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:
Mar. 04, 1997
Filed:
May. 26, 1994
Thomas C McInally, Farnborough, GB;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In an image synthesis system, a definer/editor (102) stores (1112) object definitions in the form of control points for spline curves. The system can generate 'phantom control points' (A.sub.0 to A.sub.N+1) to define a spline object, such that the curve interpolates a desired set of points (P.sub.1 to P.sub.N) received from a user, for example via a mouse or graphics tablet. While the number N of received points, is variable, and may be large, the system operates quickly to generate coefficients (X.sub.ij) which can be used to derive the phantom control points (A), without the need for matrix inversion, and without storing a large number of pre-inverted matrices. This permits intuitive interaction with the user for the definition of spline objects. For large numbers N where interactivity may even so become difficult to achieve, the system is able to generate approximate phantom points, each derived from a relatively small sub-set of the received points.