Patents Examined by Daniel Hajnik
  • Patent number: 8223150
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for translating fixed function state into a shader program. Fixed function state is received and stored and when a new shader program is detected the fixed function state is translated into shader program instructions. Registers specified by the program instructions are allocated for processing in the shader program. The registers may be remapped for more efficient use of the register storage space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Cabral, Amy J. Migdal, Rui M. Bastos, Karim M. Abdalla
  • Patent number: 8217937
    Abstract: An isosurfacial three-dimensional imaging system and method uses scanning electron microscopy for surface imaging of an assumed opaque object providing a series of tilt images for generating a sinogram of the object and a voxel data set for generating a three-dimensional image of the object having exterior surfaces some of which may be obscured so as to provide exterior three-dimensional surface imaging of objects including hidden surfaces normally obscured from stereographic view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: Terence Sern-Wei Yeoh, Neil A. Ives
  • Patent number: 8212814
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for generating a constrained Delaunay triangulation for a planar domain with boundaries and internal features. The boundaries and internal features of the domain are approximated with polylines. Unconstrained Delaunay triangulation is constructed for the domain. The unconstrained Delaunay triangulation is modified to conform triangle sides to the polylines. The modified triangulation is corrected to make it a constrained Delaunay triangulation. At least one of the steps of the method is implemented using a computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
    Inventors: Larisa V. Branets, Xiao-Hui Wu, Santosh K. Verma, Stephen L. Lyons
  • Patent number: 8207963
    Abstract: A system and method are described for performing motion capture on a subject. For example, a computer-implemented method according to one embodiment of the invention comprise: creating a scalar field for the three-dimensional (3-D) capture volume of the subject; generating a surface mesh for the scalar field; retaining good vertices and removing bad vertices of the surface mesh; and storing the good vertices for use in subsequent reconstruction of the motion of the subject.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Onlive, Inc.
    Inventors: Tim S. Cotter, Stephen G. Perlman
  • Patent number: 8207966
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for rule-based procedural generation of terrain in real time for a virtual world. Using the terrain editor tool, the terrain system allows defining and modifying the terrain height, color, shaders, textures, flora, and environment, for example. Additionally, generating the terrain procedurally allows for detail by changing the parameters used to create the terrain geometry. These rules can also be added and removed dynamically, leading to terrain modification in real time. In addition, resources are managed for the terrain generation system, such as memory allocation and deallocation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Online Entertainment LLC
    Inventor: Anthony L. Sommers
  • Patent number: 8199152
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes comparing content captured during one session and content captured during another session. A surface feature of an object represented in the content of one session corresponds to a surface feature of an object represented in the content of the other session. The method also includes substantially aligning the surface features of the sessions and combining the aligned content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd.
    Inventors: Steve Sullivan, Francesco G. Callari
  • Patent number: 8194068
    Abstract: A techniques for coarsening a hexahedral mesh is described. The technique includes identifying a coarsening region within a hexahedral mesh to be coarsened. A boundary sheet of hexahedral elements is inserted into the hexahedral mesh around the coarsening region. A column of hexahedral elements is identified within the boundary sheet. The column of hexahedral elements is collapsed to create an extraction sheet of hexahedral elements contained within the coarsening region. Then, the extraction sheet of hexahedral elements is extracted to coarsen the hexahedral mesh.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Sandia Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew L. Staten, Adam C. Woodbury, Steven E. Benzley, Jason F. Shepherd
  • Patent number: 8164596
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for automatically creating style sheet animations including keyframe information. In some embodiments, a style sheet animation creation tool with a timeline-based interface is provided. By interacting with the user-interface, the user can select a point on a timeline for an animation object to add a keyframe to an animation of the animation object. In response to the user's selection of the keyframe time point, the style sheet animation creation tool displays an interactive keyframe indicator on the timeline to indicate the selected time point. With the style sheet animation creation tool, a user can generate a style sheet animation without having to author style sheet language text statements by hand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Sencha, Inc.
    Inventor: Arne Nikolai Bech
  • Patent number: 8159490
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention relate for rendering translucent objects. According to some embodiments, the color of a pixel of a translucent object that is not directly illuminated by a light source can be determined by decaying the illumination contributed by the light source according to a predefined decay function. The decay function may be, for example, an exponential decay function. The decay function may be evaluated based on an initial illumination contributed by the light source, and a transmittance distance. In some embodiments, the initial color of the pixel is decayed instead of the illumination. Also disclosed is modifying the renderings of different regions of an object which have been rendered using different methods in order to remove sharp contrasts between these regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Dreamworks Animation LLC
    Inventors: Bruce Nunzio Tartaglia, Doug Cooper, Pablo Valle, Michael McNeill
  • Patent number: 8154552
    Abstract: A method for generating a looping motion space for real-time character animation may include determining a plurality of motion clips to include in the looping motion space and determining a number of motion cycles performed by a character object depicted in each of the plurality of motion clips. A plurality of looping motion clips may be synthesized from the motion clips, where each of the looping motion clips depicts the character object performing an equal number of motion cycles. Additionally, a starting frame of each of the plurality of looping motion clips may be synchronized so that the motion cycles in each of the plurality of looping motion clips are in phase with one another. By rendering an animation sequence using multiple passes through the looping motion space, an animation of the character object performing the motion cycles may be extended for arbitrary length of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael Girard
  • Patent number: 8154543
    Abstract: A stereoscopic image display device includes a display panel including a plurality of left eye pixels and a plurality of right eye pixels, a memory including a left eye image section for storing data corresponding to the left eye pixels and a right eye image section for storing data corresponding to the right eye pixels, a geometric engine for converting an input 3D image data into left eye 3D image data corresponding to the left eye pixels or right eye 3D image data corresponding to the right eye pixels, and a rendering engine for calculating a coordinate value and a color information value to be stored in the left eye section or the right eye section by using coordinate and color information of the left eye 3D image data or the right eye 3D image data, and for storing the color information value in the memory based on the coordinate value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignees: Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd., Nexuschips Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Myoung-Seop Song, Jang-Doo Lee, Hyoung-Wook Jang, Woo-Jong Lee, Hyun-Sook Kim, Hag-Keun Kim, Duck-Myung Lee, Han-Jun Choi
  • Patent number: 8139062
    Abstract: A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which when executed cause a computing device to receive a request from a client to display a map projection of a spatial reference, wherein the spatial reference comprises a location and a scale, select a projected coordinate system from a plurality of projected coordinate systems based on the spatial reference and a set of business rules, generate the map projection of the spatial reference using the projected coordinate system, and send the map projection to the client, wherein the map projection is displayed on the client.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation
    Inventors: James M. Maupin, Philippe Robert Steinthal, Charles W. Basden
  • Patent number: 8130226
    Abstract: A framework for performing graphics animation and compositing operations has a layer tree for interfacing with the application and a render tree for interfacing with a render engine. Layers in the layer tree can be content, windows, views, video, images, text, media, or any other type of object for a user interface of an application. The application commits change to the state of the layers of the layer tree. The application does not need to include explicit code for animating the changes to the layers. Instead, an animation is determined for animating the change in state. In determining the animation, the framework can define a set of predetermined animations based on motion, visibility, and transition. The determined animation is explicitly applied to the affected layers in the render tree. A render engine renders from the render tree into a frame buffer for display on the processing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ralph Brunner, John Harper, Peter N Graffagnino
  • Patent number: 8125485
    Abstract: Animating speech of an avatar representing a participant in a mobile communication including selecting one or more images; selecting a generic animation template; fitting the one or more images with the generic animation template; texture wrapping the one more images over the generic animation template; and displaying the one or more images texture wrapped over the generic animation template. Receiving an audio speech signal; identifying a series of phonemes; and for each phoneme: identifying a new mouth position for the mouth of the generic animation template; altering the mouth position to the new mouth position; texture wrapping a portion of the one or more images corresponding to the altered mouth position; displaying the texture wrapped portion of the one or more images corresponding to the altered mouth position of the mouth of the generic animation template; and playing the portion of the audio speech signal represented by the phoneme.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Brown, Richard W. Muirhead, Francis X. Reddington, Martin A. Wolfe
  • Patent number: 8120607
    Abstract: A system and method for stitching a boundary transition region of a patch produces a graphics primitive topology for the boundary transition region of the patch. A first number of vertices is computed for an inside edge of the boundary transition region using a first tessellation level of detail (LOD) of the inside edge. A second number of vertices is computed for an outside edge of the boundary transition region using a second tessellation LOD of the outside edge. A portion of the first number of vertices and the second number of vertices are merged based on a stitching pattern to produce a set of vertices for the boundary transition region. The set of vertices is stitched to produce an ordered list representing the graphics primitive topology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Justin S. Legakis, Henry Packard Moreton
  • Patent number: 8115765
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for rule-based procedural generation of terrain in real time for a virtual world. Using the terrain editor tool, the terrain system allows defining and modifying the terrain height, color, shaders, textures, flora, and environment, for example. Additionally, generating the terrain procedurally allows for detail by changing the parameters used to create the terrain geometry. These rules can also be added and removed dynamically, leading to terrain modification in real time. In addition, resources are managed for the terrain generation system, such as memory allocation and deallocation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Online Entertainment LLC
    Inventor: Anthony L. Sommers
  • Patent number: 8106910
    Abstract: A method for correct reproduction of moving three-dimensional (3D) scenes observed by a viewer on displays showing moving three-dimensional scenes relating to video games, animated cartoons, simulators for drivers or pilots, etc. The main concept of the invention is the reproduction of a moving scene that rotates around a selected center, which is the point of the viewer's gaze fixation. Thus, all objects that are stationary with respect to each other on the illustrated scene rotate at the same angular speed but move on the screen at different linear speeds, which are inversely proportional to preselected distances from the viewer to the respective objects. Movements of objects relative to each other are presented in a coordinate system rotating with the scene. For reproduction on the display, distances to the objects, number of objects, and other selected data are entered into a conventional 3D-animation computer program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Inventors: Vldimir Pugach, Stanislav Klimenko, Polina Danilicheva
  • Patent number: 8102390
    Abstract: The invention employs state-of-the-art computer graphics to advance the field of computer vision. The invention uses model-generated graphics in image processing: match image frames rendered by a graphics engine to those from a camera, in real-time, frame by frame, pixel by pixel. An a priori model of the world is required, but the benefit is very accurate position and pose of the camera for every frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Inventor: Carlos Tapang
  • Patent number: 8085268
    Abstract: Techniques in a data processor for drawing on a map a geodetic polygon that straddles a splitting meridian include, in one embodiment, maintaining data that represents the geodetic polygon, the data comprising a set of geographic coordinates; transforming the set of geographic coordinates into a set of planar coordinates representing a planar polygon; splitting the planar polygon into a plurality of sub-figures; shifting at least one sub-figure of the plurality of sub-figures along a horizontal axis of two-dimensional plane to produce a shifted sub-figure; and causing the shifted sub-figure to be displayed on a map concurrently with at least one other sub-figure of the plurality of sub-figures that was not shifted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Palantir Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: John Antonio Carrino, Daniel Patrick Cervelli
  • Patent number: 8077179
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for cartoonizing an image and incorporating the image into an animated video based upon a predefined animated story. In alternate embodiments of the invention, multiple images may be incorporated into the animated video. In further embodiments, the animated video may be output from the system in printed, hard copy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Pandoodle Corp.
    Inventor: David M. Ludwigsen