Patents by Inventor Tom J. Bannon

Tom J. Bannon 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).

  • Method of modeling player position and movement in a virtual reality system
    Patent number: 6054991
    Abstract: In a virtual reality system (20) an operator perceives being in a virtual reality world (74) of virtual reality images (62). The system (20) models the relative position and movement of objects (208 and 210) in a virtual reality world (74) by representing graphically a first (208) and second (210) object in a virtual reality world (74) on a graphical display (60 and 68). The representation selective obscures the first (208) and second (210) objects according to the relative position of the objects (208 and 210) to a predetermined observation point in the virtual reality world (74). The system (20) then determines a first partitioning plane (204) between the first (208) and second (210) objects. Then, the system (20) method determines a second partition plane (206) between the first (208) and second (210) object in response to either of said first (208) or second (210) objects moving across the first partitioning plane (204).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2000
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Christopher Adam Crane, Tom J. Bannon, Daniel Martin Donahue, Donald Wayne Adkins, Judd England Heape, Andrew Kendall Smith, Thomas M. Siep