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. 10, 2005
Filed:
Nov. 29, 2002
David Christopher Smith, Quakers Hill, AU;
David Christopher Smith, Quakers Hill, AU;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method () and apparatus () for determining active objects contributing to a run of pixels corresponding to a scanline is disclosed. The methodutilizes two memory () integer arrays () and () of size N, where N represents the number of objects in a job to be rendered. The first array () is an active priority list and is preferably stored in memory (). The first array () will be hereinafter referenced as the 'active priority list (i.e. L[ ])'. The second array () is an array of pointers (i.e. indexes) that indicate vacant memorylocations in the active priority list (), when an object is deactivated. The second array () will be hereinafter referred to as a 'free list (F[ ])' and is also preferably stored in memory (). The active priority list () and free list () can be stored at consecutive memory () addresses (e.g. Memory address 0 to memory address 2N) or alternatively, the active priority list () and free list () can be stored in any suitable free memory () locations.