Christopher Clark Tanner

Title: The Innovations of Christopher Clark Tanner

Introduction

Christopher Clark Tanner is a notable inventor based in San Jose, California. He has made significant contributions to the field of technology, particularly in the area of texture mapping for graphical displays. With a total of two patents to his name, Tanner's work has had a lasting impact on how textures are rendered in digital environments.

Latest Patents

Tanner's latest patents include a method and system for providing texture using a selected portion of a texture map. This invention describes an apparatus and method for quickly and efficiently providing texel data relevant for displaying a textured image. A large amount of texture source data, such as photographic terrain texture, is stored as a two-dimensional or three-dimensional texture MIP-map on one or more mass storage devices. Only a relatively small clip-map representing selected portions of the complete texture MIP-map is loaded into faster, more expensive memory. These selected texture MIP-map portions forming the clip-map consist of tiles that contain those texel values at each respective level of detail that are most likely to be mapped to pixels being rendered for display based upon the viewer's eyepoint and field of view. To efficiently update the clip-map in real-time, texel data is loaded and discarded from the edges of tiles. Attempts to access a texel lying outside of a particular clip-map tile are accommodated by utilizing a substitute texel value obtained from the next coarser resolution clip-map tile which encompasses the sought texel.

Career Highlights

Throughout his career, Tanner has worked with prominent companies such as Silicon Graphics, Incorporated and Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. His experience in these organizations has allowed him to refine his skills and contribute to groundbreaking projects in the tech industry.

Collaborations

Tanner has collaborated with several talented individuals, including Christopher J. Migdal and James L. Foran. These partnerships have fostered innovation and creativity in their respective fields.

Conclusion

Christopher Clark Tanner is a distinguished inventor whose work in texture mapping has advanced the technology used in graphical displays. His patents and collaborations reflect his commitment to innovation and excellence in the tech industry.