and their casted shadows, and a linear component that leverages a skinning-like algorithm for efficiency. The parameters of both components are trained in a regression against ground-truth AO values. The resulting model accommodates lighting interactions with external objects and can be generalized without requiring carefully constructed training data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
    Inventors: Binh Huy Le, John Peter Lewis
  • Patent number: 11232630
    Abstract: Systems, methods, devices, and non-transitory media of the various embodiments may include encoding localized terrain modifications into one or more heightmaps, which are used to modify the vertices of the world-wide terrain map at runtime using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Various embodiments apply displacement to dynamic terrain surfaces, such as time dynamic surfaces, animated surfaces, Hierarchical Level-of-Detail (HLOD) surfaces, and surfaces suitable for interactive user editing, at a global scale.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: CESIUM GS, INC.
    Inventors: Kangning Li, Sean Lilley
  • Patent number: 11226788
    Abstract: The present disclosure presents methods, systems and modules for providing/enabling revision control for electronic files having non-textual content by deconstructing the non-textual content to elementary objects, representing the elementary objects in a systematic format using a surjective representation methodology/function and generating an electronic file in the systematic format by aggregating the elementary object representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: SHAPEDO LTD.
    Inventor: Guy Sheffer
  • Patent number: 11219829
    Abstract: An example image processing apparatus disposes a virtual camera and a terrain object in a virtual space, and generates grass objects at a predetermined region located with reference to a land horizon that is a boundary between the terrain object and a background as viewed from the virtual camera. A player character is displayed at a position closer to the virtual camera, and the grass objects are generated in the predetermined region located with reference to the land horizon. Therefore, the terrain can be represented to look real, and the player character can be more easily seen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Yonezu, Koji Takahashi, Jun Takamura
  • Patent number: 11221932
    Abstract: Methods and systems for monitoring the integrity of a graphics processing unit (GPU) are provided. The method comprises the steps of determining a known-good result associated with an operation of the GPU, and generating a test image comprising a test subject using the operation of the GPU, such that the test subject is associated with the known-good result. The test image is written to video memory, and the known-good result is written to system memory. Subsequently, the test subject from the test image is transferred from video memory to system memory. The test subject in the system memory is compared with the known-good result in system memory. If the test subject does not match the known-good result, then a conclusion is drawn that the integrity of the GPU has been compromised.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Channel One Holdings Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Viggers, Tomislav Malnar, Sherwyn R. Ramkissoon, Gregory J. Szober, Aidan Fabius, Kenneth Wenger, John McCormick
  • Patent number: 11216665
    Abstract: Embodiments provide for an augmented reality (AR) system able to track the movement of real-world objects and apply that movement to virtual objects. The AR system includes a radio configured to receive first sensor data from a sensor attached to a first physical object in physical space. The AR system further includes a processor configured to determine when a physical object changes from a first state to a second state object based on the first sensor data, and update an environmental map based on the change from the first state to the second state of the first physical object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Corey D. Drake, Timothy M. Panec, Tritia V. Medrano, Stephen A. Thornton, Jason A. Yeung, Nathan D. Nocon, Elliott H. Baumbach
  • Patent number: 11216532
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to techniques for efficiently performing operations associated with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and/or deep learning (DL) applications, such as training and/or interference calculations, using an integrated circuit device. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an integrated circuit design implemented to perform these operations with low latency and/or a high bandwidth of data. For example, embodiments of a computationally dense digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, implemented to efficiently perform one or more arithmetic operations (e.g., a dot-product) on an input are disclosed. Moreover, embodiments described herein may relate to layout, design, and data scheduling of a processing element array implemented to compute matrix multiplications (e.g., systolic array multiplication).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Martin Langhammer, Andrei-Mihai Hagiescu-Miriste
  • Patent number: 11212513
    Abstract: A display device includes a plurality of pixels and an optical modulator. A method for displaying a stereoscopic image on the display device includes obtaining image data of the stereoscopic image corresponding to K views, for each sub-pixel in each of the pixels, determining location parameters of the sub-pixel according to a first coordinate value of the sub-pixel along a first direction, a first number of sub-pixels along the first direction in each pixel, a second coordinate value of the sub-pixel along a second direction, and a second number of sub-pixels along the second direction in each pixel, determining a corresponding view corresponding to the sub-pixel according to a pitch and a slant angle of the optical modulator, the location parameters, and a visual offset caused by the optical modulator, and assigning displaying data to the sub-pixel according to the corresponding view and the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: InnoLux Corporation
    Inventor: Naoki Sumi
  • Patent number: 11210805
    Abstract: A simultaneously localization and dense three-dimensional reconstruction method, being capable of processing rapid motion and frequent closing of a loop in a robust manner, and operating at any time in a large-scale scene. Provided by the method is a key frame-based simultaneous localization and map construction framework. First, depth and color information are used simultaneously, and the framework may operate on central processing unit (CPU) at high speed based on localization of the key frame, and operate in challenging scene in robust manner. To reduce accumulated errors, the method introduces increment bundle adjustment, which may greatly reduce an operation amount and enable local and global bundle adjustment to be completed in a unified framework. Secondly, provided by the method is a key frame-based fusion method, and a model may be generated online and a three-dimensional model may be updated in real time during adjustment of the key frame's pose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Hujun Bao, Guofeng Zhang, Haomin Liu, Chen Li
  • Patent number: 11208110
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method that models a motor vehicle sensor in a virtual test environment by way of definition. Using a sensor support, a raycast distribution shape, a group of raycast properties, a raycast reflection factor, and a raycast echo, a sensor in reality may be tested in a virtual environment to calibrate the sensor in reality. The sensor support is a virtual sensor support for a virtual sensor model, which forms a three-dimensional or two-dimensional avatar of the sensor in reality, in the virtual test environment. The sensor support has a sensor starting point that is used as an origin for a raycast distribution shape. The method extracts a special application of the sensor in reality in an application case, which is particularly useful for testing scenarios.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Frederic Stefan, Alain Marie Roger Chevalier, Michael Marbaix, Evangelos Bitsanis
  • Patent number: 11205457
    Abstract: An embodiment includes receiving, by one or more processors, a scene reference that corresponds to a reference state of the scene. The embodiment also includes comparing, by one or more processors, the candidate portion and the scene reference such that the comparing provides an indication of an irregularity in the candidate portion. The embodiment also includes responsive to the indication of the irregularity in the candidate portion, automatically evaluating the irregularity, using one or more processors, such that the evaluating generates a severity value associated with the irregularity. The embodiment also includes, responsive to the generating of the severity value, automatically initiating, by one or more processors, a selected remedial action from among a plurality of remedial action options based at least in part on the severity value, wherein the automatic initiation of the selected remedial action includes automatic actuation of an element of video production equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sarbajit K. Rakshit, John M. Ganci, Jr., James E. Bostick, Martin G. Keen
  • Patent number: 11200725
    Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Greg Muthler, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas
  • Patent number: 11189075
    Abstract: Methods and systems are described in some examples for changing the traversal of an acceleration data structure in a highly dynamic query-specific manner, with each query specifying test parameters, a test opcode and a mapping of test results to actions. In an example ray tracing implementation, traversal of a bounding volume hierarchy by a ray is performed with the default behavior of the traversal being changed in accordance with results of a test performed using the test opcode and test parameters specified in the ray data structure and another test parameter specified in a node of the bounding volume hierarchy. In an example implementation a traversal coprocessor is configured to perform the traversal of the bounding volume hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Samuli Laine, Timo Aila, Tero Karras, Gregory Muthler, William P. Newhall, Jr., Ronald C. Babich, Jr., Craig Kolb, Ignacio Llamas, John Burgess
  • Patent number: 11185779
    Abstract: An example image processing apparatus disposes a virtual camera and a terrain object in a virtual space, and generates grass objects at a predetermined region located with reference to a land horizon that is a boundary between the terrain object and a background as viewed from the virtual camera. A player character is displayed at a position closer to the virtual camera, and the grass objects are generated in the predetermined region located with reference to the land horizon. Therefore, the terrain can be represented to look real, and the player character can be more easily seen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Yonezu, Koji Takahashi, Jun Takamura
  • Patent number: 11182961
    Abstract: A method and system of representing a virtual object in a view of a real environment is provided which includes providing image information of a first image of at least part of a human face captured by a camera, providing at least one human face specific characteristic, determining an image area of the face in the first image as a face region, determining at least one first light falling on the face according to the face region and the at least one human face specific characteristic, and blending in the virtual object on a display device in the view of the real environment according to at least one first light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sebastian Knorr, Peter Meier