Abstract: A method and computer product for rendering real-time three-dimensional images on a display based on view manipulation of prestored depth images in a global coordinate space. First, a layered depth image is generated from multiple depth images based on a predetermined display viewpoint. If the determined viewpoint is within a predetermined threshold of the layered depth image, the generated layered depth image is warped based on the determined display viewpoint, pixels from the layered depth image are splatted onto the warped image, and an output image is generated and displayed based on the splat pixels. If the determined viewpoint is outside the predetermined threshold of the previously generated layered depth image, a next closest layered depth image is generated. If the next closest layered depth image is not fully generated, the previously generated layered depth image is used to generate an output image.

Abstract: A method for filling the space between two neighboring polyline ribs is disclosed. The method, called ladder triangulation, likens two ribs, which generally outline a complex structure, to the two rails of a ladder. The ladder triangulation is built by adding rungs, each rung connecting a node on one rib to a node on the other rib and thereby (after the first rung) creating one more triangle. In essence the first rung connects node 1 of polyline 1 to node 1 of polyline 2, and the second rung connects either node 1 polyline 1 to node 2 polyline 2 or else node 1 polyline 2 to node 2 polyline 1, whichever rung is shorter. There are (n1+n2)/2 such rungs where n1 and n2 are the respective node counts of the two polylines, and computation is linear with node count. Where there are multiple polylines, the same process is repeated between polylines 2 and 3, 3 and 4, etc. and may also be repeated between the last polyline and the first one (cyclic rib fill).

Abstract: A mobile data apparatus equipped with a display is improved in both operability and mobility include a frame difference detector 4 for detecting a change in image between two consecutive frames transferred from a pair of frame buffers 2 and 3. The change in image is used in a barycenter calculator 5 for calculating the barycenter of each image. The barycenter is saved in a barycenter coordinates memory 6. A camera movement calculator 6 calculates a difference between the barycenter saved in the barycenter coordinates memory 6 and a reference barycenter saved in a barycenter coordinates memory 7 to determine a horizontal pixel shift DPx and a vertical pixel shift DPy of a camera. In response to those shifts, a horizontal angle-of-rotation controller 9 and a vertical angle-of-rotation controller 10 determine angles of rotation along the horizontal and vertical directions hx and hy for a virtual camera 11. Accordingly, the view of the virtual camera 11 can duly be controlled.

Abstract: A limitation of a three-dimensional world in which objects in the distance may be represented in only two dimensions as a video on a screen occurs when a computer graphic object represented by computer graphics, e.g., in front of, to the side, above, or below the video screen, undergoes a trajectory that takes it to a location in the world that is not represented as computer graphics, but instead is within the field represented by the video, because such an object would disappear from view by the viewer. This limitation is overcome by having by determining when a computer graphic object undergoes a trajectory that takes it to a location in the world that is not represented as computer graphics, but instead is within the field represented by the video, and representing such an object as computer graphics in front of the screen to which at least one perspective transformation is applied, the perspective transformation being at least a function of the position at which the object is actually located.

Abstract: A method of generating a solid-shell object from a solid object having a shelling-designated surface and other surfaces includes the steps of inwardly displacing the other surfaces to generate displaced surfaces, dividing the shelling-designated surface and the displaced surfaces into portions, removing unnecessary portions among the portions to leave necessary portions of the shelling-designated surface and the displaced surfaces, and connecting the necessary portions of the shelling-designated surface and the displaced surfaces together to generate a first surface model. The method further includes the steps of removing the shelling-designated surface from the solid object to generate a second surface model, and connecting the first surface model and the second surface model to generate the solid-shell object.

Abstract: A computer implemented system and method provide navigation of information structures through corresponding graphical structures containing graphical nodes. Each graphical node has its own bounded volume defined in a relative 3D coordinate space. Each graphical node further may have a parent or child containment relationship with any other arbitrary graphical node. The containment relationships correspond to semantic containment relationships of corresponding information nodes in an information structure. As a result, the various 3D coordinate spaces are arbitrarily nested within each other, yet provide for a fully defined local coordinate frame of reference for contained objects. A viewer module manages a view volume in the coordinate space of a current one of the graphical nodes and associated current coordinate space. As the user moves a viewpoint in the current coordinate space, the view volume is dynamically rescaled in inverse proportion to the depth of the viewpoint in that space.

Abstract: In a video generation system having a digital image presented on a visual output medium, a method for generating animations includes repeatedly partially dissolving a first replacement set of image values, representing at least one edge, into the digital image and, while the first set of image values is only partially dissolved into the digital image, at least partially dissolving a second replacement set of images values, representing at least one edge distinct from the edge represented by the first replacement set of values, into the digital image.