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:
Feb. 08, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Michael F Cohen, Seattle, WA (US);
Steven Gortler, Cambridge, MA (US);
Richard S Szeliski, Bellevue, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A computer-based method and system for digital 3-dimensional imaging of an object which allows for viewing images of the object from arbitrary vantage points. The system, referred to as the Lumigraph system, collects a complete appearance of either a synthetic or real object (or a scene), stores a representation of the appearance, and uses the representation to render images of the object from any vantage point. The appearance of an object is a collection of light rays that emanate from the object in all directions. The system stores the representation of the appearance as a set of coefficients of a 4-dimensional function, referred to as the Lumigraph function. From the Lumigraph function with these coefficients, the Lumigraph system can generate 2-dimensional images of the object from any vantage point. The Lumigraph system generates an image by evaluating the Lumigraph function to identify the intensity values of light rays that would emanate from the object to form the image. The Lumigraph system then combines these intensity values to form the image.