General Electric Company

Martin Marietta Corporation

Michael L Morgan

Walter R Steiner

Gregory C Buchner

Richard Economy

Edward M Sims

William A Kelly

Edwin O Howard

Robert J Caesar, Jr

The final viewable color of each pixel to be displayed from video data signal output of a computer image generator, is found by: using input data signals setting display space coordinates of each vertex of each face polygon to be displayed, to generate a crossing location of each polygon edge along an edge segment of any of the array of display pixels; storing, and then processing, the edge segment crossing data signals for all polygons affecting that pixel, along with color data for each of the faces occupying any portion of that pixel, and for a plurality of different edge segments of a constellation of four adjacent pixels, to obtain pixel color intensity data for each corner of each displayable pixel; and mixing polygon color intensity data signals for all corners of a presently-processed pixel, to determine the final, observable color of that display pixel.

Method and apparatus for anti-aliasing polygon edges in a computer

A method for determining the illumination of an illuminator at a selected point P in an image volume to be projected on an image screen surface by a computerized image generator, operates by: decomposing the illuminator into at least one of spherical, beam and cylindrical sources; determining a direction of incidence of the light from each source at point P in the image volume; determining the extent of the source and the attenuation of illumination with distance from that source; then determining a set of color light intensities at point P in the image volume due to the light from the particular source; and translating the incidence direction and color intensities from point P to a displayable incidence direction and a displayable set of color illumination intensities at a corresponding projection location on the image screen surface.

Computer image generation method for determination of total pixel

The values of an attribute, like color, to be assigned to the right and left half of a pixel of a display device, such as may be determined by a computer image generation system, are compared for determining a difference value. If the difference value is less than a predetermined threshold, an average of the left and right half values is assigned to the pixel. If the difference value is greater than or equal to the threshold, then the right and left half values are assigned to the respective right and left halves of the pixel and during the raster scan, the attribute value of the pixel to be displayed is transitioned at the beginning of the pixel interval and in the middle of the pixel interval so that the pixel presents an image in response to the corresponding right and left half values. The data for the left and right half values may be truncated and stored as a portion of the data word or may be encoded into logarithmetic form having a mantissa and shift code. In either case, the data word may be the same length as words previously used to define the color of a pixel, thereby avoiding having to alter memory allocation of existing systems.

Picture element encoding

Growing community of inventors

Ormond Beach, FL, United States of America

Michael L Morgan