Patents Examined by Kevin Xu
  • Patent number: 7382373
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a method includes generating blurred copies of an object by applying multi-texturing to the object during one pass through a graphics processing pipeline. In some embodiments, a graphics pipeline includes a texture memory and a graphics processor coupled to the texture memory. The texture memory provides a location to store texture information. The graphics processor provides processor to process the texture information by shifting and blending the texture information in one pass through the graphics processor to obtain shifted and blended texture information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2008
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Brent S. Baxter, Paul M. Brown, William H. Clifford
  • Patent number: 7369138
    Abstract: A method and system for performing full-scene anti-aliasing for an image through a technique of rotating and unrotating rasterization of a scene and rendering a resulting image. A scene is rasterized at a first angle relative to a first coordinate system to generate a plurality of pixels, which are then applied to a polygon surface that is rendered at a second angle equal to the inverse of the first angle. Thus, the resulting image is re-oriented with respect to the first coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2008
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Gregory M. Hunter
  • Patent number: 7365744
    Abstract: A method of the invention includes the steps of selecting at least a portion of an image on which to superimpose a texture and segmenting that portion of the image into a plurality of clusters. Each of the clusters is then parameterized with texture coordinates, and texture is assigned to each of the clusters using the texture coordinates to result in a texture patch. The texture patches are then blended together. This exemplary method of the invention has the result of the texture patches appearing to adopt the surface undulations of the underlying surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2008
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
    Inventors: Hui Fang, John C. Hart
  • Patent number: 7362339
    Abstract: Image processing is performed on a plurality of layers including at least one line display layer or at least one sprite display layer, from which a plurality of attribute data regarding lines or sprites are sequentially read out so as to produce a plurality of display data, which are then written over each other in a buffer memory, so that the corresponding images are displayed on the screen of a display. With respect to overlapped regions at which plural lines or sprites overlap each other, plural display data are written over each other in the buffer memory in accordance with a first-in-first-out principle. In line processing, image data regarding different lines are subjected to alpha blending and are then written into the buffer memory. In sprite processing, image data regarding different sprites are subjected to rendering and alpha blending and are then written into the buffer memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro Honme
  • Patent number: 7342585
    Abstract: A computer-implemented simulated emboldening mechanism for emboldening an input overscaled bitmap to generate an emboldened overscaled bitmap. The simulated emboldening adjusts the number of subpixels to turn on in the direction of emboldening taking into account contextual information regarding surrounding subpixels. Since the emboldening works directly from an overscaled bitmap, and takes such contextual information into account, legibility and readability of the resulting emboldened character is enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Tanya Matskewich, David L. Kilgrow
  • Patent number: 7333118
    Abstract: A method and a device for processing an image to be displayed with a reduced number n of color components are disclosed. The method comprises, for at least one of the color components, a reduction operation that is carried out by means of a dynamic round off dependent on the position (x, y) of the pixel to display. Thus, in a very simple way, image processing preventing the occurrence of artifacts, flickering or other flaws that the reduction of the number of colors would inevitably produce, can be realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics SA
    Inventor: Yan Meroth
  • Patent number: 7324107
    Abstract: A method of performing anisotropic texture mip-mapping. The method includes determining a region of support for a set of target pixels of the image to be textured, and mapping the region of support to an area in texture map that is generally elliptical. For each axis of the ellipse the number of samples is determined and a filter function is performed on those samples to find the final color value. For four texels, the filter function is a weighted sum of the color values of each texel, where the weights are determined based on the fraction of the Level of Detail (LOD) and the fraction of the U or V coordinate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Via Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Qun Feng (Fred) Liao, Zhou (Mike) Hong
  • Patent number: 7307637
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying pixel position and geometry in 3D systems have been disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Assignee: White Rabbit 3D LLC
    Inventor: Lawrence Arnold Gunn
  • Patent number: 7304623
    Abstract: With regard to each of primary colors for image display on the image display panel, (i) three video signals are extracted from each of video signal rows of J types in which the video signals supplied to pixels are aligned in line with time series, in such a manner as to cause the order of primary colors reproduced by the three video signals to be in line with the order of the J primary colors allocated to the respective pixels, and (ii) video signal rows of three types are generated by serially allocating each of the three video signals to any one of the video signal rows of three types.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2007
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazunari Tomizawa, Yoshihiro Okada, Atsushi Ban
  • Patent number: 7280117
    Abstract: A keyer is provided with a graphical user interface that helps a user visualize the relationship between the key and the image to be processed using that key. A color space swatch is processed by the keyer using the defined key. The output of the keyer as applied to the color space swatch is displayed to the user to illustrate which colors match the defined key. The alpha matte generated by applying the key to the color space swatch also may be displayed. Each pixel in either the color space swatch or the alpha matte generated by applying the key to the color space swatch may be modified to indicate whether its corresponding color is present in the input image or in the preprocessed input image. Luminance processing also may be applied. In particular, the alpha value for a pixel may be adjusted according to the luminance of the pixel according to a user defined function. The alpha matte displayed to the user may include the effects of such luminance processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2007
    Assignee: Avid Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Randy M. Fayan
  • Patent number: 7271812
    Abstract: A method for converting between color space formats initiates with identifying a first color space format. Then, both an offset parameter and a scale parameter are selected. The offset parameter and the scale parameter are associated with the first color space format. A conversion matrix configured to convert values associated with the first color space format to a second color space format is identified. When to apply the offset parameter and the scale parameter in relation to application of the conversion matrix is determined, i.e., to the input for the conversion matrix or to the output from the conversion matrix. A computer readable medium, a display controller and an integrated circuit are also included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2007
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Phil Van Dyke, Raymond Chow
  • Patent number: 7268792
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering an image signal by adding another one color different from an inputted color, to an image signal composed of a predetermined number (for example, RGB) of components, is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Seong-deok Lee, Chang-yeong Kim
  • Patent number: 7256791
    Abstract: Rasterization of three-dimensional images are provided in which three-dimensional image data, which includes at least (x,y,z) coordinate and color information, are generated, organized, and stored at memory locations in one or more frame buffers in accordance with z-coordinate information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: LightSpace Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Alan Sullivan, John T. Snuffer
  • Patent number: 7248750
    Abstract: An object information processing apparatus is provided for obtaining object information from input image data comprising pixels. The object information processing apparatus comprises an object determination section for determining whether or not each pixel is a part of an object to be extracted by comparing color information indicating a color of the pixel with a predetermined reference value for the object, and an object information retaining section for retaining coordinate data of the pixel as the object information if the pixel has been determined by the object determination section to be a part of the object to be extracted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazuyoshi Matsumoto
  • Patent number: 7245307
    Abstract: In order to provide an image processing system and the like that can reproduce colors more appropriately, a projector is provided with a calibration signal generation section that generates a calibration signal for a white image and calibration signals for three subtracted-primary-color images, each of which is obtained by subtracting a predetermined input value from the RGB values of a predetermined primary color, one of plurality of kinds of primary colors that together form white; an image projection section for displaying each calibration image, based on the corresponding calibration signal; a sensing section for sensing each displayed calibration image; a primary-color amount information generation section for calculating a difference between sensing signal values and calculating an image signal value for the highest output value of each of the RGB colors, based on that difference; an ambient-light amount information generation section for calculating an ambient-light amount based on differences between
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Hideki Matsuda
  • Patent number: 7242422
    Abstract: A circuit and a method for decoding a color code of a 3D display. The color code decoding circuit is built into an on-screen display of a circuit in a display. The color code decoding circuit has several comparators, several recording buffers, a register, a first counter and a second counter. The comparators read a 3D image signal and compare this 3D image signal with a reference signal to obtain a color code value by decoding. The color code value is then recorded in the recording buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: Novatek Microelectronics Corp.
    Inventors: Chung-Yao Chen, Thomas Lee
  • Patent number: 7239313
    Abstract: A system or method to distribute curvature in a set of target vertices by computing curvature at boundary vertices of the set of target vertices by use of an umbrella operator. The boundary curvatures may be distributed into the set of target vertices by solving for a system of Umbrella operator equations for curvatures of respective vertices of the set of target vertices, with the computed curvature at the boundary vertices as a boundary condition for the system of equations. The vertices of the set of target vertices may be repositioned relative to the their neighbors according to the solved curvatures of the respective vertices of the set of vertices. The computing, distributing, and repositioning may be repeated, thereby changing the overall shape of the set of target vertices according to the curvature at the boundary vertices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventor: Peter Liepa
  • Patent number: 7240086
    Abstract: A method of image format conversion and remote control device using the same. Addition terms for a first layer are derived from an image conversion table. Every two addition terms are assigned to an addition group, obtaining a plurality of addition groups. The two addition terms of each addition group are added by using an adder to obtain addition terms for next layer thereafter. The bit number of the adder is equivalent to that of one addition term comprising the maximum bit number in every addition group. Finally, the addition process is repeated to obtain the operation result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Aten International Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chi-Min Chen, Chih-Ming Tsai
  • Patent number: 7224372
    Abstract: Methods and systems for selecting different anti-aliasing filters to be applied to objects of image data rendered with pixel sub-component precision based on the attributes of the objects of the graphics image. For example, when rendering a character traditional anti-aliasing applied in the direction parallel to the striping of the pixel sub-components is adapted to the unique requirements of different character font sizes such that a large amount of anti-aliasing is applied to large font sizes while a small amount of anti-aliasing is provided for characters at small font sizes. Displaced sampling is utilized to determine the alpha values for a plurality of vertical samples for each RGB pixel sub-component. The selected anti-aliasing filter is applied to the alpha values to determine the luminous intensity values of the RGB pixel sub-components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David C. Brown, John C. Platt, Michael Duggan, Gregory Hitchcock, Beat Stamm
  • Patent number: 7221375
    Abstract: A system and a method for generating dithering patterns associated with a digital image are provided. The method includes generating a first table index value indicative of a location in a first table where first, second, and third color intensity values associated with a plurality of pixels on the display device are stored. The method further includes transmitting the first table index value from a computer to a second device via a communication bus. The method further includes accessing the first table using the first table index value to obtain the first, second, and third color intensity values associated with the plurality of pixels, the accessing being performed by the second device. The method further includes generating first, second, and third dithering patterns associated with the plurality of pixels based on the first, second, and third color intensity values, respectively, and position values indicative of positions of the plurality of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Actuality Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Deirdre M. Hall, Won-Suk Chun