Real-time Geometry Corporation

Viewpoint Corporation

Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation

Other

Dg Fastchannel, Inc

Alexander A Migdal

Alexei Lebedev

Michael Petrov

Vadim Abadjev

Veronika Shelyekhova

Leonid Polonskiy

Blaise Aguera-Arcas

Dmitry Paperny

Michael Pesin

Victor Paskhaver

Andrei Afanassenkov

Alexander Zhilyaev

Vladimir Bernstein

A water reservoir system for generating, accumulating, storing, and releasing electrical energy comprises a reservoir wall built in a shallow body of water such as a sea or an ocean with a height exceeding the outside water level by about 10-25 m, thereby defining an interior of the water reservoir. Excess electrical energy from other renewable sources of electricity such as wind, solar power, or supplied by a local power grid is used to operate water pumps to fill the interior of the water reservoir with water during times of peak supply of electricity. Water is drained from the water reservoir to the outside body of water and generates electrical energy by flowing over a plurality of water turbines, thereby generating electricity and supplementing electrical power for the local power grid during times of high demand. Additional interior sources of renewable energy may be used to supplement external sources of electrical power in operating the system of the invention.

Methods and water reservoir systems for generating, accumulating, storing, and releasing electrical energy

Improvement of the performance, usability, and functionality of software for editing three dimensional computer models and textures is described. Editing operations are performed on the model in an ordered list to reduce the amount of memory required to maintain previous versions, and certain editing operations are precalculated to reduce the amount of real time calculation required. Improvements to usability and functionality are provided by more precisely selecting portions of a model for editing, allowing textures to be moved more easily on the model, and allowing better blending of the appearance of adjacent textures.

Tools for 3D mesh and texture manipulation

System and method for constructing a 3D model of an object based on a series of silhouette and texture map images. In the exemplary embodiment an object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. In a second pass, the system gathers texture data. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object. The system uses the silhouette contour polygons to create a 3D polygonal mesh model of the object. The system determines the shape of the 3D model analytically by finding the areas of intersection between the edges of the model faces and the edges of the silhouette contour polygons. The system creates an initial, (rough) model of the 3D object from one of the silhouette contour polygons, then executes an overlaying procedure to process each of the remaining silhouette contour polygons. In the overlaying process, the system processes the silhouette contour polygons collected from each silhouette image, projecting each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the image plane of the silhouette contour polygons. The overlaying of each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the 2D plane of the silhouette contour polygons enables the present invention to determine those areas that are extraneous and should be removed from the (rough) 3D model. As the system processes the silhouette contour polygons in each image it removes the extraneous spaces from the initial object model and creates new faces to patch 'holes.' The polygonal mesh model, once completed, can be transformed into a triangulated mesh model. In a subsequent step, the system uses a deterministic procedure to map texture from the texture images onto the triangles of the 3D mesh model, locating that area in the various texture map images that is 'best' for each mesh triangle.

System and method of three-dimensional image capture and modeling

Systems and methods for identifying the contour of an object that is depicted in an image. An object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object by comparing light intensity values in the images of the object with light intensity values from an image of the background without the object.

System and method for constructing a 3D model of an object based on a series of silhouette and texture map images. In the exemplary embodiment an object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. In a second pass, the system gathers texture data. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object. The system uses the silhouette contour polygons to create a 3D polygonal mesh model of the object. The system determines the shape of the 3D model analytically-by finding the areas of intersection between the edges of the model faces and the edges of the silhouette contour polygons. The system creates an initial, (rough) model of the 3D object from one of the silhouette contour polygons, then executes an overlaying procedure to process each of the remaining silhouette contour polygons. In the overlaying process, the system processes the silhouette contour polygons collected from each silhouette image, projecting each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the image plane of the silhouette contour polygons. The overlaying of each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the 2D plane of the silhouette contour polygons enables the present invention to determine those areas that are extraneous and should be removed from the (rough) 3D model. As the system processes the silhouette contour polygons in each image it removes the extraneous spaces from the initial object model and creates new faces to patch 'holes.' The polygonal mesh model, once completed, can be transformed into a triangulated mesh model. In a subsequent step, the system uses a deterministic procedure to map texture from the texture images onto the triangles of the 3D mesh model, locating that area in the various texture map images that is 'best' for each mesh triangle.

A system and method for the rapid creation of an optimized mesh model of a real world object, terrain or other three-dimensional surface. The mesh construction technique provides dynamic &ldquo;up resolution/down resolution&rdquo; mesh construction capabilities. The system inserts points into the mesh incrementally, ordering the points before each insertion so that dynamic resolution construction can be maintained. The point ordering process determines the distance each point has from the surface of a given mesh configuration such that the next point added will always be the point bringing the most significant detail to the mesh. This procedure of &ldquo;optimal simplification&rdquo; optimizes the mesh by guaranteeing the fewest number of points for the most detail at any given resolution. The present invention also provides a system and method to ensure an optimal quality of mesh at any level of insertion or deletion, following in an exemplary configuration a regularized systemized checking function to maintain a mesh of optimal quality such as by Delaunay triangulation principles. The system stores a history of the insertion and deletion steps in a compact list, which can be used for rapid removal of points or rapid regeneration of the mesh.

System and method for computer modeling of 3D objects or surfaces by mesh constructions having optimal quality characteristics and dynamic resolution capabilities

The present invention provides a system for illuminating an object with a special kind of structured light pattern, recording the shape of the reflected points of light by means of a camera, and, by a triangulation technique that does not depend on the fixed direction of the light source relative to the camera, reconstructing the 3D shape of the object through a computer using the data points collected from the reflection of the structured light pattern. The scanning system is portable and does not require data processing contemporaneous with the data collection. The portable system stores in the storage media several images of the objects with different illumination patterns. The data is subsequently processed, by a computer system which applies data processing routines, i.e., the model building algorithms which provide 3D surface generation. The data acquisition according to the present invention is simplified to acquiring of only two or, optionally, four images of the object, thereby significantly increasing the digitization speed over that of laser-based scanners. The light source projects both structured light and uniform illumination light from the same apparent source, and that allows for numerical normalization of the images.

Structured-light, triangulation-based three-dimensional digitizer

System and method for asynchronous transmission of video images such as from a sending to a receiving terminal or from a sending processor to a storage medium like videotape. The system receives moving picture image information such as analog video digitized into 2D bitmap data and employs a modeling system such as a triangulated mesh modeling system to create an initial image consisting of a compact set of N elements (such as the data points of a triangulated mesh) where the number of elements is less than the number of elements necessary to display the image. In the exemplary embodiment the model elements are bitmap pixel assignments, however other elements such as wavelets, or Fourier component elements, or iterated function system (IFS maps) could also be used. As the images of the moving picture change, the sending computer compares data for each new image against the current model elements and will add elements to or remove elements from the model to update the model to make it current with the new image. The sending computer outputs a sequence of commands to replicate the model building and subsequent updating either to a receiving terminal (which displays the moving image in real time) or to a digital or analog storage medium such as a disk or analog tape. This entire video sequence can be compressed into a sequence of add and remove commands. These commands can be output across communication systems or stored for later playback. In creating each add or remove command, the present invention employs an encoding technique which indexes the spatial coordinate data and color pixel assignment data, so that an instruction can be encoded with an index rather than specifying a full longhand command. A decompress function of the present invention is comprised to decode each encoded command and execute the instruction. The modeling system presented is also adaptive to allow greater clarity or resolution in the images transmitted depending on the amount of bandwidth available in the communications or storage system.

System and method for asynchronous, adaptive moving picture compression, and decompression

A computer-based system and method for refining of mesh model of a three-dimensional (3D) object or surface through adaptive subdivision that results in a smooth interpolation of the mesh surface. In one example, the system operates upon a triangulated mesh model and analyzes each edge of the triangle in question to determine whether that particular edge should be subdivided based on a predetermined subdivision criteria. After an analysis of each of the edges of that triangle (using the adaptive subdivision criteria) the system and method may make one of several different types of subdivisions&mdash;e.g. dividing the mesh triangle into two, three or four smaller triangles.

Adaptive subdivision of mesh models

A system and method for modeling 3D objects and 2D images by wireframe mesh constructions having data points that combine both spatial data and surface information such as color or texture data. The use of the complex data points (e.g., X, Y, Z, R, G, B in 3D and x, y, R, G, B in 2D) allows the modeling system to incorporate both the spatial features of the object or image as well as its color or other surface features into the wireframe mesh. The present invention's 3D object models (such as those created by laser scanning systems) do not require a separate texture map file for generating display or other object manipulations. In an exemplary embodiment, the mesh constructions of the present invention contain sufficient color information such that the triangles of the meshes can be rendered by any processor supporting linear or bilinear interpolation such as Gouraud shading (available in many 3D and 2&frac12;D systems). For 2D systems (such as digitized photographs, film frames, video frames and other bitmap images) the 2D mesh models created from the teachings of the present invention replace bitmap files and present a greater level of data compression and flexibility in image manipulation than is currently available in compression systems such as JPEG. In addition, the presented modeling system has dynamic resolution capability, such that surface details like color or texture can be rapidly added or subtracted from the model.

System and method for computer modeling of 3D objects and 2D images by mesh constructions that incorporate non-spatial data such as color or texture

System and method for rapid collection of data points and construction of a computer model based on a multi-resolution mesh to describe the surface contours and color of an object. The system collects data by projecting shapes of light against the object and collecting (from a position of triangulation relative to the light projector) images of the light as it reflects from the object. The system and method of the present invention are comprised of a multiple laser stripe generation process to project a number of light shapes against the object, the collection of one or more reflected laser stripes in a single image of an images collector to gather sufficient information to reproduce points on the surface of the object. The system compresses the data associated with collected points, which allows for accurate values for the contours of the object to subpixel accuracy. A multi-resolution analysis, which maintains more points to resolve fine details and removes points to further smooth regions of the objects, leads to significant data compression. The adaptive mesh, consisting of the connection of polygonal finite elements, is automatically generated by the system and is comprised to create multi-resolution meshes at different tolerances. The system and method of the present invention is portable, processes rapidly enough to take 3-D images of animate objects, can be implemented using commercially available equipment, and produces accurate models of objects.

Growing community of inventors

Princeton, NJ, United States of America

Alexander A Migdal