Abstract: Systems and methods for removing hidden faces in a 3D model, such as a building model are provided. A method for removing hidden faces in a 3D building model may include identifying a 3D building model having hidden surfaces inside the building model. The method may further include adding closing surfaces to the hidden surfaces to form closed hidden surfaces. The method may further include combining the closed hidden surfaces into a single polygon. The method may then include removing the closed hidden surfaces. A system for removing hidden faces in a 3D building model may include a surface identifier, a surface adder, a surface combiner and a surface remover. The removal of unnecessary internal surfaces and artifacts may increase the efficiency of the 3D building model.

Abstract: A stand-alone platform and a method for the multi-dimensional rendering, display, manipulation, and analysis of full high resolution volumetric data sets. The systems and methods provide the ability to volumetrically render images with extremely high resolution in applications such as medical imaging procedures, digital microscopy such as in use of a confocal microscope, and other areas where extremely large data sets are produced from the imaging process. Certain embodiments of the system and methods produce left and right eye images of the rendered data, for viewing in parallax via a synchronized headset, and the ability to manipulate the data and display of image data easily and in real time.

Abstract: An adaptive image volume rendering system first fragments a 3-D dataset into multiple sub-volumes and constructs an octree structure, wherein each sub-volume is associated with one node on the octree. The system then establishes a 2-D image plane and selectively launches a plurality of rays towards the 3-D dataset, each ray adaptively interacting with a subset of the sub-volumes. The ray energy reflected by each sub-volume is estimated using a modified Phong illumination model, constituting a pixel value at the ray origin on the 2-D image plane. Finally, the system interpolates pixel values at a plurality of selected locations and generates a 2-D image of the 3-D dataset.

Abstract: Artifact quantification is provided in volume rendering. Since the visual conspicuity of rendering artifacts strongly influences subjective assessments of image quality, quantitative metrics that accurately correlate with human visual perception may provide consistent values over a range of imaging conditions.

Abstract: Technologies are described herein for buffer management during real-time streaming. A video frame buffer stores video frames generated by a real-time streaming video capture device. New video frames received from the video capture device are stored in the video frame buffer prior to processing by a video processing pipeline that processes frames stored in the video frame buffer. A buffer manager determines whether a new video frame has been received from the video capture device and stored in the video frame buffer. When the buffer manager determines that a new video frame has arrived at the video frame buffer, it then determines whether the video processing pipeline has an unprocessed video frame. If the video processing pipeline has an unprocessed video frame, the buffer manager discards the new video frame stored in the video frame buffer or performs other processing on the new video frame.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating an elemental image by an integral image technique are provided. The method includes normalizing coordinates of dots in a frustum formed in perspective projection by mapping the dots in the frustum into a cube; reversing a grade of depth of the cube viewed from a particular viewpoint; and generating a two-dimensional (2D) elemental image necessary for three-dimensional (3D) display from dots in the cube whose grade of depth is reversed.

Abstract: A texture compression engine of a graphics device receives an uncompressed texture of a 3D graphic application. The received uncompressed texture is transcoded into an AVC reference picture stream. A plurality of mipmaps is constructed from the received uncompressed texture. The texture compression engine determines a texture compression rate based on available memory capacities. The texture compression engine compresses the received texture and its mipmaps at the determined texture compression rate. The compressed texture and mipmaps are further transcoded into the AVC reference picture stream and stored. The transcoded texture and mipmaps comprise either RGB or YCbCr components for a RGB uncompressed texture. The transcoded texture and mipmaps comprise monochrome or luma components for an ARGB uncompressed texture. A graphics accelerator in the graphics device is operable to acquire the stored texture and mipmaps for a 3D graphics scene. The acquired texture and mipmaps are decompressed by AVC decoding.

Abstract: Described is a technology in which point cloud surface reconstruction is performed via parallel processing on a graphics processing unit, achieving real-time reconstruction rates. An octree is built for a given set of oriented points, with each node containing a set of points enclosed by the node. The data structure is built on the GPU, in parallel, using level-order traversals to process nodes at a same tree level. The surface is reconstructed based on data configured and located via the traversals. To produce the surface, an implicit function over the volume spanned by the octree nodes is computed using the GPU, e.g., based on a Poisson surface reconstruction method. A sparse linear system is built and a multi-grid solver is employed to solve the system. An adaptive marching cubes procedure is performed on the GPU to extract an isosurface of the implicit function as a triangular mesh.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a device for generating a morphing animation from multiple images, where the method includes: performing hue preprocessing on adjacent images among multiple images; determining the quantity of intermediate frames between the adjacent images according to a feature point differential of the adjacent images on which the hue preprocessing has been performed, generating, between the adjacent images through an image warping technology, intermediate frame images, the quantity of which is the same as that of the intermediate frames, insert the intermediate frame images between the adjacent images, and generate a morphing animation from the multiple images and the intermediate frame images that are inserted between all adjacent images among the multiple images. The morphing animation generated in the present invention is smooth and natural, thereby improving a morphing effect of the morphing animation.

Abstract: A display control apparatus which controls display of information about a group of data having a predetermined relevance, the apparatus may include a means for generating a three dimensional model for display in accordance with a first item of information of the information about the group; and a means for controlling display of a second item of information that is the information about the group and different from the first item of information so as to be overlaid on a three dimensional image displayed based on the model.

Abstract: A method for volume rendering a digitized medical image includes providing a digitized medical image volume comprising a plurality of intensities on a 3-dimensional grid of points, providing a projection plane comprising a 2-dimensional lattice of points onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through the image volume, advancing a sampling point along a ray through the image volume, generating an incision region within the image volume, determining whether the sampling point is within the incision region, where a first transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a first volume if the sampling point is within the incision region, and a second transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a second volume if the sampling point is outside the incision region, and accumulating the output of the transfer function.

Abstract: A method for providing fog or fading due to atmospheric effects during computer animation of an image. The method includes determining a lighting value for a scene's or an image's pixels based on the positions of the pixels relative to a light source. The method includes, for each of the pixels, setting a fade in start distance for each pixel measured from a camera location so as to define when fog is added, e.g., when to fade a pixel's color by blending this color with a fog color. The fade in start distances are set based on each pixel's lighting value, whereby pixels with smaller lighting values or shadowed pixels begin to fade first while highlighted pixels fade with greater distances. The method includes adding fog to the image starting at the fade in start distances for each of the pixels and then rendering the image.

Abstract: A computer implemented method for creating a depth range buffer for supporting clipping geometries for ray-casting includes inputting image data, establishing a depth range buffer for specifying a start and an end point of each ray, computing a near depth of the image data corresponding to the start point of each ray, computing a far depth of the image data corresponding to the end point of each ray, clipping the volume by restricting ray-casting within the start and end points of the depth range buffer, and rendering a portion of the image data corresponding to the visible depth range.

Abstract: A temporal parallax induced display includes the presentation of different views of a scene. The system likewise uses a model of the human visual system to modify the image to reduce the rocking artifacts.

Abstract: A calculation unit (58) references texture data (62) in a storage unit (60) and acquires texel information of index color formal An integral look-up table (64) has a structure containing a plurality of color look-up tables based on the detail degree (LOD) of the area to be plotted A look-up table reference unit (70) selectively references the color look-up table based on the LOD stored in the integral look-up table (64) according to the LOD value of the texel obtained by the LOD calculation unit (68), acquires color information corresponding to the index value of the texel, and outputs it to the calculation unit (58). The calculation unit (58) performs filter processing such as bi-linear interpolation according to the texel color information and outputs the texel information after the processing.

Abstract: Asymmetric animation links control motion propagation through motion element graphs of models. Asymmetric animation links have direction attributes. When a motion element is moved, the influence of this motion propagates away from this motion element through the motion element graph. Upon reaching an asymmetric animation link, if the direction of motion propagation through the graph matches the forward direction of the asymmetric animation link, this motion will pass through the asymmetric animation link to potentially influence additional motion elements. If the motion propagates through the graph in the reverse direction of an asymmetric animation link, then the asymmetric animation link will block the motion from traveling past the asymmetric animation link. Asymmetric animation links can be added or removed from models and can connect two or more models. Additionally, the direction attribute of an asymmetric animation link may be reversed as needed to change the behavior of the motion element.

Abstract: Triangulating quadrilaterals. A method includes accessing an irregular grid comprising a plurality of irregular quadrilaterals. A determination is made that each of the irregular quadrilaterals in the irregular grid is not a concave and is a convex quadrilateral. On a grid basis and as a result of determining that each of the irregular quadrilaterals in the irregular grid is not a concave and is a convex quadrilateral, each of the irregular quadrilaterals in the irregular grid is triangulated to create a triangular mesh by defining diagonals from at least one vertex point of each of the irregular quadrilaterals in the irregular grid to the diagonally opposed vertex point of the same irregular quadrilateral. The triangular mesh is stored in a computer readable storage medium that can be accessed by an application for performing tasks related to data visualization, computer graphics, computational geometry, etc.

Abstract: Multilayer polygon data for constructing multilayer polygonal models and a height map including height data values, arranged in a two-dimensional array, each of which indicates the height of each position provided on a three-dimensional object to be drawn, are read from a storage device. Then, the height of a layer of the multilayer polygonal models is compared to the height data value of a position provided on the height map, so as to determine a visible region provided on the layer of the multilayer polygonal models. And then, the visible region which is determined as described above and provided on the layer of the multilayer polygonal models is drawn in a predetermined color. Thus, it is possible to easily draw, in three-dimensional image processing, a three-dimensional object, such as an accumulation of snow, soil, sand, or bricks, positioned in the virtual space, regardless of the shape of the object.

Abstract: The adaptive MIP ray casting system first fragments a 3-D dataset into multiple sub-volumes and constructs an octree data structure with each sub-volume being associated with one node of the octree data structure. The system then establishes a 2-D image plane and selectively launches a plurality of rays towards the 3-D dataset, each ray adaptively interacting with a subset of the sub-volumes and identifies the maximum data value along the ray path. The maximum data value is then converted into a pixel value on the 2-D image plane. Finally, the system interpolates pixel values at those locations where no pixel value is generated by ray casting and thereby generates a 2-D image of the 3-D dataset.

Abstract: A portable computer including a display unit, and a video processor generating and supplying a first video signal to the display unit, includes a video adaptor outputting the first video signal to the outside, and receiving a second video signal from an external input source, and a control unit for supplying the second video signal to the display unit when the external input source is connected to the video adaptor. Thus, the present invention provides a portable computer and a control method, which can receive a video signal from an external input source through one existing output port for outputting a video signal without adding a separate input port.