View-dependent image synthesis

Patent 6639594 Issued on October 28, 2003. Estimated Expiration Date:

June 3, 2021. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Method and apparatus for specular reflection shading of computer graphic images
Patent #: 5739820
Issued on: 04/14/1998
Inventor: Lyon

Method and system for improving shadowing in a graphics rendering system
Patent #: 5870097
Issued on: 02/09/1999
Inventor: Snyder, et al.

Three-dimensional game apparatus and image synthesizing method
Patent #: 5947823
Issued on: 09/07/1999
Inventor: Nimura

Computer graphics system having efficient texture mapping with perspective correction
Patent #: 6057851
Issued on: 05/02/2000
Inventor: Luken, et al.

Method and device for associating a pixel with one of a plurality of regions in a logarithm or cosine space
Patent #: 6317126
Issued on: 11/13/2001
Inventor: Tannenbaum

Method and apparatus for representing computer-modeled objects
Patent #: 6429872
Issued on: 08/06/2002
Inventor: Ernst

Method and apparatus for modeling specular reflection Patent #: 6545677
Issued on: 04/08/2003
Inventor: Brown

Inventors

Assignee

Microsoft Corporation

Application

No. 09/681773 filed on 06/03/2001

US Classes:

345/426Lighting/shading

Examiners

Primary: Zimmerman, Mark
Assistant: Cao, Huedung X.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

International Class

G06T 15/50 (20060101)

Abstract

A system and process for efficiently representing an object and allowing the synthesizing of photo-realistic images of the object that depict both diffuse and specular reflections therefrom. This is accomplished using a sparse set of input images and a geometric model of the object. In particular, the reflectance components (i.e., diffuse and specular) are separated out of the input images based on the intensity variation of object surface points. The diffuse reflection component is characterized with a global texture map, while the specular reflection components are used to model the illumination distribution of the environment surrounding the object and to estimate the surface reflectance parameters. This framework provides a very compact representation of the object's appearance. Photo-realistic virtual images of the object from any desired viewpoint can be synthesized using the previously computed global texture map, illumination distribution, and reflectance parameters.

Other References

Y Sato, M.D. Wheeler, and K. Ikeuchi. Object shape and reflectance modeling from observation. In computer Graphics Proceedings, ACM SIGGRAPH 97, pp. 379-387, Aug. 1997
Y. Yu, P. Debevec, J. Malik and t. Hawkins. Inverse Global Illumination: Recovering reflectance Models of Real Scenes From Photographs. In Computer Graphics Proceedings, ACM SIGGRAPH99, pp. 215-224, Aug. 1999
D.N. Wood, D.I. Azuma, K. Aldinger, B. Curless, T. Duchamp, D.H. Salesin, and W. Stuetzle. Surface Light Fields for 3D Photography. In Computer Graphics Proceedings, ACM SIGGRAPH 00, pp. 287-296, Jul. 2000
Zhang, Z. Flexible Camera Calibration By Viewing a Plane/from Unknown Orientations. In Proc. of Seventh International Conference on Computer Vision ICCV'99, pp. 666-673, Sep. 1999