Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Terabeam Corporation

The Boeing Company

Hughes Aircraft Company

Karel Zikan

Henry A Sowizral

Randall G Keller

Wendell Curtis

Thomas P Caudell

Gregory Amadon

A system for performing visible object determination. Visualization software executing on one or more processors searches a cone tree with respect to a hull tree. Both trees respect the same group of transformations. Thus, the cone tree as stored in memory need not store all branches down to ultimate resolution. For example, the cone tree may store a selected cone and all its subcones down to the ultimate resolution, while subcones of other cones at the same level as the selected cone may not be represented in the stored cone tree. When the visualization software encounters a nonstored cone and a given hull H in its search procedure, the visualization software may apply an appropriate one of the group transformations to the given hull, and search the tranformed hull with respect to the selected cone (or a subcone of the selected cone).

Geometric folding for cone-tree data compression

A spontaneous data communication network includes antenna/transceiver sets located in mobile (e.g., vehicles such as cars, buses, trucks, ferries, etc.) or stationary units (e.g., computers, manufacturing equipment, office furniture, office equipment, road signs, overpasses, bridges, etc.). Each antenna/transceiver set directs network traffic based on optimizing a merit function or penalty function to reduce costs of congestion for stochastically changing demands and flows in a data communication system. The routers exchange values with neighboring routers. Based on the exchanged values and values local to a router, flow conditions are checked and if necessary the local values are adjusted until the flow conditions are satisfied or a time period expires. Adjustments are associated with optimizing a merit function or penalty function. Based on the adjusted values, the router adjusts parameters to be used to direct packets of the network traffic flows to other routers or other destinations within the data communication system. An aggregation scheme is used for reducing the number of values stored in a single router module.

Network traffic director system having modules that implement merit or penalty functions involving stochastic changes in network topology

One embodiment of the present invention generates random samples for a Bernoulli distribution. A first covariance matrix is generated using a desired mean vector and a desired covariance matrix of the Bernoulli distribution. A normal vector is constructed using the desired mean vector and the first covariance matrix. A sampling vector is generated using the normal vector and a threshold vector. The sampling vector has the desired mean vector and the desired covariance matrix.

Random sampling for multivariate Bernoulli variables

A system and method that manages scene graphs by data staging is contemplated. Data staging entails selectively loading only the portions of the scene graph that are currently needed or likely to be needed in the near future. Other objects in the scene graph that are not currently needed or likely to be needed may be replaced by pointers. The pointers may point to the location from which the objects may be accessed if necessary for a future frame. The replaced portions of the scene graph may be compressed and/or cached to a local memory device (e.g., a local array of read-write optical drives) capable of storing large amounts of data, with the pointers indicating where the objects are stored.

Managing scene graph memory using data staging

A system for performing visible object determination. Visualization software running on a host processor represents space with a hierarchy of cones, and generates a hierarchy of bounding hulls from a collection of objects by recursively grouping clusters of objects. Each hull node in the hull hierarchy stores parameters which characterize a bounding hull for the corresponding cluster or object. The visualization software searches the cone and hull hierarchies starting with the root cone and the root hull. Before exploring a given cone-hull pair, a normalized cone size for the cone and a normalized hull size for the hull may be computed, and the sizes compared. If the cone size is larger than the hull size, subcones of the cone are explored with respect to the hull. Conversely, if the hull size is larger than the cone size, subhulls of the hull are explored with respect to the cone.

Size conditioned visibility search system and method

A system and method for determining graphical object visibility by utilizing ancillary geometry. When comparing visibility cones with bounding hulls of scene graph hierarchy leaf nodes, ancillary geometry may be used in place of the bounding hulls and the leaf node's actual geometry. The ancillary geometry may be created through a manual process, or by an automated decimation process. The ancillary geometry may be a simplistic analytic surface (e.g., a sphere or a cylinder), a NURB surface, a collection of polygons, or a combination of surfaces and polygons.

Using ancillary geometry for visibility determination

A system and method for performing visible object determination based upon a dual search of a cone hierarchy and a bounding (e.g. hull) hierarchy. Visualization software running on a host processor represents space with a hierarchy of cones constructed by recursive refinement, and represents a collection of objects with a hierarchy of bounding hulls. The visualization software searches the cone and hull hierarchies starting with the root cone and the root hull. Before exploring a given cone-hull pair, a cone-restricted minimum distance between the cone and the hull is measured and compared to the visibility distance value of the cone. Only when the former is smaller than the latter will the cone be searched against the hull.

Visible-object determination for interactive visualization

A system and method for performing visible object determination based upon a dual search of a cone hierarchy and a bound hierarchy performed by multiple processors. Each processor is configured to read a (global and/or local) problem queue to access a bound-cone pair. The bound-cone pair points to a bound in the bound hierarchy and a cone in the cone hierarchy. The processor computes a bound-cone distance between the bound and the cone, and compares the bound-cone distance to a visibility distance associated with the cone. If the bound-cone distance is smaller than the visibility distance, the processor may write two or more refined bound-cone pairs corresponding to a refinement of the original pair to the global or local problem queue. When the processor detects a leaf bound and a leaf cone, it updates a nearest object pointer and the visibility distance associated with the leaf cone.

Multiple processor visibility search system and method

A system for determining nearest leaf bounds per leaf cone of a cone hierarchy based on a dual-tree search of the cone hierarchy and a bound hierarchy. A processor, performing the dual-tree search, maintains for each leaf cone a collection of nearest leaf bounds. The collection evolves as the dual-tree search progresses. The processor may maintain the N closest leaf bounds for each leaf cone. The processor may classify leaf bounds as occluders or non-occluders, and store any non-occluder closer than the N occluder. Alternatively, the processor may assign an occlusion metric value to each leaf bound, and may maintain closest leaf bounds so that the sum of their occlusion metric values is less than or equal to an occlusion threshold. The dual-tree search may be followed by a search of the bound hierarchy with probe cones of the leaf cones.

Mitigating the effects of object approximations

In a data communication system having network traffic with flows, a network traffic director system using router modules. The router modules direct traffic based on optimizing a merit function or penalty function to reduce costs of congestion for stochastically changing demands and flows in the data communication system. The router modules exchange values with neighboring router modules. Based on the exchanged values and values local to a router module, flow conditions are checked and if necessary the local values are adjusted until the flow conditions are satisfied or a time period expires. Adjustments are associated with optimizing a merit function or penalty function. Based on the adjusted values, the router module adjusts parameters to be used to direct packets of the network traffic flows to other router modules or other destinations within the data communication system. An aggregation scheme is used for reducing the number of values stored in a single router module.

Method and apparatus for network control

A system and method for performing visible object determination based upon a dual search of a cone hierarchy and a bounding (e.g. hull) hierarchy. Visualization software running on a host processor represents space with a hierarchy of cones constructed by recursive refinement, and generates a hierarchy of bounding hulls from a given collection of objects by recursively grouping clusters of objects. Hull nodes in the hull hierarchy reflect cluster membership. Each hull node stores parameters which characterize a bounding hull for the corresponding cluster or object. The visualization software searches the cone and hull hierarchies starting with the root cone and the root hull. Each leaf-cone is assigned a visibility distance value which represents the distance to its closest known object. The visibility distance value of a non-leaf cone is set equal to the maximum of the visibility distance values for its subcone children. Before exploring a given cone-hull pair, a cone-restricted minimum distance between the cone and the hull is measured and compared to the visibility distance value of the cone. Only when the former is smaller than the latter will the cone be searched against the hull. Assuming the search condition is satisfied, subhulls of the given hull are again conditionally explored against the given cone (or its subcones) in ascending order of their cone-hull distances from the cone (or its subcones). When the recursive search of the two trees is completed, visible objects will have been assigned to each leaf-cone.

A system and method for rendering of graphical rotations. The system includes a processor coupled to system memory, a display device, and optionally a graphics accelerator. The processor operates on a matrix M with a matrix operator having the properties of consistency on rotations and attraction to rotations. The matrix operator may be applied more than once to achieve greater error attenuation. The processor, or alternatively the graphics accelerator, performs image graphical rendering calculations using resultant matrix L obtained from applying the matrix operator. A first approximate rotation representing a previous orientation for a graphical object, and a second approximate rotation matrix representing a desired rotation to be applied to the graphical object, are multiplied to obtain matrix M which represents an updated orientation for the graphical object. The second approximate rotation matrix is generated in response to a sensor input provided by a user or from orientation information stored in a data structure. Furthermore, an iterative method for generating a sequence of approximate rotation matrices in response to user input or stored control information, and for rendering a series of rotation updates of a graphical object on a display screen is also contemplated. The matrix M representing the result of a matrix multiplication step is updated periodically or pseudo-periodically using a matrix operator having the consistency and attraction properties.

System and method for improved rendering of graphical rotations

The image rendering system (20) of the present invention rapidly renders graphical image of complex structures. A complex structure is represented by a plurality of objects that can be organized into an object hierarchy. The image rendering system (20) projects a plurality of rays (55) from a given vision coordinate. For each projected ray, the image rendering system (20) determines with which objects in the object hierarchy are intersected by the ray (55). The image rendering system (20) then determines which object among those intersected by the ray (55) is closest to the given vision coordinate and adds that object to a set of visible objects. As objects are added to the set of visible objects, each object is rendered on the display in accordance with a current vision coordinate. Since the process of adding objects to the set of visible objects is decoupled and run asynchronously from the process of rendering visible objects on the display, the image rendering system (20) is capable of rendering objects at real-time frame rates.

Method and apparatus for rapidly rendering computer generated images of

Data processing systems are described for processing linear programming problems. The invention employs optical (100) or digital (150) processors to perform Gaussian pivot operations by performing outer product matrix operations in parallel. The present invention can solve linear programming problems utilizing various techniques, including the Simplex and Karmarkar algorithms. This results in a greatly improved speed in solving linear programs over prior techniques involving sequential computing.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Karel Zikan