Patents by Inventor David A. Kirk

David A. Kirk has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240062453
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for determining bounding regions for a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining an acceleration data structure, the acceleration data structure including one or more primitives of a scene object. A graph cut can be applied to the acceleration data structure. A set of nodes of the acceleration data structure can be determined based on the graph cut, wherein the determined set of nodes is located adjacent to the graph cut. A world-space bounding box can be generated for the scene object, using the set of nodes determined based on the graph cut.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2023
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Inventors: David Kirk MCALLISTER, Francois Mathias Robert DEMOULLIN, Alexei Vladimirovich BOURD
  • Patent number: 11893677
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for widening a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining a plurality of primitives of a scene object included in a first hierarchical acceleration data structure and determining one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures each including the plurality of primitives. A cost metric can be determined for the one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures and, based on the cost metric, a compressibility prediction associated with a candidate hierarchical acceleration data structure of the one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures can be determined. An output hierarchical acceleration data structure can be generated based on the compressibility prediction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Adimulam Ramesh Babu, Srihari Babu Alla, Avinash Seetharamaiah, Jonnala Gadda Nagendra Kumar, David Kirk McAllister
  • Publication number: 20240037840
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for widening a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining a plurality of primitives of a scene object included in a first hierarchical acceleration data structure and determining one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures each including the plurality of primitives. A cost metric can be determined for the one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures and, based on the cost metric, a compressibility prediction associated with a candidate hierarchical acceleration data structure of the one or more candidate hierarchical acceleration data structures can be determined. An output hierarchical acceleration data structure can be generated based on the compressibility prediction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2022
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Inventors: Adimulam RAMESH BABU, Srihari Babu ALLA, Avinash SEETHARAMAIAH, Jonnala Gadda NAGENDRA KUMAR, David Kirk MCALLISTER
  • Patent number: 11861785
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for determining bounding regions for a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining an acceleration data structure, the acceleration data structure including one or more primitives of a scene object. A graph cut can be applied to the acceleration data structure. A set of nodes of the acceleration data structure can be determined based on the graph cut, wherein the determined set of nodes is located adjacent to the graph cut. A world-space bounding box can be generated for the scene object, using the set of nodes determined based on the graph cut.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: David Kirk McAllister, Francois Mathias Robert Demoullin, Alexei Vladimirovich Bourd
  • Publication number: 20230410407
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for accelerated shadow ray traversal for a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining a hierarchical acceleration data structure, the hierarchical acceleration data structure including one or more primitives of a scene object. Two or more nodes included in a same level of the hierarchical acceleration data structure can be sorted into a sort order, the sort order based on a sorting parameter value determined for each respective node of the two or more nodes. The sorting parameter value can be associated with a probability of determining a ray-opaque primitive intersection for each respective node of the two or more nodes. An intersection between a shadow ray and an opaque primitive included in a node of the two or more nodes can be determined based on traversing the hierarchical acceleration data structure using the sort order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2022
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Piyush GUPTA, David Kirk MCALLISTER
  • Publication number: 20230356358
    Abstract: A method for calibrating a shot peening device includes receiving, by a controller, one or more parameters representative of the shot peening device, receiving, by the controller, one or more parameters representative of a test strip for use with the shot peening device, determining, by the controller, a compensation value for the test strip based on the one or more parameters representative of the shot peening device and on the one or more parameters representative of the test strip, receiving, by the controller, an arc height of the test strip following an introduction of the test strip into a shot stream generated by the shot peening device, generating, by the controller, a compensated curvature value based on the compensation value and the arc height, and presenting, by the controller, a calibration suggestion based on the compensated curvature value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2023
    Publication date: November 9, 2023
    Inventors: Jack Champaigne, David Kirk
  • Publication number: 20230337990
    Abstract: Cone-beam computer tomography systems, devices, and methods for image acquisition of large target volumes using partial scans.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2023
    Publication date: October 26, 2023
    Inventors: David Kirk JENSEN, Reto W. FILIBERTI, Markus OELHAFEN, Aime Pascal Laurence PAYSAN
  • Patent number: 11763523
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU or CPU. The apparatus may configure a BVH structure including a plurality of nodes, the BVH structure being associated with geometry data for a plurality of primitives in a scene. The apparatus may also detect a set of hit child nodes for a current node of the plurality of nodes. Further, the apparatus may sort the set of hit child nodes based on the parametric distance value of each of the set of hit child nodes. The apparatus may also compress the node ID and the parametric distance value for each of an updated set of hit child nodes based on the sorted set of hit child nodes. The apparatus may also store the compressed node ID and the compressed parametric distance value for each of the updated set of hit child nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: David Kirk McAllister, Francois Mathias Robert Demoullin
  • Patent number: 11737714
    Abstract: Cone-beam computer tomography systems, devices, and methods for image acquisition of large target volumes using partial scans.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignees: VARIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC., SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG
    Inventors: David Kirk Jensen, Reto W. Filiberti, Markus Oelhafen, Aime Pascal Laurence Paysan
  • Publication number: 20230252727
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU or CPU. The apparatus may configure a BVH structure including a plurality of nodes, the BVH structure being associated with geometry data for a plurality of primitives in a scene. The apparatus may also detect a set of hit child nodes for a current node of the plurality of nodes. Further, the apparatus may sort the set of hit child nodes based on the parametric distance value of each of the set of hit child nodes. The apparatus may also compress the node ID and the parametric distance value for each of an updated set of hit child nodes based on the sorted set of hit child nodes. The apparatus may also store the compressed node ID and the compressed parametric distance value for each of the updated set of hit child nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: David Kirk MCALLISTER, Francois Mathias Robert DEMOULLIN
  • Publication number: 20230252725
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU. The apparatus may configure a BVH structure including a plurality of nodes each including one or more primitives, and each of the primitives being associated with a primitive ID, a geometry ID, and a set of floating-point coordinates. The apparatus may also compress the primitive ID or the geometry ID for each of the primitives. Further, the apparatus may convert a binary representation of each of the floating-point coordinates into an integer value of each of the floating-point coordinates. The apparatus may also calculate a difference between the integer value of each of the set of floating-point coordinates for each of the plurality of primitives. The apparatus may also store the compressed primitive ID or the compressed geometry ID and the calculated difference.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventor: David Kirk MCALLISTER
  • Publication number: 20230252726
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU or CPU. The apparatus may configure a BVH structure including a plurality of nodes, the BVH structure being associated with geometry data for a plurality of primitives in a scene. The apparatus may also detect a set of child nodes for a current node of the plurality of nodes. Further, the apparatus may identify a first child node of the set of child nodes based on a node ID of the first child node. The apparatus may also calculate an offset between the node ID of the first child node and a node ID of each of the remaining child nodes in the set of child nodes. The apparatus may also store a representation of the node ID of each of the set of child nodes based on the calculated offset.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: David Kirk MCALLISTER, Francois Mathias Robert DEMOULLIN
  • Publication number: 20230252685
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU or CPU. The apparatus may allocate each of a plurality of primitives in a scene into one of a plurality of bounding boxes, each of the plurality of bounding boxes corresponding to a plurality of nodes including internal nodes and leaf nodes. The apparatus may also identify whether each of the plurality of nodes is one of the internal nodes or one of the leaf nodes. Further, the apparatus may estimate a compressibility of each of the plurality of nodes if the node is one of the leaf nodes, the compressibility of the node corresponding to whether the node is compressible. The apparatus may also compress data corresponding to each of the plurality of nodes if the node is estimated to be compressible.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: Adimulam RAMESH BABU, Srihari Babu ALLA, David Kirk MCALLISTER
  • Publication number: 20230252717
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for enhancing operations of a ray tracing processor. For instance, a process can include obtaining one or more nodes of an acceleration data structure. Each node of the one or more nodes includes the same number of bytes. The node(s) can be stored in a cache associated with a ray tracing processor. Each of the stored node(s) are cache line-aligned with the cache associated with the ray tracing processor. A first stored node of the stored node(s) can be provided to the ray tracing processor and processed by the ray tracing processor during a first clock cycle of the ray tracing processor. A second stored node of the stored node(s) can be provided to the ray tracing processor and processed by the ray tracing processor during a second clock cycle of the ray tracing processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: David Kirk MCALLISTER, Fei WEI, Alexei Vladimirovich BOURD
  • Publication number: 20230252716
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for determining bounding regions for a hierarchical structure for ray tracing. For instance, a process can include obtaining an acceleration data structure, the acceleration data structure including one or more primitives of a scene object. A graph cut can be applied to the acceleration data structure. A set of nodes of the acceleration data structure can be determined based on the graph cut, wherein the determined set of nodes is located adjacent to the graph cut. A world-space bounding box can be generated for the scene object, using the set of nodes determined based on the graph cut.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: David Kirk MCALLISTER, Francois Mathias Robert DEMOULLIN, Alexei Vladimirovich BOURD
  • Publication number: 20230202666
    Abstract: An aircraft nacelle air inlet comprising: a lip skin defining a curved surface of the inlet, the curved surface extending about a longitudinal axis of the inlet; a forward bulkhead; an inner barrel having a radially inner surface defining a surface of the inlet, a radially outer surface, and a sound attenuating layer arranged between the radially inner and radially outer surfaces; and a joining frame fixed to the lip skin and/or to the forward bulkhead. A first portion of the joining frame extends over at least a portion of the sound attenuating layer of the inner barrel and is fixed to the radially outer surface of the inner barrel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Publication date: June 29, 2023
    Applicant: Safran Nacelles Limited
    Inventors: David Kirk, Graeme Hill, David Hebden, Simon Furmston
  • Patent number: 11656188
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for scanning an item utilizing an X-ray scanner in order to facilitate a determination of whether the X-ray radiation penetrated through the entirety of the scanned item. Various embodiments comprise a conveying mechanism, an X-ray emitter, a detector, and an X-ray penetration grid (XPG). The XPG may comprise a radiopaque grid that may serve as a reference for determining whether radiation passes through the scanned item, the grid oriented such that the grid members are neither parallel nor perpendicular to the direction of travel. Such orientation may minimize or eliminate “ghosted” radiation signals included in a visual display of the radiation received by the detector. A scanned item may be oriented with the XPG such that radiation emitted by the X-ray emitter that passes through a portion of the scanned item must also pass through the XPG before being received by the detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: UNITED PARCEL SERVICE OF AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Wendie Patricia Hayler, Mark Rutherford, Marcus A. Jones, Anthony David Kirk, Gilbert Walter Vanorder, Roy Douglas Hudson, Paul Mason, James Termini
  • Patent number: 11593990
    Abstract: Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU. The apparatus may configure a BVH structure including a plurality of levels and a plurality of nodes, the BVH structure being associated with geometry data for a plurality of primitives in a scene. The apparatus may also identify an amount of storage in a GMEM that is available for storing at least some of the plurality of nodes in the BVH structure. Further, the apparatus may allocate the BVH structure into a first BVH section including a plurality of first nodes and a second BVH section including a plurality of second nodes. The apparatus may also store first data associated with the plurality of first nodes in the GMEM and second data associated with the plurality of first nodes and the plurality of second nodes in a system memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Adimulam Ramesh Babu, Srihari Babu Alla, David Kirk McAllister
  • Publication number: 20220412211
    Abstract: A method, a non-transitory computer-readable medium, and a computing system are provided for determining a telemetry mode of a signal. A drilling telemetry signal is received from a downhole tool in a wellbore. A transformation is determined based at least partially upon the drilling telemetry signal. Multiple features are extracted based at least partially upon the transformation. A decision region is identified based at least partially upon the features. A telemetry parameter is identified based at least partially upon the decision region. A telemetry mode of the drilling telemetry signal is determined based at least partially upon the telemetry parameter. The drilling telemetry signal is decoded based at least partially upon the telemetry mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Arnaud Jarrot, David Kirk Conn, Pavel Annenkov
  • Publication number: 20220412212
    Abstract: A method includes receiving a signal having a telemetry portion and a noise portion. The method may also include identifying one or more harmonic frequencies in the signal. The method may also include determining whether the one or more harmonic frequencies are in a predetermined frequency band. The method may also include determining whether a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal is below a predetermined SNR threshold. The method may also include generating one or more notifications in response to the determination whether the one or more harmonic frequencies are in the predetermined frequency band and the determination whether the SNR is below the predetermined SNR threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Liang Sun, Pavel Annenkov, Arnaud Jarrot, David Kirk Conn, Robert Tennent, Richard Hunter