Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Autodesk, Inc.

Google Inc.

Leland Stanford Junior University

Vicinity Corporation

Maneesh Agrawala

Chris Stolte

Tovi Samuel Grossman

George William Fitzmaurice

Kenneth Paul Hinckley

Richard S Szeliski

Desney S Tan

George G Robertson

Patrick Markus Baudisch

Daniel Chaim Robbins

Ryan Michael Schmidt

David H Salesin

Bjoern Hartmann

Wei Li-Yi

Hsiang-Ting Chen

Steven Mark Drucker

Michael F Cohen

Mary P Czerwinski

Steven Maxwell Seitz

Sudipta Narayan Sinha

Drew Edward Steedly

Sumit Basu

David Robert Gallup

Robert E Carroll

Gonzalo A Ramos

Andrew David Wilson

Patrice Y Simard

Kentaro Toyama

Hugues Herve Hoppe

Aseem Agarwala

Paul Merrell

Tim Paek

Daniel Cory

David Bargeron

Chad Gibson

Georg F Petschnigg

Adil Ahmed Sherwani

Michael Shilman

David W Steinkraus

Adam Clyde Eversole

Miltiadis Vafiadis

Trausti Thor Kristjansson

Ronald Keith Logan

Shengdong Zhao

Ian Simon

Nicholas Chi-yuen Kong

Rick Szeliski

Vladlen Koltun

Eric Schkufza

David c/o Microsoft Corpoation International Patents Salesin

David M c/o Microsoft Corporation International Patents Bargeron

Techniques for managing authored views. The techniques includes displaying a main window including a model, an authoring panel configured for displaying authored view indicators associated with authored views of the model, and a navigation panel configured for displaying thumbnail representations of authored views associated with the model. The techniques also include based on a user input, accessing an authored view of the model, wherein the authored view includes one of a view-point, a view path and a view surface. The techniques further include displaying the authored view in the main window, an authored view indicator associated with the authored view in the authoring panel, and a thumbnail representation based on the authored view in the navigation panel.

Techniques for authoring view points, view paths, and view surfaces for 3D models

An approach is provided for sending pre-defined workflows to a display device of a user device. In one example, the approach includes receiving a request for steps to complete a task associated with a software application. In response to receiving the request for steps, the system obtains at least a first workflow and a second workflow, each workflow including one or more steps that the user device can execute to complete the task. The system receives a request to format the first workflow and the second workflow into one or more view formats. The system generates a summary of the first workflow and a summary of the second workflow. Each summary includes one or more salient attributes of the each workflow. The system sends to the display device at least the first workflow and the second workflow in the one or more view formats.

Techniques for representing and comparing workflows

One embodiment of the invention is a collage engine that generates informative viewpoints of a 3D model based upon the editing history of the 3D model. In operation, the collage engine processes an editing log to identify segments of the 3D model that include related vertices. For a given segment, the collage engine selects a viewpoint used by the end-user to edit the 3D model and a viewpoint used by the end-user to inspect the 3D model. The collage engine may then present the informative viewpoints to the end-user for inclusion in a collage of 2D renderings based upon the informative viewpoints. Generally, the viewpoints used while editing and inspecting the 3D model are of importance in the overall presentation of the 3D model. Therefore, collages of 2D renderings based upon the informative viewpoints can be generated effectively.

Generating informative viewpoints based on editing history

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for generating a panoramic image of a long scene, are disclosed. These include, fitting a plurality of planes to 3D points associated with input images of portions of the long scene, where one or more respective planes are fitted to each of a ground surface, a dominant surface, and at least one of one or more foreground objects and one or more background objects in the long scene, and where distances from the 3D points to the fitted planes are substantially minimized. These also include, selecting, for respective one or more pixels in the panoramic image of the long scene, one of the input images and one of the fitted planes such that a distance is substantially minimized from the selected one of the fitted planes to a surface corresponding to the respective one or more pixels and occlusion of the respective one or more pixels is reduced in the selected one of the input images; and stitching the panoramic image of the long scene by projecting, for the respective one or more pixels in the panoramic image of the long scene, the selected one of the input images using the selected one of the fitted planes into the virtual camera.

Multiplane panoramas of long scenes

In an embodiment of the present invention, an interactive system employs sets of interior design guidelines. In an embodiment, the user begins by specifying the shape of a room and the set of furniture that must be arranged within it. The user then interactively moves furniture pieces. In response, the system suggests a set of furniture layouts that follow the interior design guidelines. The user can interactively select a suggestion and move any piece of furniture to modify the layout.

Method and system for interactive layout

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for generating a panoramic image of a long scene are disclosed. These include, fitting planes to 3D points associated with input images of portions of the long scene, where respective planes are fitted to a ground surface, a dominant surface, and at least one of foreground objects and background objects, and where distances from the 3D points to the fitted planes are minimized. These also include, selecting, for respective pixels in the panoramic image, an input image and a fitted plane such that a distance is minimized from the selected the fitted plane to a surface corresponding to the pixels and occlusion of the pixels is reduced in the selected input image, and stitching by projecting the selected input image using the selected fitted plane into the virtual camera.

A collection of photos and a three-dimensional reconstruction of the photos are used to construct and texture a mesh model. In one embodiment, a first digital image of a first view of a real world scene is analyzed to identify lines in the first view. Among the lines, parallel lines are identified. A three-dimensional vanishing direction in a three-dimensional space is determined based on the parallel lines and an orientation of the digital image in the three-dimensional space. A plane is automatically generated by fitting the plane to the vanishing direction. A rendering of a three-dimensional model with the plane is displayed. Three-dimensional points corresponding to features common to the photos may be used to constrain the plane. The photos may be projected onto the model to provide visual feedback when editing the plane. Furthermore, the photos may be used to texture the model.

Using photo collections for three dimensional modeling

A computer system and for displaying a static animation image in response to an action related to a displayed object that occurs on the computer system is presented. An initial state of the displayed object is determined with regard to the action. A final state of the displayed object with regard to the action is also determined. Transition aspects between the initial state and the final state are then determined. A static animation image is generated according to the initial state, the transition aspects, and the final state. The static animation image represents, in static form, an animation indicative of the action from the initial state to the final state of the displayed object. The static animation image is displayed on the graphical user interface in lieu of animation.

Representing animation as a static image on a graphical user interface

A 'Concatenative Synthesizer' applies concatenative synthesis to create a musical output from a database of musical notes and an input musical score (such as a MIDI score or other computer readable musical score format). In various embodiments, the musical output is either a music score, or an analog or digital audio file. This musical output is constructed by evaluating the database of musical notes to identify sets of candidate notes for each note of the input musical score. An 'optimal path' through candidate notes is identified by minimizing an overall cost function through the candidate notes relative to the input musical score. The musical output is then constructed by concatenating the selected candidate notes. In further embodiments, the database of musical notes is generated from any desired musical genre, performer, performance, or instrument. Furthermore, notes in the database may be modified to better fit notes of the input musical score.

Creating music via concatenative synthesis

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates automatically producing an enhanced schematic destination map to provide directions to a destination related to geography. An interface component can receive at least one geographic destination. A map generator can automatically create an enhanced schematic destination map utilizing a hierarchy of road sets to provide at least one route including at least one road to the geographic destination.

Schematic destination maps

Providing axonometric views of layers containing objects while preserving the visual attributes of the objects is disclosed. A group of objects, e.g., overlapping objects, is determined. Layer dimensions are calculated such that each object in the group is encompassed by a layer. Objects are placed in the layers and the layers are displayed in axonometric views. Visual cues to indicate selected layers are provided. Controls to adjust the depth of the layers and to enable moving objects in the selected layer are also provided.

Accessing 2D graphic content using axonometric layer views

Provided is multi-stroke marking menu techniques that increase menu breath over an eight-item limit of some orientation-based marking menus. Zone and polygon menus can be provided wherein the breadth can be increased by a factor of about two or more while providing quick selection and maintaining selection accuracy. Various geometric attributes can be analyzed to determine a selection stroke. These attributes can include orientation, position, and/or length of each stroke. Hybrid techniques are also disclosed that further increase menu breadth and performance.

Position-based multi-stroke marking menus

Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate normalizing and beautifying digitally generated handwriting, such as can be generated on a tablet PC or via scanning a handwritten document. A classifier can identify extrema in the digital handwriting and label such extrema according to predefined categories (e.g., bottom, baseline, midline, top, other, . . . ). Multi-linear regression, polynomial regression, etc., can be performed to align labeled extrema to respective and corresponding desired points as indicated by the labels. Additionally, displacement techniques can be applied to the regressed handwriting to optimize legibility for reading by a human viewer and/or for character recognition by a handwriting recognition application. The displacement techniques can comprise a 'rubber sheet' displacement algorithm in conjunction with a 'rubber rod' displacement algorithm, which can collectively preserve spatial features of the handwriting during warping thereof.

Ink warping for normalization and beautification / ink beautification

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Maneesh Agrawala