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. 29, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 27, 1996
James S Lipscomb, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
William Louis Luken, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
Jai P Menon, Peekskill, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A computer system generates a cylindrical environment map comprising a plurality of elements and associated information pertaining to images of a panoramic scene by storing in memory information associated with elements of a side image of the panoramic scene and information associated with elements of a top image and/or bottom image of the panoramic scene. For at least one element of the cylindrical environment map, if the element of the cylindrical environment map corresponds to an element of the side image, the information corresponding to the element of the side image is associated with the element of the cylindrical environment map. However, if the element of the cylindrical environment map corresponds to an element of the top image (or bottom image), the information corresponding to the element of the top image (or bottom image) is associated with the element of the cylindrical environment map. The information associated with elements of the side image, top image and/or bottom image may be color of the panoramic scene at the element, depth of the panoramic scene at the element, or an action related to the element. Also presented is a computer system that renders a view of such a cylindrical environment map for display.