Tri-linear Patents (Class 345/608)
  • Patent number: 8576247
    Abstract: The described embodiments comprise a system that adjusts pixel values to produce visual effects in a frame to be displayed. During operation, the system receives coordinates and pixel-adjustment values for one or more control points within the frame. Next, the system calculates pixel-adjustment values for pixels in the frame based on the coordinates and the pixel-adjustment values for the one or more control points. The system then applies the pixel-adjustment values to the pixels within the frame and displays the frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Gokhan Avkarogullari, William E. Bull, Szu-Wen Huang
  • Patent number: 8532434
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a division section for dividing input image data into portions; an orientation determining section for calculating reliabilities of directions of image data of each portion when the directions are regarded as orientations, and setting an orientation with the highest reliability as an orientation of each portion; a display control section for generating display image data including an image of a target portion whose reliability of an orientation is less than a predetermined value and images of designation regions from which a user's input to designate the orientation of the target portion is entered; and a character recognition section for recognizing characters of each portion in such a manner that the orientation is designated from the designation regions or set by the orientation determining section. This allows prompt recognition of characters of a portion whose reliability of orientation is low, in accordance with a right orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Atsuhisa Morimoto
  • Patent number: 8217954
    Abstract: Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide texture caches and related circuits that store and retrieve texels in an efficient manner. One such texture circuit can provide a configurable number of texel quads for a configurable number of pixels. For bilinear filtering, texels for a comparatively greater number of pixels can be retrieved. For trilinear filtering, texels in a first LOD are retrieved for a number of pixels during a first clock cycle, during a second clock cycle, texels in a second LOD are retrieved. When aniso filtering is needed, a greater number of texels can be retrieved for a comparatively lower number of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventor: Alexander L. Minkin
  • Patent number: 8134574
    Abstract: Each of a plurality of polyhedron spaces is defined by a plurality of first vertices. Each of the plurality of first vertices is defined by a plurality of sets of third color data that are defined in the second color space. A color data setting unit sets a plurality of sets of fourth color data that are defined in a first color space in one to one correspondence with the plurality of third color data sets. A second dividing unit divides each of a plurality of polyhedron spaces into a plurality of smaller polyhedron spaces by a division number set for the each polyhedron spaces. Each of the plurality of smaller polyhedron spaces is defined by a plurality of second vertices and the plurality of first vertices. Each of the plurality of second vertices is defined by a plurality of sets of fifth color data defined in the second color space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masashi Kuno
  • Patent number: 8040357
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention pixel processing system and method provide convenient and efficient processing of pixel information. In one embodiment, quotient-remainder information associated with barycentric coordinate information indicating the location of a pixel is received. In one exemplary implementation quotient-remainder information is associated with barycentric coordinate information through the relationship c divided by dcdx, where c is the barycentric coordinate for a particular edge and dcdx is the derivative of the barycentric coordinate in the screen horizontal direction. The relationship of a pixel with respect to a primitive edge is determined based upon the quotient-remainder information. For example, a positive quotient can indicate a pixel is inside a triangle and a negative quotient can indicate a pixel is outside a triangle. Pixel processing such as shading is performed in accordance with the relationship of the pixel to the primitive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Nvidia Corporation
    Inventors: Edward A. Hutchins, Christopher D. S. Donham
  • Patent number: 7999821
    Abstract: Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide texture caches and related circuits that store and retrieve texels in an efficient manner. One such texture circuit can provide a configurable number of texel quads for a configurable number of pixels. For bilinear filtering, texels for a comparatively greater number of pixels can be retrieved. For trilinear filtering, texels in a first LOD are retrieved for a number of pixels during a first clock cycle, during a second clock cycle, texels in a second LOD are retrieved. When aniso filtering is needed, a greater number of texels can be retrieved for a comparatively lower number of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventor: Alexander L. Minkin
  • Patent number: 7961185
    Abstract: A plurality of rows of tiles is defined in a graphics display field comprising a plurality of rows of pixels, each tile including pixels from at least two rows of pixels. Occlusion flags for respective tiles of a row of tiles for a graphics primitive are set based on whether respective representative depth values for the tiles of the row of tiles meet an occlusion criterion. Pixels in rows of pixels corresponding to the row of tiles are processed for the graphics primitive in a row-by-row manner responsive to the occlusion flags. The processing may include processing rows of pixels in the row of tiles using a zig-zag traversal algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)
    Inventors: Jacob Ström, Tomas Akenine-Möller
  • Patent number: 7936359
    Abstract: A reconfigurable floating point data filter may be implemented by configuring a texture filter in response to state data, where the state data specifying at least a data width of input texture data to be filtered, where the input texture data is in a floating point format, filtering the input texture data using the texture filter, and then reconfiguring the texture filter to be substantially fully utilized when the data width of the input texture data changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Steven J. Spangler, Benjamin R. Pletcher
  • Patent number: 7880743
    Abstract: An improved attribute determination process allows the sharpness of a surface attribute function to be adjusted on a per-object, per-surface, per-texture, per-function, or other appropriate basis. A computer-based animator then can selectively adjust the sharpness or other attribute(s) of portions of a to-be-rendered image without significantly increasing the rendering time. For a selected texture, corresponding sampling regions will be shifted about the respective surface points projected in texture space. A multi-dimensional set of sub-regions can be generated for the shifted sampling region. Bounding boxes can be determined for each sub-region, the boxes occupying less area, such as in texture space, than a single bounding box for the original sampling region. The bounding boxes can be used for local attribute determinations (such as texture lookups) for each sub-region, with the local attributes being processed to determine an attribute for the respective surface point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Pixar
    Inventors: Chris Bernardi, Manuel Kraemer
  • Patent number: 7768523
    Abstract: In a technique for rendering non-linear BRDFs that are stable in both the temporal and spatial domains, without serious interruption to the content creation pipeline used in most games, non-linear content is linearized by rendering in texture space at a fixed resolution. A MIP-map chain is calculated from this texture. The complete MIP-map chain is used for rendering on a display device. Low resolution reflectance parameters are used to approximate the highest resolution reflectance parameters as the object becomes smaller on the display device. The low resolution reflectance parameters are calculated using non linear fitting techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel K. Baker, Michael V. Oneppo, Samuel Glassenberg, Peter-Pike J. Sloan, John Rapp
  • Patent number: 7649533
    Abstract: Subsets of volume data are sequentially stored for volume rendering from two dimensional textures. For example, pairs of adjacent two-dimensional images are loaded into RAM or cache. Strips of texture data are interpolated for polygons extending between the two-dimensional images. The strips or polygons are more orthogonal to a viewing direction than the two-dimensional images. After interpolating texture data from the two-dimensional images for a plurality of non-coplanar polygons, the texture data is rendered. The rendered information represents one portion of the three dimensional representation. Other portions are rendered by repeating the process for other pairs or subset groups of adjacent two-dimensional images. A lower cost apparatus, such as a programmed computer or a GPU with a limited amount of memory, is able to render images for three dimensional representations of very large three-dimensional arrays. The images may be rendered without copying volume data for different main axes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2010
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Klaus Engel, Gianluca Paladini
  • Patent number: 7580042
    Abstract: In systems and methods for graphic reproduction of an image including textural information, multiple rows or blocks of texture data can be retrieved from system memory in response to the single read command. In this manner, efficient use of system bus is achieved, and an increase in the texture cache hit ratio is realized, leading to more efficient system operation, and reduced system bus usage for texture data retrieval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2009
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Young-Jin Chung, Kil-Whan Lee
  • Patent number: 7460117
    Abstract: Subsets of volume data are sequentially stored for volume rendering from two dimensional textures. For example, pairs of adjacent two-dimensional images are loaded into RAM or cache. One or more strips of texture data are interpolated for polygons extending between the two-dimensional images. The strips or polygons are more orthogonal to a viewing direction than the two-dimensional images. After interpolating texture data from the two-dimensional images for a plurality of non-coplanar polygons, the texture data is rendered. The rendered information represents one portion of the three dimensional representation. Other portions are rendered by repeating the process for other pairs or subset groups of adjacent two-dimensional images. A lower cost apparatus, such as a programmed computer or a GPU with a limited amount of memory, is able to render images for three dimensional representations of very large three-dimensional arrays. The images may be rendered without copying volume data for different main axes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Klaus D. Engel, Gianluca Paladini
  • Patent number: 7262777
    Abstract: A method of cubic mapping with texturing is described. Neighboring pixels on an object are mapped to adjacent faces of the cube, but these adjacent faces do not guarantee continuity in the texture mip-map associated with each face. Therefore, the u and v texture map coordinates are adjusted after mapping to adjacent faces to make a continuity adjustment that insures that the LOD for the texture mip-map is the same for each adjacent face. The continuity adjustment includes either switching the u coordinate with the v coordinate or negating one of the coordinates or both. Additionally, if the u and v coordinates are normalized, the normalization may be compensated by adding or subtracting unity from the adjusted coordinate. After the continuity adjustment is made an approximation to the derivative is computed and used to determine the LOD for the mip-map. Texturing can then proceed using the LOD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignee: VIA Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Qun Feng (Fred) Liao, Zhou (Mike) Hong
  • Patent number: 7245300
    Abstract: A slice plane, oriented parallel to a viewing plane, is passed through a cuboidal dataset at regular intervals. The intersection of the slice plane with the cuboidal volume dataset results in primitives (quads, triangles, etc. depending on the angle and position of the intersection) whose vertices have position coordinates (xu, yu, zu) and 3D-texture coordinates (r, s, t). The resulting primitives are rasterized using, for example, a traditional 3D graphics pipeline wherein the 3D-texture coordinates are interpolated across the scanlines producing 3D-texture coordinates for each fragment. The resulting 3D-texture coordinates for each fragment are stored in a 2D-texture storage area. These 2D-textures are called density-textures. By preprocessing the cuboidal dataset, the rendering process becomes a compositing process. A rendering process is comprised of looking-up, for each densel in the texture, the corresponding color and opacity values in the current lookup-table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Kartik Venkataraman
  • Patent number: 7116335
    Abstract: A texturing system for use in a three-dimensional imaging system comprises a memory (22) for storing mip-map data for use in texturing an image. A controller (24) retrieves from the memory the mip-map data required and this data is stored in a cache (30). A lower-level mip-map generator (36) generates portions of the mip-map which is next below, in the hierarchical series, the mip-map of which portions are held in the cache. A trilinear interpolator (34) interpolates one output texel from input texels from the two mip-map levels. The texture data is represented by compressed codes. The lower-level mip-map generator (36) interpolates on the compressed code values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Simon Pearce, Simon Fenney
  • Patent number: 6930676
    Abstract: A method, a circuit arrangement and a display device which suppresses motion blur due to motion integration carried out along a motion trajectory on the image data, which occurs in matrix type displays in which a motion trajectory is integrated by the viewer and/or the display, includes an inverse integration filtering of the video signal. To avoid de-blurring in image regions where motion cannot be detected, or image is low and to avoid noise modulation, motion estimation as well as further image characteristic are used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
    Inventors: Gerard De Haan, Michiel Adriaanszoon Klompenhouwer
  • Patent number: 6778180
    Abstract: A method and system for processing an image including capturing an image and storing the image as image pixel data. Each image pixel datum is stored in a respective memory location having a corresponding address. Threshold pixel data is selected from the image pixel data and linear spot segments are identified from the threshold pixel data selected. The positions of only a first pixel and a last pixel for each linear segment are saved. Movement of one or more objects are tracked by comparing the positions of first and last pixels of a linear segment present in the captured image with respective first and last pixel positions in subsequent captured images. Alternatively, additional data for each linear data segment is saved such as sum of pixels and the weighted sum of pixels (i.e., each threshold pixel value is multiplied by that pixel's x-location).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2004
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    Inventors: Richard T Howard, Thomas C. Bryan, Michael L. Book
  • Patent number: 6756989
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for filtering textures applied to a surface of a computer generated object permits an application program running on a computer system to significantly increase the graphics capabilities and performance of the computer. Rendering data for a pixel of the object is received from the application program, and a first and second set of texture coordinates is generated. Next, the first and second sets of texture coordinates are used to obtain a first and second texture sample from a texture image. The first and second texture samples are then blended together to produce a texture sample having a greater degree of filtering. This produced texture sample having a higher degree of filtering is stored in a frame buffer for subsequent display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2004
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David L. Morgan, III, Angus M. Dorbie, Frederic J. Noraz
  • Patent number: 6738498
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for tissue dependent filtering for digital image magnification includes using bilinear interpolation and digital convolution filters to approximate bicubic interpolation for digital image magnification. A library of set s of representative images may be created for particular anatomies and particular imaging modalities. Two-dimensional convolution filter coefficients may be estimated using a set of representative images chosen for a particular anatomy. The two-dimensional convolution filter coefficients may be employed to form a two-dimensional convolution filter to be used with bilinear interpolation to magnify a digital image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC
    Inventor: Aleksandar Zavaljevski
  • Patent number: 6333743
    Abstract: A method an system provide that image processing operations and graphics processing are both performed by a graphics rendering system. The texture memory and a texture filter of the graphics rendering system are used to perform look-up table operations as well as multiply and accumulate operations typically associated with image processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Inventors: Carroll Philip Gossett, Nancy Cam Winget