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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6911985 | Method and apparatus for reducing frame buffer size in graphics systems The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for reducing the frame buffer size in a 3D graphics system. According to an exemplary aspect of the present invention, sorting and limiting the polygons that get processed at a given time may reduce the siz... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6911990 | Fast clear technique for display regions having subregions A technique for performing clear operations in a region having a subregion. Responsive to a clear command: a current clear count for the region is left unchanged; a predetermined value is written into the pixels of the subregion; and the current clear count is writt... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6906728 | Method and system for providing edge antialiasing A system and method for generating a graphical image on a display is disclosed. The graphical image is generated from data describing at least one object. The display includes a plurality of positions. Each of the plurality of positions has an area. The system and m... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6906715 | Shading and texturing 3-dimensional computer generated images A method and apparatus for shading and texturing 3-dimensional computer generated images deals with punch through textures by supplying data defining a group of surfaces representing each object in the image. For each elementary area of the display, a depth value is... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6906720 | Multipurpose memory system for use in a graphics system A graphics system may include a frame buffer, a processing device coupled to output data, a multipurpose memory device that includes a plurality of storage locations and is coupled to store data output from the processing device, and a multipurpose memory controller... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6903739 | Graphic display system having a frame buffer with first and second memory portions A graphics display system has a graphics processor system for forming a color image on a display, the display being composed of an array of pixels. A memory system has a first memory for storing at least respective color data and respective Z data that is render fro... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6900799 | Filtering processing on scene in virtual 3-D space A scene in a virtual three-dimensional space is divided into multiple regions in accordance with the depth from a prescribed viewing point. Filtering levels are set for the respective divisional regions. Filtering processing is performed that imparts visual effects ... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6894689 | Occlusion culling method and apparatus for graphics systems A system, method and computer program product are provided for avoiding reading z-values in a graphics pipeline. Initially, near z-values are stored which are each representative of a near z-value on an object in a region. Such region is defined by a tile and a cove... | 05/17/2005 |
| 6882342 | Image processing method, image processing program, and image processing apparatus In an image processing method to form a predetermined image with an image processing unit having a frame-buffer and z-buffer corresponded to the frame-buffer, a main-model and a sub-model containing at least one part of the main model are arranged at a predetermined... | 04/19/2005 |
| 6876360 | Image generation method and device used thereof The present invention ensures that object images to be subjected to a predetermined image processing are subjected to such image processing depending on predetermined coefficients of semi-transparency, and that a portion of the object images closest to a virtual vie... | 04/05/2005 |
| 6868191 | System and method for median fusion of depth maps The present invention is directed toward providing a system for constructing a graphical representation of an image, as perceived from a desired view, from a plurality of calibrated views. An optimum, median fused depth map of a new, desired view of an object or a s... | 03/15/2005 |
| 6864893 | Method and apparatus for modifying depth values using pixel programs A method and apparatus for generating depth values in a programmable graphics system. Depth values are calculated under control of a pixel program using a variety of sources as inputs to programmable computation units (PCUs) in the programmable graphics systems. The... | 03/08/2005 |
| 6864903 | Internet system for virtual telepresence The present invention is an interactive virtual telepresence system that allows an Internet user to view three-dimensional objects from any perspective in a studio at a remote server. The system includes several video cameras trained on the three-dimensional objects... | 03/08/2005 |
| 6864889 | System for previewing a photorealistic rendering of a synthetic scene in real-time A system is provided for previewing a photorealistic representation of a synthetic scene in real-time. An object may be sampled in accordance with predetermined parameters to generate a predetermined number of base images. Direction-dependent textures maps are gener... | 03/08/2005 |
| 6862024 | Enhancing textured range images using a 2D editor A method edits a 3D model using 2D images. First, a projected range image is generated from a 3D model. The projected range image is edited using a 2D editor. A projected distance and a cliff distance from a plurality of 3D points to a 3D surface of the 3D model are... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6856314 | Method and system for 3D reconstruction of multiple views with altering search path and occlusion modeling An image processing system and method reconstructs 3D image information corresponding to a scene from a plurality of 2D images of the scene. The method receives a plurality of image features corresponded between different 2D views of the scene, the corresponded imag... | 02/15/2005 |
| 6842183 | Three-dimensional image processing unit and computer readable recording medium storing three-dimensional image processing program A 3D image processing unit for applying a specified image processing to display a model located in a simulated 3D space on a monitor after rendering processing. The 3D image processing unit includes a memory unit for storing a rendered model image as a collection of... | 01/11/2005 |
| 6839058 | Depth sorting for use in 3-dimensional computer shading and texturing systems A method and apparatus for automatically sorting translucent object data in a 3-dimensional computer shading texturing system first stores a list of objects to be shaded and textured. For each pixel, for each object in turn, it is determined whether an object in the... | 01/04/2005 |
| 6839060 | Method and device of consistency buffer for high performance 3D graphic accelerator A method and a device of consistency buffer for a high performance 3D graphic accelerator is disclosed to retain consistency without detecting any overlapping region in advance but determining an overlapping with respect to a rendered pixel. The device of consistenc... | 01/04/2005 |
| 6828969 | Game system, program and image generating method A game system, program and image generating method which can effectively generate an image of an edge line in a more natural manner are provided. The image of an edge line EDL of an object OB is drawn in an inside area of an edge of the object OB. The object is tran... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6819328 | Graphic accelerator with interpolate function A graphic accelerator includes an image-forming data decode unit, an image memory control unit and a screen data generation unit. The image memory control unit performs a control for writing an output of the image-forming data decode unit to a frame buffer and readi... | 11/16/2004 |
| 6812927 | System and method for avoiding depth clears using a stencil buffer A system and method are provided for reducing the number of depth clear operations in a hardware graphics pipeline. Initially, a frame count is stored into a frame buffer associated with the hardware graphics pipeline. The stored frame count is associated with a pix... | 11/02/2004 |
| 6774895 | System and method for depth clamping in a hardware graphics pipeline A system, method and computer program product are provided for depth clamping in a hardware graphics pipeline. Initially, a depth value is identified. It is then determined as to whether a hardware graphics pipeline is operating in a depth clamping mode. If the hard... | 08/10/2004 |
| 6774910 | Method and system for providing implicit edge antialiasing A method and system for providing antialiasing of a graphical image on a display from data describing at least one object is disclosed. The display includes a plurality of pixels. The method and system include providing a plurality of fragments for the at least one ... | 08/10/2004 |
| 6771841 | Determining a bounding shape for a collection of points A multi-dimensional bounding sphere is determined for a collection of points by determining a multi-dimensional bounding box that encompasses all of the points, determining the center of the bounding sphere from the center of the bounding box, and determining the ra... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6768487 | Method and apparatus for occlusion culling in graphics systems 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 ... | 07/27/2004 |
| 6762758 | System, method, and apparatus for compression of video data using offset values A system, method, and apparatus for compression of video data is presented. The compressed block includes a plurality of offset values, each indicating an offset between a corresponding one among the plurality of pixel values and a reference value. Exemplary methods... | 07/13/2004 |
| 6760024 | Method and apparatus for rendering shadows A method and apparatus for rendering shadows. A pre-rendering process implements a two dimensional array or map of depth-based functions, such as a visibility function in z. During rendering of an object scene, these functions are accessed via lookup operations to e... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6760025 | Z-buffer based interpenetrating object detection for antialiazing Graphic processor compares z-buffer values of 3D objects to detect and mark interpenetrating pixels. Tag buffer stores marked values for antialiazing effectively by over-sampling, area-based, blending, alpha edge or other pixel-processing scheme. Performance is impr... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6756993 | Methods and apparatus for rendering images using 3D warping techniques Methods and apparatus for rendering images are presented. The method includes the step of segmenting at least one reference image in a reference image space into a plurality of tiles, each tile defined by a corresponding set of image samples. The connectivity of eac... | 06/29/2004 |
| 6756986 | Non-flushing atomic operation in a burst mode transfer data storage access environment A z-unit for a three-dimensional graphics system is provided having a read buffer and a write buffer. The read buffer stores read requests and the write buffer stores write requests. The read and write requests correspond to atomic operations for z-buffer manipulati... | 06/29/2004 |
| 6747645 | Graphics memory system that utilizes detached-Z buffering in conjunction with a batching architecture to reduce paging overhead A graphics memory system of a graphics display which utilizes a batching architecture in conjunction with detached Z buffering to minimize paging overhead is disclosed. The graphics memory system comprises a memory controller, which receives a batch of pixels from t... | 06/08/2004 |
| 6747657 | Depth write disable for zone rendering A depth write disable apparatus and method for controlling evictions, such as depth values, from a depth cache to a corresponding depth buffer in a zone rendering system. When the depth write disable circuitry is enabled, evictions from the depth cache (as which typ... | 06/08/2004 |
| 6744432 | Method and apparatus for determining a representative Z values in a video graphics system A method and apparatus for determining a rear most Z value for a pixel block is presented, where the pixel block is a portion of the image data for a frame as stored in a frame buffer. The frame buffer is stored in a DRAM memory structure that is included on an inte... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6744433 | System and method for using and collecting information from a plurality of depth layers A system and method are provided for using information from at least one depth layer and for collecting information about at least one additional depth layer utilizing a graphics pipeline. Initially, constraining depth layers are provided which, in turn, define a pl... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6741247 | Shading 3-dimensional computer generated images An apparatus for shading 3-dimensional computer generated images representing each object in the image by a set of flat polygons. Vertex data (x, y) is supplied for each vertex of the polygon along with data which defines the orientation of the surface of the polygo... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6741248 | Rendering geometric features of scenes and models by individual polygons A method renders a mesh constructed of polygons representing a graphics model one at the time to accentuate geometric features of the mesh. At least one additional polygon is generated at each edge of each polygon of the mesh. Each additional polygon has a predeterm... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6738061 | Method, apparatus, storage medium, program, and program product for generating image data of virtual three-dimensional space A method for reflecting color data of back or far surfaces of a plurality of transparent polygons overlapped with each other in an eyes direction, on a display screen. The method for generating image data of a virtual three-dimensional space viewed from a predetermi... | 05/18/2004 |
| 6734854 | Image processing method and storage medium for storing image processing programs An image processing method whereby an image of object generated in real time in a pre-generated background image by giving operators an impression of depth or distance can be synthesized and a storage medium for storing the image processing program are provided. In ... | 05/11/2004 |
| 6727900 | Semiconductor integrated circuit device In a frame buffer memory including a DRAM (11), an SRAM (12) functioning as a cache memory, and a comparison unit (17) comparing depth data stored in the SRAM (12) and depth data input from an external source and writing depth data input ... | 04/27/2004 |
