Patents by Inventor Nicholas Stewart North

Nicholas Stewart North 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).

  • Patent number: 11620793
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for computer aided design of structures include, in one aspect, a method for producing, the method including: obtaining a polygonal control mesh for a smooth surface representing an object; subdividing the polygonal control mesh in one or more subdivisions to produce a refined control mesh, wherein the subdividing comprises: using data defining an eigen polyhedron around an extraordinary point in the polygonal control mesh to generate adjustment rules to determine positions of the extraordinary point, and face points and edge points for faces adjacent to the extraordinary point, and determining, according to the adjustment rules, the positions for the extraordinary point, the face points, and the edge points for the faces adjacent to the extraordinary point; and generating, by the computer graphics application, the smooth surface for output from the refined control mesh.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin James Marshall, Nicholas Stewart North, Adam Michael Helps
  • Publication number: 20220309749
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for computer aided design of structures include, in one aspect, a method for producing, the method including: obtaining a polygonal control mesh for a smooth surface representing an object; subdividing the polygonal control mesh in one or more subdivisions to produce a refined control mesh, wherein the subdividing comprises: using data defining an eigen polyhedron around an extraordinary point in the polygonal control mesh to generate adjustment rules to determine positions of the extraordinary point, and face points and edge points for faces adjacent to the extraordinary point, and determining, according to the adjustment rules, the positions for the extraordinary point, the face points, and the edge points for the faces adjacent to the extraordinary point; and generating, by the computer graphics application, the smooth surface for output from the refined control mesh.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Inventors: Kevin James Marshall, Nicholas Stewart North, Adam Michael Helps
  • Patent number: 11380058
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for computer aided design of physical structures include, in one aspect, a method for increasing smoothness between a set of adjoining surface patches includes: identifying surface patches corresponding to a portion of a modeled surface to be smoothed, where the surface patches are defined by control vertices from a control mesh; smoothing the portion of the modeled surface based on continuity, where the smoothing includes determining a continuity measure at an interface between each pair of adjoining surface patches, and modifying positions of a subset of the control vertices, thereby modifying the surface patches, by targeting an overall improvement in the continuity measures for the interfaces, while also targeting an overall minimum of modification of positions of the control vertices; and processing the modified positions of the subset of the control vertices within the modelled surface for output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Stewart North, Adam Michael Helps
  • Publication number: 20210110603
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for computer aided design of physical structures include, in one aspect, a method for increasing smoothness between a set of adjoining surface patches includes: identifying surface patches corresponding to a portion of a modeled surface to be smoothed, where the surface patches are defined by control vertices from a control mesh; smoothing the portion of the modeled surface based on continuity, where the smoothing includes determining a continuity measure at an interface between each pair of adjoining surface patches, and modifying positions of a subset of the control vertices, thereby modifying the surface patches, by targeting an overall improvement in the continuity measures for the interfaces, while also targeting an overall minimum of modification of positions of the control vertices; and processing the modified positions of the subset of the control vertices within the modelled surface for output.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Publication date: April 15, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Stewart North, Adam Michael Helps