Image analysis – Image transformation or preprocessing – Mapping 2-d image onto a 3-d surface
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-04
2001-06-12
Mancuso, Joseph (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Image transformation or preprocessing
Mapping 2-d image onto a 3-d surface
C345S468000, C345S471000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246805
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to beveling of three-dimensional objects in a video display.
In video applications, video data may advance through several processing stages before video data is displayed on a video device. These stages may include modeling and rendering. Modeling refers to generation of information that is displayed on the video display. Rendering refers to conversion of this information to pixel data for display on the video device.
Modeling of most objects requires generation of three-dimensional meshes to represent the object. Modeling can be done by measuring the objects. This, however, tends to be very difficult, expensive and inaccurate. Extrusion is an alternate scheme that works well for several objects (see FIG.
1
). A two-dimensional region is first specified by the human modeler. The modeler also specifies a path on which the region is to be extruded. A computer system then moves the two-dimensional region along the specified path, sweeping a volume that is then typically converted to a three-dimensional mesh representation (
FIG. 1
(
a
)). The mesh can then be rendered or otherwise manipulated depending on the application. A rendered volume may be displayed as shown in FIG.
1
(
b
).
The extruded regions often appear bland and lack character when rendered for display. They can be enhanced by beveling (see FIG.
2
). Beveling mimics beveling in wood-working applications, wherein a carpenter uses a router to apply a rounding, flat or other effect to the corners and edges of real-world three-dimensional wooden objects. In video processing applications, beveling is a generalized extrusion scheme that belongs to the modeling stage. Beveling results in a three-dimensional mesh that, when rendered, appears more visually appealing than a plain extrusion (FIG.
2
(
a
)-(
e
)). Beveling finds immediate applications in presentation environments, e.g., presentation authoring tools and computer networks such as the Internet.
A block diagram of an illustrative computer network
100
is shown in FIG.
3
. There, the network
100
includes a network server
110
and a client terminal
120
. Client terminal
120
includes a display
130
. The network server
110
and client terminal
120
may communicate with each other over Internet
140
. The network server
110
stores video information for display at the client terminal
120
. If the network server
110
rendered the video information into pixel data and transmitted the pixel data to the client terminal
120
, the pixel data would consume a tremendous amount of bandwidth of Internet
140
.
Over the Internet
140
, where it is desirable to represent video information as efficiently as possible, beveling and extrusion can have tremendous impact by providing very low bandwidth representations of three-dimensional meshes. A beveled mesh may be defined by a description of the two-dimensional boundary, the path along which the mesh is to be extruded, a definition of a beveling effect, and a few parameters. The two-dimensional boundary can be omitted entirely if it can be implicitly specified, for example for text by a string, a font-name and style properties. In such a case, the client terminal
120
, not the network server
110
, would render the video information for display. Animation of such client-side generated meshes can easily and efficiently replace the expensive downloads of video data such as those that are required for spinning logos and the like. Finally, beveling and extrusion provide a scalability advantage as well in that the quality of the generated meshes can be easily tied to the performance available on the computer system.
There is a need in the art for a fast and computationally inexpensive method for beveling extruded polygons.
SUMMARY
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for providing a beveling effect to a first region, in which a second region is generated in a plane parallel to the first region. The second region maybe resized relative to the first region. Vertices of the first region are connected to corresponding vertices of the second region according to a predetermined beveling function.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5548667 (1996-08-01), Tu
patent: 5675377 (1997-10-01), Gikas
patent: 6033627 (2000-03-01), Shields et al.
patent: 6044170 (2000-03-01), Migdal et al.
patent: 6064759 (2000-05-01), Buckley et al.
Rosenzweig Michael D.
Sanjeev Trika N.
Intel Corporation
Kassa Yosef
Kenyon & Kenyon
Mancuso Joseph
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