Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering a plurality of objects. The method includes receiving ray differential information associated with a ray, determining a first ray differential based on at least information associated with the ray and a first surface patch, and determining a first resolution based on at least information associated with the first ray differential and the first surface patch. Additionally, the method includes obtaining a first geometry representation based on at least information associated with the first surface patch and the first resolution, and obtaining a second geometry representation associated with a second surface patch tessellated at a second resolution. Moreover, the method includes determining whether there is at least one patch crack between the first geometry representation and the second geometry representation, and if there is the at least one patch crack, performing a stitching process to the first geometry representation and the second geometry representation.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods implementing a technique for creating an electronic artwork with a hot area. For a selected layer of the artwork, a non-transparent region is identified and an action is assigned to an area corresponding to the non-transparent region, the action defining a function that will be activated when the area is selected. The technique is advantageous in computer application programs that composite images from layers and for producing HTML (HyperText Markup Language) output that refers to a corresponding composited image, where the action is a URL and the area is defined by an image map.

Abstract: An on-screen display (OSD) processor and a method for processing OSD data, by which only non-overlapped OSD data corresponding to each of a plurality of OSD windows is actually displayed on a screen can be processed, are provided. The method comprises storing coordinates of the plurality of OSD windows to be displayed on the screen in a memory according to their priorities; determining overlapped portions of the plurality of OSD windows which are overlapped by overlapping portions of the plurality of OSD windows, based on the coordinates and the priorities of the OSD windows; and processing all OSD data of the plurality of OSD windows except the determined overlapped portions, among the OSD data stored in the memory.

Abstract: A system and method for automatically reading all images from all sequences of images from a specified location, automatically cropping each of the images to produce active region data for the current image, and automatically designating key frames in the sequences of images. In one embodiment, a stand-alone program that achieves these tasks produces an output file comprised of active region data for key frames of all sequences of images. In such an embodiment, the output file serves as a script or control file which a compositing program runs to initially process sequences of images. In another embodiment, these automatic tasks are achieved via a plug-in module to a compositing program such that the plug-in module is run before performing other tasks. The automation of these three formerly manual tasks increases the efficiency of compositing programs by providing automatically pre-processed sequences of images from which to start the compositing process.

Abstract: A method converts range data of an object to a model of the object by first generating an adaptively sampled distance field from the range data. The adaptively sampled distance field is then edited to produce the model. The range data can include a plurality of range images that are converted to range meshes in a single coordinate system, and an adaptively sampled distance field is generated for each of the range meshes.

Abstract: The present invention provides an image composing apparatus that can composite images at high speed and in which the apparatus configuration can be easily expanded as the number of images to be composed increases. Sub-images generated by node computers are synchronized each other by a synchronizing section. Then, each pair of synchronized sub-image data is composed into a single sub-image in a first-layer image composing section, comprising a plurality of image composing circuits each for composing two sub-images, and the resulting sub-images are composed iteratively through a second-layer image composing section, a third-layer image composing section, and so on, that have the same configuration as the first-layer image composing section.

Abstract: The basic configuration of Single local Adaptive Window Spatial Noise Reducer (SAW-SNR) is based on a preliminary de-noising low-pass filter followed by homogenous region segmentation to the considered pixel in a given local window. The configuration is composed also of an adaptive local mean estimator, an adaptive local statistic estimator which is preferably an economic standard deviation (SD) estimator and finally, a minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) based de-noising technique. The proposed segmentation configuration outperforms existing spatial noise reducers in term of subjective and objective performances, in term of edge preservation, noise reduction in both homogenous regions or picture edges and Peak Signal to noise Ratio (PSNR). A second configuration in the form of a Parallel Multiple local Adaptive Window Spatial Noise Reducer (Parallel M-AW-SNR), is a combination of several basic configurations which implements different segmented windows.

Abstract: A first method is performed by a computing device to generate rect objects for visible portions of objects of a display that have changed from a previous to current update cycle. The first method comprises dividing a visible portion of at least one of a plurality of overlapping objects that has changed from a previous to current update cycle, into at least one rect object. In dividing the changed visible portion, the computing device uses a graphical hierarchy defining precedence for display of the objects. By determining changed areas of the display, the computing device can be programmed to avoid using processing power on portions of the display that have not changed from a previous to current update cycle or that is not visible in the display. In addition, the computing device can determine the portions of the display requiring update relatively rapidly through use of the rect object(s).

Abstract: An overlay video processing system provides an early start to pixel processing for the next overlay scan line. The overlay processor begins processing the next overlay scan line while still displaying the current scan line. A FIFO buffer is used to provide the overlay video data to the display. When it is determined that the buffer is capable of storing the next overlay scan line, a memory read burst is triggered, and the buffer begins to load the data for the next overlay scan line.

Abstract: An image storage and processing method constructs, clips, fills, and combines arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes in an advanced graphics system. The method supports processing of anti-aliased images by compressing the image into a novel AlphaRegion data structure. AlphaRegion encodes into the data structure both the partially transparent as well as the fully opaque alpha values of an image according to rectangular bands. A band is a contiguous series of scan lines that have the same pattern of alpha values in a single direction. AlphaRegion encoding results in a more compact representation than possible in a conventional bitmap, but without losing the anti-aliasing features. AlphaRegion can be constructed either by supersampling sub-scan lines of an image, from the scan lines of a gray-scale image, from an existing conventional 1-bit Region or alpha mask buffer, or directly from a scan-line conversion of a geometric shape. AlphaRegion stores image data into three arrays, yInfo, xInfo and alphaData.

Abstract: An image storage and processing method constructs, clips, fills, and combines arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes in an advanced graphics system. The method supports processing of anti-aliased images by compressing the image into a novel AlphaRegion data structure. AlphaRegion encodes into the data structure both the partially transparent as well as the fully opaque alpha values of an image according to rectangular bands. A band is a contiguous series of scan lines that have the same pattern of alpha values in a single direction. AlphaRegion encoding results in a more compact representation than possible in a conventional bitmap, but without losing the anti-aliasing features. AlphaRegion can be constructed either by supersampling sub-scan lines of an image, from the scan lines of a gray-scale image, from an existing conventional 1-bit Region or alpha mask buffer, or directly from a scan-line conversion of a geometric shape. AlphaRegion stores image data into three arrays, yInfo, xInfo and alphaData.

Abstract: Z-buffer rendering of three-dimensional scenes is made more efficient through a method for occlusion culling by which occluded geometry is removed prior to rasterization. The method uses hierarchical z-buffering to reduce the quantity of image and depth information that needs to be accessed. A separate culling stage in the graphics pipeline culls occluded geometry and passes visible geometry on to a rendering stage. The culling stage maintains its own z-pyramid in which z-values are stored at low precision (e.g., in 8 bits). The efficiency of hierarchical z-buffering is obtained through hierarchical evaluation of line and plane equations.

Abstract: Loss-less data compression/decompression especially useful in a limited resource environment such as a handheld portable video game system allows graphics and/or attribute data to be efficiently and quickly decompressed on an as-needed basis in real time response to interactive user inputs. A two-level run-length-encoding is used to encode redundant patterns and redundant symbols. A common sentinel field format encodes whether data following the field is non-redundant data, a symbol run, or a pattern run. Compression ratios of 60% for representative symbol-mapped video display graphics/attribute files can be achieved.