Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.

Brent Baxter

Michael J Wynblatt

Daniel Conrad Benson

Chris Muench

Soeren Moritz

A set of viewpoints for a given scene of 3D objects is defined by a system that restricts the degrees of freedom available to a user, through use of a bounding surface (a viewpoint sphere), and provides varying degrees of automation ranging from predefined viewpoints to generated tour paths, to interactive selection using free navigation. The system calculates the scene sphere, which is the minimum bounding sphere that contains the set of objects in the scene and then finds the viewpoint sphere, which is done by calculating the viewpoint sphere radius. The user then chooses the mode of viewpoint selection as either completely automated, semi-automated, or free navigation. The output is a set of viewpoints for the given scene of objects.

Automated viewpoint selection for 3D scenes

A system and method for providing automatic and continuous selection of user-preferred data streams based on predefined parameters. In one aspect of the present invention, a client/server system comprises: a sever comprising an address list including addresses of a plurality of data sources; and a client comprising a list of user preferences; means for accessing the server to obtain the address list; means for accessing at least a first data source of the plurality of data sources on the address list to obtain descriptive information; evaluation means for evaluating the descriptive information and the user preferences to select at least a second data source of the plurality of data sources based on the evaluation; and means for accessing the second data source. In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention as applied to Internet radio stations, a user would be allowed to listen only to songs from his list of favorites. In another exemplary embodiment as applied to Internet sporting events, a user can hear the most exciting parts of one or more current sporting events. In another exemplary embodiment as applied to industrial process monitoring, a remote user could ensure that he would always see any data stream that had anomalous readings.

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Plainsboro, NJ, United States of America

Brent Baxter