Abstract: A method and apparatus for drawing at least a one pixel wide antialiased line on an edge of a filled polygon. The apparatus comprises an interpolator, having a set up unit and an iterator unit, and a blender. The set up unit determines various parameters of the line to be drawn and selects a pair of pixels adjacent to and straddling an idealized line representing the line to be drawn, where the first pixel is claimed by the edge of the polygon as a filled pixel. The iterator unit determines the coverages of the second pixel based on the parameters output by the set up unit. The blender determines the color intensity value of the second pixel as a function of its coverage and writes the color value into a memory. The apparatus also incorporates methods for antialiasing polygon meshes and resolving accumulation error in the derivation of each pixel's position.

Abstract: A method for rendering a three dimensional graphic object in a two dimensional display space by segmenting the object into parallelepipeds and decomposing the parallelepipeds into rods of voxels that are parallel to the depth axis (Z) of the display and by projecting the rods of voxels onto the X-Y plane of the display as lines of pixels and a method for drawing antialiased volumetric images. An apparatus for implementing both methods includes an interpolator, having a set-up unit and an iterator unit, and a blender. The set-up unit determines various parameters of the image to be drawn, including the total number of voxels to be blended together into each pixel to be drawn, and selects a pixel pair adjacent to and straddling an idealized line representing a line to be drawn. The iterator unit determines the coverages of the pixel pair based on parameters output by the set-up unit.

Abstract: An elasticity buffer for use in a data transmission system having a transmitter and a receiver and utilizing a data transfer protocol that periodically supplies an elasticity element that can be deleted or replicated by the elasticity buffer to maintain the synchronous transfer of data elements.

Abstract: A video editing system comprising a computer system having a mass storage and a display, a video source, such as a video cassette recorder (VCR), camera, or optical disc player, and a video processor/controller linking the computer to the video source. The computer system functions under the direction of standard operating software and video editing software which provide the user with an interface for controlling both playback and clip editing of video information from the video source. Upon initialization of the editing system, the user is presented with at least a video window for displaying the video information, a control window for regulating playback of the video information, and a clip list window having a number of rows of edit windows organized under begin, end, and clip columns. The user controls playback of video from the video source within the video window through manipulation of standard playback direction and speed indicators.

Abstract: A user interface element having a plurality of user interface elements for marking, finding, organizing, and processing data within documents stored in an associated computer system are described. Each element typically has an appearance which is uniquely related to the data or the function the element is designed to represent or perform, respectively. In their simplest form, these elements are only used to mark data within a document. Each element, however, can also be programmed to cause the computer to perform some function in association with the marked data, such as printing the data or mailing the data to someone. A user can select particular data within a document using an element and have that data associated with the element in memory. Data marked with common elements can be found by searching for a particular representative element in memory. Users can create their own elements, program elements with their own desired functionality, and modify existing elements.

Abstract: A pattern recognition system having inter-pattern spacing correction is disclosed which recognizes words and determines where to place spaces between those words by (a) storing each input character in one or more buffers in memory, (b) comparing the last entry of each buffer against a dictionary of known words, (c) copying last entries which match words to new buffers and placing a space after the last entry in the old buffer, (d) deleting a buffer when a last entry from that buffer does not at least match the beginning of a known word in the dictionary, (e) repeating steps (a) through (d) until all the buffers have been deleted or until an end character, such as a carriage return or period has been stored in each buffer, (f) again comparing the last entries from each buffer to the dictionary and deleting any buffer having a last entry which is not a known word in the dictionary or which does not end with a space followed by an end character, and (g) saving and/or outputting the remaining words.

Abstract: A method for changing the orientation of a graphic object in response to changes in the variable position of that object on the display of a computer is disclosed. The position of the graphic object on the display is determined by the position of a control point having a fixed position in relation to the object and a variable position in relation to the display. The control point is operative to change its position in response to translational signals received by an interactive control device, and the computer is operative to display the object at each position of the control point. A change in the orientation of the object to be displayed at the new position of the control point is determined by establishing a following point having a fixed position with respect to the object and a variable position with respect to the display, and tracking the variable position of the following point behind the path of the motion of the control point.