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:
May. 16, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 23, 1997
Alexander A Migdal, Princeton, NJ (US);
Blaise Aguera-Arcas, Princeton, NJ (US);
Real-Time Geometry Corp., Short Hills, NJ (US);
Abstract
System and method for asynchronous transmission of video images such as from a sending to a receiving terminal or from a sending processor to a storage medium like videotape. The system receives moving picture image information such as analog video digitized into 2D bitmap data and employs a modeling system such as a triangulated mesh modeling system to create an initial image consisting of a compact set of N elements (such as the data points of a triangulated mesh) where the number of elements is less than the number of elements necessary to display the image. In the exemplary embodiment the model elements are bitmap pixel assignments, however other elements such as wavelets, or Fourier component elements, or iterated function system (IFS maps) could also be used. As the images of the moving picture change, the sending computer compares data for each new image against the current model elements and will add elements to or remove elements from the model to update the model to make it current with the new image. The sending computer outputs a sequence of commands to replicate the model building and subsequent updating either to a receiving terminal (which displays the moving image in real time) or to a digital or analog storage medium such as a disk or analog tape. This entire video sequence can be compressed into a sequence of add and remove commands. These commands can be output across communication systems or stored for later playback. In creating each add or remove command, the present invention employs an encoding technique which indexes the spatial coordinate data and color pixel assignment data, so that an instruction can be encoded with an index rather than specifying a full longhand command. A decompress function of the present invention is comprised to decode each encoded command and execute the instruction. The modeling system presented is also adaptive to allow greater clarity or resolution in the images transmitted depending on the amount of bandwidth available in the communications or storage system.