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:
Nov. 26, 1996
Filed:
Jul. 30, 1993
Edward C Greene, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Michael H Kass, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Gavin S Miller, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A hierarchical Z-buffer scan-conversion algorithm that does well on both (a) quickly rejecting most of the hidden geometry in a model, and (b) exploiting the spatial and temporal coherence of the images being generated. The method uses two hierarchical data structures, an object-space octree and an image-space Z-pyramid, in order to accelerate scan conversion. The two hierarchical data structures make it possible to reject hidden geometry very rapidly while rendering visible geometry with the speed of scan conversion. For animation purposes, the algorithm is also able to exploit temporal coherence. The resulting method is well suited to models with high depth complexity, achieving significant speedup in some cases compared to ordinary scan conversion.