Abstract: A system an method providing an easy to use tool for preparing animated characters for use on the Internet or in other environments. Requiring only limited user input and selection, the system and method essential automatically choreograph and synchronizes reusable animation components with dialog streams and with gestures. Once generated, the resulting choreography can be embedded into a hypertext markup language (HTML) web page with an appropriate audio player plug-in to deliver any number of animated dialogues with minimal wait time and minimal developer effort, or can be similarly embedded or used with other software.

Abstract: A three-dimensional graphics drawing apparatus includes a hidden surface calculating portion to determine whether or not a part is visible on the picture screen based on three-dimensional data, a tone calculating portion to calculate the tones of pixels at prescribed intervals in a part determined to be visible on the picture screen by the hidden surface calculating portion, an interpolating portion to interpolate a pixel whose tone has not been calculated, based on the tones of pixels at the prescribed intervals calculated by the tone calculating portion, and a drawing portion to draw graphics on the picture screen based on the result of calculation by said calculating portion and the result of interpolation by said interpolating portion.

Abstract: Triangle strip length maximization. Embodiments of the invention provide an efficient mechanism to represent triangle meshes as series of one or more triangle strips. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method first including determining an area of each of a plurality of triangles of a triangle mesh. A distance from the smallest area triangle to every other triangle on the list is determined. An available triangle on the list closest to the smallest area triangle is added to a triangle strip that beings with the smallest area triangle.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus is disclosed for creating a three-dimensional visual representation of an object having multiple resolutions by retrieving a vertex list for the object, determining a collapse order for the vertices identified in the vertex list, reordering the vertices identified in the vertex list responsive to the determined collapse order, and creating a vertex collapse list responsive to the collapse order, where the vertex collapse list specifies, for a target vertex, a neighbor vertex to collapse to. The vertex list may comprise 3D coordinates of vertices without referring to other vertex attributes or, in alternate embodiments, the vertex list may refer to other vertex attributes such as colors or normals. A runtime manager is disclosed which dynamically manages the polygon counts for objects and frames based upon the location, velocity, and area of the object. Polygon counts are also adjusted based upon a target frame rate and a target polygon count.

Abstract: Single Logical Screen and Direct Hardware Access in a 3D environment are combined by passing a single stream of protocol to the X Server, which in turn passes the information to multiple 3D rendering processes for display on individual screens (monitors). Multiple instances of a single daemon implement the rendering processes. The X Server communicates with an instance of the daemon functioning as a master daemon, which in turn controls the remaining instances functioning as slave daemons. All daemons communicate through common shared memory segments. This achieves both efficiency and performance, since duplicated distribution of commands and data is avoided. Each of the daemons is driven by the contents of the shared memory segments. To facilitate this, an X Client, the X Server and the daemons are all interconnected with separate control and data paths.

Abstract: Computer systems may be used to generate and display objects represented by triangles defined by coordinates of vertices. The present invention generates coordinates of a simplified vertex based upon coordinates of vertices adjacent to a first vertex and to a second vertex that define an edge of the triangles. First, a set of triangles that are adjacent to the edge is identified, Second, a first volume associated with the set of triangles is calculated. Finally, the coordinates of the simplified vertex are calculated such that a second volume associated with the simplified vertex corresponds to the first volume. In addition, a technique is presented that generates a second object which is a simplified representation of a first object. The technique begins by identifying first and second vertices that define an edge. The coordinates of a simplified vertex that corresponds to first and second vertices of the edge is determined. Error values and tolerance values are assigned to vertices.

Abstract: A viewpoint is set on an intersection of two arbitrary multi-planer reconstruction (MPR) images, a line of sight is displayed on a plane including either one of the two MPR images, and the geometric positional relationship of the two MPR images, the intersection thereof, the viewpoint and the line of sight is designated with a position input device such as a mouse to thereby enable the geometric positional relationship to be rearranged.

Abstract: A three-dimensional graphics display system jointly uses three-dimensional image representations and two-dimensional image representations, whereby the data processing amount can be effectively reduced. The data structure of the image data used in this system includes (a) three-dimensional polygon data for a three-dimensional object representing a three-dimensional image and (b) two-dimensional image representation data for a two-dimensional image representation object representing a three-dimensional object as a two-dimensional image arranged in a three-dimensional virtual space having two-dimensional image data and a Z-value. Input data is divided, and an object perspective control part determines a perspective order of objects. A rendering process part overlappingly draws objects according to their perspective order, to correctly represent overlap due to perspective representation. Virtual collisions can be rendered by exclusion control of the space areas of all objects.

Abstract: A system and corresponding method for generating stereoscopic image from modelling data and camera animation curve data created in the process of creating a computer graphics animation sequence intended for 2D display. The system comprises a database in which the modelling data and the original camera animation curve data are stored, as well as a stereoscopic camera animation curve data generator and an animation sequence renderer. The stereoscopic camera animation curve data generator inputs the original camera animation curve data and generates stereoscopic camera animation curve data for at least one stereoscopic camera which is fixed in position and alignment with respect to another stereoscopic camera (which may be the original camera used to generate the original computer graphics animation sequence). The renderer inputs the stereoscopic camera animation curve data and the modelling data and generates stereoscopic image data.

Abstract: The system and method for real-time mapping and transfer of coordinate position data from a virtual CAD workspace to the real workspace comprises a computer containing a memory and a processor for storing and executing a mapping computer program. The mapping computer program receives coordinate position data, prompts a user to locate desired virtual points on the virtual computer model displayed on a computer display and map them to a corresponding point in the real workspace.

Abstract: A system that predistorts a computer generated paint stamp for paint being applied to a 3D computer model of an object. The predistortion is based on a difference in shape and orientation of a texture space polygon, to which the stamp is initially applied, and the corresponding world space target polygon of the model. Because the paint stamps often overlap several polygons of different shapes and orientations, the distortion compensation becomes a weighted average of the distortion compensation for the polygon under the stamp and its nearest neighbors.

Abstract: A method for estimating scenes from images generates a plurality of scenes and renders an image for each scene. The scenes and corresponding images are partitioned into patches. Each patch is quantitized as a vector and probability density function is fitted to each vector. The patches and probabilities are organized as a Markov network where local probability information is propagated to neighboring nodes. After propagation, the probability densities at each node is used to estimate the scene.

Abstract: A system manipulates an object in a three-dimensional graphical scene that includes a graphical camera in a first position and a first orientation. The system receives an object manipulation indication and identifies an improved viewing location of the camera for manipulation the object. The system then moves the camera to a second position and second orientation based on the improved viewing location. Finally, the system receives an end of object manipulation indication and moves the camera back to the first position and first location.

Abstract: The present invention simplifies the operation of a user when preparing content in a three-dimensional virtual space. A content preparation software tool 4 facilitates a confirmation operation when preparing interaction by enabling operation of a browser emulator 460 for emulation of a VRML browser 308 by just depressing a “Play” button on the display apparatus. Preferably, at this time, a backup manager 466 is simultaneously operated to hold the field values for a moving object. The confirmation operation is therefore possible at any timing. By depressing the “Stop” button, the backup RAM 466 restores the field values and a normal editing mode is returned to.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for volumemetric scene reconstruction. Given a set of images of the scene taken from arbitrary but known locations, a 3D model of the scene is reconstructed. Voxels are used to model the scene and exploit the fact that surface points in the scene, and the voxels that represent them, project to consistent colors in the input images. Input cameras may be placed at arbitrary locations in and around the scene. When checking the color consistency of a voxel, the entire set of images from which the voxel is visible is used. A GVC algorithm utilizes item buffers which contain, for each pixel in each image, the ID of the closest voxel that projects onto to the pixel. A GVC-LDI algorithm uses layered depth images which store at each pixel location a list of all the surface voxels that project onto the pixel, sorted according to the distance of the voxel from the image's camera.

Abstract: The visibility ordering of polyhedral cells is efficiently determined by building an ordering graph, comprising oriented edges between two cells. Each edge (A,B) corresponds to the fact that cell A has to be projected, or rendered, before B. A set of ordering relations and rules that can be shown to generate, if one exists, a global ordering of the polyhedral cell complex. Three different types of edges are used to accomplish this: MPVO, BSP and PPC edges. MPVO edges exist between two cells that share a face. To define the BSP edges, a BSP-tree of the boundary faces of the cell complex is constructed. During this construction, some of the boundary faces of the cells will be ‘cut’ by the BSP-tree ‘extended’ faces, into multiple pieces. If C is the boundary cell, and c′, c″, and so on, are the pieces of its boundary faces, the BSP_edge (c′, C) is defined to mean that cell C can only be projected after c′ has been projected by the BSP.

Abstract: A graphics rendering system and method utilizing a unified memory space for a depth-buffer and the back framebuffer. To provide very high resolution with a limited memory, each primitive is rendered once to provide depth values, to determine which pixels of each primitive are displayed, and a second time to store the color values of pixels which are to be displayed. A flag bit is used to ensure that depth data and color data, which coexist in a common memory space, cannot be confused or interchanged.

Abstract: A graphics subsystem includes hardware and/or software for permitting mip-maps to be dynamically switched based upon depth (Z) values. In addition, the system generates a SHIFT signal to permit automatic adjustment of texture parameters to facilitate retrieval of texture maps. The system includes a mip-map select logic or routine that compares the depth value of a pixel to be rendered with predetermined depth values. The depth values may be stored in a plurality of depth registers, and compared with the depth value of a pixel in a plurality of associated comparators. A mip-map is selected based upon the comparisons, and the SHIFT signal is generated to indicate the order of change with respect to a base reference mip-map. A texture engine receives the SHIFT signal and uses the associated base address of the selected mip-map and shifted texture parameters to define an address for the texture map.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a consistent graphical expression of source code which is independent of the source language and of a particular programmer's style. The system first provides an intermediary pattern language which is source language independent into which the source code is translated. This pattern language is directly mapped to a set of predetermined graphical patterns having a series of attributes. The pattern language is nested in the sense that certain expressions may contain certain other expressions. This translates directly to graphical containment. Attributes are computed starting with the most nested parts of the pattern language translation. The attributes of the more nested parts having been thus computed may be used in the computation of the attributes of less nested parts of the expression. Once all attributes are computed, a mapping to display directives is performed, and a graphical engine produces an actual display.

Abstract: In a navigation system using a bird's-eye view display mode, map data on a plan view map are subjected to a perspective projection conversion to obtain drawing data on a bird's-eye view map. In this case, an input of the position of a view point is accepted, and a projection plane for a bird's-eye view is determined on the basis of the coordinates of a current position and a destination and the position of the view point so that the display positions of the two points which have been subjected to perspective-projection conversion are coincident with predetermined positions. Alternatively, an input of a scale is accepted, and the position of the view point and the projection plane are determined on the basis of the coordinates of the two points and the scale so that the display positions of the two points after the perspective projection conversion are coincident with predetermined positions and the drawing scale is coincident with the input scale.