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:
Sep. 08, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1997
Hiroshi Minakata, Tokyo, JP;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method in which an operator can input a three-dimensional (3D) graphics to a graphic system by performing an operation that is as if he were sketching on a paper surface. A line segment of two-dimensional (2D) data is input through an input device such as a mouse, and is then temporarily stored in a storage device as well as being displayed on a 2D display screen. The line segment of 2D data is converted to 3D data when it obtains information in the depth direction based on its relationship to another line segment that constitutes a 3D graphics and has 3D data already. 3D data of line segments that have that data in addition to 2D data are stored in a storage device, and are projected by a projection conversion circuit onto a 2D projection plane that has been set by a visual field input device, so as to be converted to 2D data, which are then displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the line segments that have already been converted to 3D data are displayed on the display screen together with the line segments that have been input through the input device and still have only 2D data. An operator can construct a 3D graphics constituted of 3D line segments simply by inputting 2D line segments as if he were sketching.