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:
Dec. 24, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 06, 2000
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
In an image processing system for providing two-dimensional pixel images comprised of a purality of polygonal image primitives and a background, the polygonal image primitives representing a three-dimensional object, a Z buffer and a color buffer are cleared by the steps of rendering image primitives relating to foreground in the color buffer ( ) and the Z buffer ( ); and subsequently scanning the Z buffer and for each pixel, if the Z value is a predetermined background value such as zero ( ), clearing the corresponding location in the color buffer to background color ( ), and if the Z value is not the predetermined background value, clearing the Z buffer to that predetermined background value ( ). In the method, either a Z buffer or a color value is written during the buffer clearing process, but never both. The pixels may be read from cache in groups, the size of a group being selected to maximize the possibility of all consecutive pixels in a group being either foreground or background pixels. Further bandwidth saving may be achieved by the use of a tile buffer and two output buffers.