Did You Know...
...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4951232 | Method for updating pipelined, single port Z-buffer by segments on a scan line A method for updating a single ported, pipelined Z-buffer where the Z-buffer is updated only after determining the beginning and ending location of a continuous group of pixel locations requiring updating in the Z-buffer.... | 08/21/1990 |
| 4945500 | Triangle processor for 3-D graphics display system A process which stores a representation of a polygon forming a portion of a three-dimensional object and compares the polygon to pixels from a scan line as they are passed by. The processor stores a representation of a polygon and compares each pixel pass... | 07/31/1990 |
| 4943938 | System for displaying shaded image of three-dimensional object A display system comprising: display apparatus; a first apparatus for producing a depth value signal and a normal direction signal for each of those display pixels, included in a two-dimensional graphic obtained when a three-dimensional graphic to be disp... | 07/24/1990 |
| 4924415 | Apparatus for modifying data stored in a random access memory Input data defines the address (X,Y), and an input color (RGB) and depth (Z) for a picture element (pixel) within a stored image. In order to perform hidden-surface removal (HSR), current depth values are stored for each pixel and compared with the input ... | 05/08/1990 |
| 4924414 | Apparatus and method for obtaining priority numbers for drawing figures forming a display figure Figure data processing apparatus and method in which data are sorted in a depth direction by executing hidden surface removing processing on all figure data to which a priority drawing number is not given, writing, in a display memory unit, portions or wh... | 05/08/1990 |
| 4907174 | Z-buffer allocated for window identification Apparatus and methods for displaying two and three dimensional graphics within a plurality of windows on a display system. The display system includes a central processing unit (CPU) which provides RGB data to a bit-mapped display memory coupled to a cath... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4885703 | 3-D graphics display system using triangle processor pipeline A graphic processing system for representing three-dimensional objects on a monitor which uses a pipeline of polygon processors coupled in series. The three-dimensional objects are converted into a group of two-dimensional polygons. These polygons are the... | 12/05/1989 |
| 4855938 | Hidden line removal method with modified depth buffer Polygon vertex data is processed in three steps to create a graphics display without hidden lines and without gaps in the displayed lines. The technique permits the processing of triangles rather than polygons having four or more sides. In the first step,... | 08/08/1989 |
| 4748572 | Video processor architecture with distance sorting capability The specification describes a way of using distance sorting in order not to require a prioritization of those polygons that are to be rendered prior to a pixel-by-pixel construction of an image. The video processor recalls the input data into the pixel pr... | 05/31/1988 |
| 4730261 | Solids modelling generator Surface fill using Bresenhem algorithm concepts can be adapted to handle the hidden surface and shading functions required in solids modelling. A first plurality of vector generators provides the surface fill function, a second plurality of vector generat... | 03/08/1988 |
| 4697178 | Computer graphics system for real-time calculation and display of the perspective view of three-dimensional scenes A computer graphics system and process for displaying three-dimensional scenes as perspective views on the view reference plane of a display device is disclosed which removes hidden lines and surfaces from the display. The system and process utilizes a sc... | 09/29/1987 |
| 4679041 | High speed Z-buffer with dynamic random access memory The present invention provides apparatus and methods which are most advantageously used in conjunction with a computer display system incorporating the use of a Z-buffer to provide three dimensional hidden surface elimination. A buffer memory is provided ... | 07/07/1987 |
| 4658247 | Pipelined, line buffered real-time color graphics display system A color graphics system for displaying a plurality of polygons, based upon polygon commands supplied by a host computer. The system accepts the commands from the host and circulates them in a circular queue past a polygon processor or "painter's station" ... | 04/14/1987 |
| 4625289 | Computer graphics system of general surface rendering by exhaustive sampling A z-buffer technique of exhaustive sampling is disclosed for rendering general surfaces in a computer graphics system. The system avoids the need for surface normal calculations or the computation of surface intersections with either ray or plane. It empl... | 11/25/1986 |
| 4486844 | Dual axis inclination measuring apparatus and method A dual axis inclination measuring system includes a sensor unit for placement on a surface to determine the inclination of the surface with respect to two mutually perpendicular horizontal axes and an indicator unit connected to the sensor unit and operat... | 12/04/1984 |
| 4475104 | Three-dimensional display system A display system for displaying a three-dimensional image on a two-dimensional raster display screen wherein a host processor supplies input information on the geometric elements, e.g. polygons, which make up the image to a local display processor which p... | 10/02/1984 |
