Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corportion

Kirk O Olynyk

Sing Bing Kang

Brian Kevin Guenter

Sashi Raghupathy

Stephen Marschner

John Michael Snyder

William Thomas Blank

John Turner Whitted

Gilman Kuey Wong

Hock San Lee

David Liping Xu

Lingyun Wang

James Andrew Alan Goossen

James David Johnston

Robert George Atkinson

Michael W Van Flandern

James Andrew Goossen

Kevin Michael Schofield

William Tom Blank

Systems and methods are provided for variable source rate sampling in connection with image rendering, which accumulate and resolve over all samples forward mapped to each pixel bin. In accordance with the invention, the textured surface to be rendered is sampled, or oversampled, at a variable rate that reflects variations in frequency among different regions, taking into account any transformation that will be applied to the surface prior to rendering and the view parameters of the display device, thus ensuring that each bin of the rendering process receives at least a predetermined minimum number of samples. A variety of image processing applications are contemplated wherein variable rate source sampling, and accumulation and resolution of forward mapped point samples can be applied, ranging from 3-D graphics applications to applications wherein images recorded in a recording/storage environment are mapped to the arbitrary requirements of a display environment.

Systems and methods for providing image rendering using variable rate source sampling

Systems and methods are provided for variable source rate sampling in connection with image rendering, which accumulate and resolve over all samples forward mapped to each pixel bin. In accordance with the invention, the textured surface to be rendered is sampled, or oversampled, at a variable rate that reflects variations in frequency among different regions, taking into account any transformation that will be applied to the surface prior to rendering and the view parameters of the display device, thus ensuring that each bin of the rendering process receives at least a predetermined minimum number of samples. In one embodiment, the sampling rate is variably set such that each bin is assured to have at least one sample point. In another embodiment, a tiling approach to division of the surface is utilized. In accordance with the architecture provided, the sample points of the surface are forward mapped to sample squares, other regions, of a rendering device, taking into account any transformations applied to the surface and the view parameters of the rendering device, such that each bin receives at least the predetermined minimum number of samples. A filter determines the value(s) to assign to each pixel based upon accumulation and resolution of all of the sample points that fall within the pixel bin(s), rather than assigning a value by selecting only the point sample that corresponds to the center of the pixel. Gaps or holes left by conventional forward-mapping techniques are eliminated by oversampling the source(s), and interpolated points are generated at a higher rate than the original source signal(s) to adequately cover the destination bins. A pixel, or sub-pixel, binning approach is used that accumulates and resolves over all samples, and performs particularly well compared to prior architectures in areas that have higher frequency content, solving the minification antialiasing problem and producing a high quality result. Anisotropic filtering is handled simply with the forward mapping approach by filtering over all samples that naturally accumulate after the forward map, and via variable control of the number of samples forward mapped to the bins. A variety of image processing applications are contemplated wherein variable rate source sampling, and accumulation and resolution of forward mapped point samples can be applied, ranging from 3-D graphics applications to applications wherein images recorded in a recording/storage environment are mapped to the arbitrary requirements of a display environment.

A user mode device driver interface (UMDDI) is disclosed. The UMDDI is preferably implemented in Windows&#xae; NT&#xae; version 5.0 and similar systems. The UMDDI allows a device driver to execute in user-mode while the graphics engine (GRE) remains in kernel-mode. The UMDDI exists as a layer between the user-mode driver and GRE; from the perspective of GRE, it encapsulates the user-mode driver and makes it appear to be a normal kernel-mode driver. The UMDDI layer handles the kernel-to-user and user-to-kernel transitions, parameter validation, and management of the kernel-mode and user-mode data and objects.

User mode device driver interface

The present invention is directed to a method and system for automatic calibration of an acoustic system. The acoustic system may include a source A/V device, calibration computing device, and multiple rendering devices. The calibration system may include a calibration component attached to each rendering device and a source calibration module. The calibration component on each rendering device includes a microphone. The source calibration module includes distance and optional angle calculation tools for automatically determining a distance between the rendering device and a specified reference point upon return of the test signal from the calibration component.

System and method for calibration of an acoustic system

In the described embodiment, methods and systems for processing facial image data for use in animation are described. In one embodiment, a system is provided that illuminates a face with illumination that is sufficient to enable the simultaneous capture of both structure data, e.g. a range or depth map, and reflectance properties, e.g. the diffuse reflectance of a subject's face. This captured information can then be used for various facial animation operations, among which are included expression recognition and expression transformation.

Facial image processing methods and systems

The illustrated and described embodiments describe techniques for capturing data that describes 3-dimensional (3-D) aspects of a face, transforming facial motion from one individual to another in a realistic manner, and modeling skin reflectance.

Methods and systems for animating facial features, and methods and systems for expression transformation

Facial image processing

Methods and systems for animating facial features and methods and systems for expression transformation

Methods and systems for animating facial features and transforming facial expressions are described. In one embodiment, a code book contains data that defines a set of facial expressions of a first person. A training set of facial expressions from a second person and corresponding expressions from the code book are used to derive a transformation function that is then applied to all of the expressions of the code book. In this manner, expressions from the first person can be realistically transformed into expressions of a second person and vice versa. Particularly advantageous aspects of the described embodiments provide a single common generic face model that is used as the basis for a fitting operation for many different faces. Use of the single common generic face model and certain user-defined constraints provide a mechanism by which correspondences between the different faces can be established. These correspondences provide a basis for facial animation operations, among which are included expression transformation.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Kirk O Olynyk