The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 16, 1994
Filed:
Aug. 08, 1991
Brian T Sodenberg, Woodinville, WA (US);
Mark L Kenworthy, Renton, WA (US);
Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
In a real time image generation system opaque or planar object pixels are defined by at least a color attribute and a depth value and volumetric pixels are defined by at least a color attribute, a depth value and an opacity gradient value. A volumetric data buffer is provided for storing attributes and values associated with volumetric pixels and the volumetric items are processed first to load that buffer. Successive object pixel definitions are then read and the depth value of each current object pixel definition is compared with the depth value in the buffer and a relative weight for the volumetric effect is calculated as a function of the relative depth values and the corresponding volume gradient value. The color attributes of the object pixel and the volumetric data are then mixed as a function of the relative weighting to obtain a result color attribute which is output as the color for the respective pixel.