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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6765584 | System and method for creating a vector map in a hardware graphics pipeline A system and method are provided for creating a vector map in a hardware graphic pipeline. Initially, one of a plurality of transforms is selected in a hardware graphic pipeline. Further, input is processed in order to generate a vector map utilizing the selected tr... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6762769 | System and method for real-time texture synthesis using patch-based sampling The present invention involves a new system and method for synthesizing textures from an input sample. A system and method according to the present invention uses a unique accelerated patch-based sampling system to synthesize high-quality textures in real-time using... | 07/13/2004 |
| 6744440 | Image processing apparatus, recording medium, and program The texture of a nonsmooth mirror or metal surface can be generated by a simple, highly effective bump mapping process. An original image as a color image is combined with a gray pattern image having differently shaped regions in different positions by a first combi... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6741259 | Applying multiple texture maps to objects in three-dimensional imaging processes Systems and methods for providing multi-pass rendering of three-dimensional objects. A rendering pipeline is used that includes one or more (N) physical texture units and one or more associated frame buffers to emulate a rendering pipeline containing more texture un... | 05/25/2004 |
| 6731298 | System, method and article of manufacture for z-texture mapping A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for computer graphics processing. First, pixel data is received including a depth-value. Thereafter, the depth-value is modified based on a depth-component of an algorithm. An operation is subsequently perform... | 05/04/2004 |
| 6673281 | Method of designing and manufacturing a plastic blow-molded container An efficient and cost-effective method of designing and manufacturing a plastic blow molded container having highly artistic sculptural relief. Computer software is utilized to graphically design a container skin shape, create 2-D artwork designs, add 3-D... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6664971 | Method, system, and computer program product for anisotropic filtering and applications thereof A first copy of an object is rendered using a texture sample selected from a texture image. This texture sample is selected from the texture image according to a first set of texture coordinates. The rendered object is stored in a frame buffer. Next, a se... | 12/16/2003 |
| 6654013 | Apparatus for and method of enhancing shape perception with parametric texture maps A graphics system that enhances shape perception. The presently preferred embodiment of the system utilizes the mathematical machinery of parametric texture maps. In general, parametric texture maps allow the graphics system to render surface features of ... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6583790 | Apparatus for and method of converting height fields into parametric texture maps A graphics system that employs parametric texture maps that are converted from height fields. The system samples a hemisphere equidistantly to produce an array of normals, approximates a dot product of each sampled normal with an arbitrary unit vector, tr... | 06/24/2003 |
| 6525740 | System and method for antialiasing bump texture and bump mapping A system and method for antialiasing bump texture and bump mapping which overcomes the disadvantages of previous methods of antialiasing bump maps without significantly expanding the required physical hardware needed for the calculations. A bump curvature... | 02/25/2003 |
| 6515674 | Apparatus for and of rendering 3d objects with parametric texture maps A graphics system that employs parametric texture maps. The graphics system renders surface features of a 3D object in a manner that is direction dependent but without the time consuming and expensive calculations involved in the evaluation of lighting eq... | 02/04/2003 |
| 6486886 | Bump map compositing for simulated digital painting effects A method of compositing multiple images together so as to produce realistic effects is disclosed. The method comprises defining an image canvas bump map approximating a surface to be painted on; defining a painting bump map of a painting object to be pain... | 11/26/2002 |
| 6466205 | System and method for creating 3D models from 2D sequential image data A system and method providing for the generation of an image having enhanced three-dimensional attributes from a source image having only two-dimensional spatial domain information is disclosed. Object image discrimination through the use of machine visio... | 10/15/2002 |
| 6462736 | System and method providing a three-Dimensional display of values relative to comparison values A computer-implemented system (10) providing a three-dimensional display (30) includes at least one model (12) of an environment and at least one engine (14) operable to generate the display (30) using information associated with the model (12). The displ... | 10/08/2002 |
| 6456291 | Method and apparatus for multi-pass texture mapping A multi-pass pixel processing circuit and method that allows a single set of texturing circuitry to be used for performing texture mapping operations that map multiple texture maps to a video graphics primitive is presented. The multi-pass pixel processin... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6429872 | Method and apparatus for representing computer-modeled objects In an apparatus and method for representing computer-modeled objects comprising a plurality of adjacent polygon surfaces, the image impression in the corner points of the polygon surfaces is calculated according to a local illumination model, whereas the ... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6407744 | Computer graphics bump mapping method and device In computer graphics the image of a surface patch is computed, including specular reflections (mirror-like reflections) from the surface patch. A bump map is used to perturb the normal to a surface, so as to simulate bumps on the surface, which cause spec... | 06/18/2002 |
| 6392655 | Fine grain multi-pass for multiple texture rendering A system and method for multiple texture rendering on a primitive using a fine grain multi-pass at a pixel level. The present invention has hardware capable of processing one texture and either hardware, software, and/or firmware capability to hold state ... | 05/21/2002 |
| 6340974 | Three-dimensional image processing apparatus with bump image modification A bump image for a three-dimensional model of an object is stored and modified as well as a texture image in a rendering stage. A reverse mapping address to the texture image and the bump image is stored in a rendering memory to obtain a drawing object ad... | 01/22/2002 |
| 6326976 | Method for determining the representation of a picture on a display and method for determining the color of a pixel displayed The present invention concerns a method for determining the representation of a picture on a display and a method for determining the color of a pixel displayed on a display. It is the object of the present inventions to enable computers disposing of a re... | 12/04/2001 |
| 6229553 | Deferred shading graphics pipeline processor Three-dimensional computer graphics systems and methods and more particularly to structure and method for a three-dimensional graphics processor and having other enhanced graphics processing features. In one embodiment the graphics processor is Deferred S... | 05/08/2001 |
| 6175368 | Method and apparatus for object rendering including bump mapping A method and apparatus for rendering an object to have a bump texture begins when object parameters for the object are received. The object parameters include bump mapping coordinates and physical display coordinates. From this information, a first and se... | 01/16/2001 |
| 6078334 | 3-D texture mapping processor and 3-D image rendering system using the same A three-dimensional image rendering portion, based on image data, performs geometric transformation, projection transformation, etc. and further applies texture data from the texture memory onto polygons, to thereby generate graphic data of a 3-D image. T... | 06/20/2000 |
| 6057850 | Blended texture illumination mapping A method and apparatus for expeditiously rendering realistic bumpy self-shadowed textured computer graphics is provide. Illuminated texture images of an object are obtained and stored in a data base as texture maps. These illuminated texture images are su... | 05/02/2000 |
| 5969723 | Method for incorporating high detail normal vector information into polygonal terrain databases and image display system which implements this method An improvement over existing image display systems which utilize polygonal terrain databases, e.g., such as are used in RADAR simulation and image generation systems for flight simulators, the improvement residing in a method for modifying the polygon fac... | 10/19/1999 |
| 5966134 | Simulating cel animation and shading A cel image is rendered by a computer to have a "toon" look that simulates a traditional hand-drawn cartoon cel. The toon appearance of a cel image is characterized by the use of areas selectively colored with a fill, a highlight, or a shadow color. The p... | 10/12/1999 |
| 5870101 | Image synthesizing system with texture mapping An image synthesizing system is provided which can output a high-quality image in real time through the texture mapping without preventing the hardware from being increased in speed and reduced in scale. A 3-D image is formed by a game space processing un... | 02/09/1999 |
| 5838331 | Computer graphics system for creating and enhancing texture maps Supplemental data, as textured data, for use with geometric data to produce a display image is expanded by relating between display space and model space. A texture map storing supplemental data is enhanced by first applying new texture data as color, to ... | 11/17/1998 |
| 5831640 | Enhanced texture map data fetching circuit and method A circuit and method for increasing the processing efficiency of texture map data requests within a 3D subunit of a computer controlled graphics display system. The 3D graphics display subsystem includes a polygon engine, a texture map engine and a pixel ... | 11/03/1998 |
| 5710878 | Method for facilitating material application for a group of objects of a computer graphic A method for collecting, managing, manipulating, and checking data during construction of a virtual environment, and automatically re-processing the subset of data necessary to produce a resource for use by a simulation program, is provided. This method p... | 01/20/1998 |
