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:
Nov. 02, 2010
Filed:
Feb. 14, 2006
Jin Satoh, Tokyo, JP;
Jin Satoh, Tokyo, JP;
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image processing apparatus capable of efficient rendering is provided. In an image processing apparatus which renders, in a screen coordinate system, unit figures each constituting the surface of a three-dimensional object to be rendered, a rasterizing unit divides a rendering area corresponding to a screen into multiple unit areas, while a first unit figure is projected onto a screen coordinate system, and outputs the unit areas. A similar process is applied to second and subsequent unit figures so that the multiple unit areas constituting each unit figure are sequentially output. An area divider divides each of the unit areas sequentially output from the rasterizing unit into multiple subareas. An area discarder discards as necessary a subarea obtained by the division by the area divider according to a predetermined rule. An area writer re-merges subareas that survived the discarding process by the area discarder and writes merged areas obtained by re-merge in the memory.