Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Animation
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-04
2002-04-23
Zimmerman, Mark (Department: 2671)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Animation
C345S522000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06377263
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to three-dimensional modeling software and more particularly to software for creating and viewing virtual realities.
2. Background
A major goal of computer graphics has long been to create a realistic world on a computer screen. In 1965, Ivan Sutherland suggested that the ultimate computer display would make the picture look and sound real and the objects act real. Sutherland's goals are today embodied in the concept of Virtual Reality (VR). VR generally encompasses more than just a 3D image. The concept of a virtual reality envisions a computer generated display, often accompanied by sound, which is immersive and interactive. In a true virtual reality, the user is immersed in the virtual world. The user “enters” the virtual world displayed on the computer screen, and explores that world as he or she would explore part of the real world. Each user can chart a different course through the virtual world and interact with various objects in the virtual world. An interactive virtual world allows the user to interact with the virtual world in various ways, such as bumping into walls, opening doors, moving objects, etc. Every virtual world is, at its lowest level, nothing more than a computer model which is described in a modeling language such as the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). The computer model usually includes a mathematical model which describes the size, shape, and location of various objects and light sources in the virtual world. The computer model often also includes various graphics resources such as bitmaps, textures, etc., which are used provide a sense of life (reality) to the otherwise sterile mathematical models. Together, the mathematical models and the graphics resources are used by a computer software program to generate a realistic display. VRML provides a grammar for describing the various aspects of the computer model needed to create a virtual world. VRML provides a method for describing a world that meets two of Sutherland's three requirements for a virtual reality, namely the look real and sound real requirements.
VRML grew out of a brainstorming session at the May 1994 World Wide Web (Web) conference in Geneva Switzerland. Several researchers had been working on a virtual reality interface for the Web that would allow Web browsers to display 3D images and, hopefully, virtual worlds. The result of the Geneva session was a commitment to develop a scene description language that could be used in conjunction with the Web. The first VRML draft specification, VRML 1.0, was unveiled in October 1994. By the fall of 1995, several VRML viewers (known as browsers) and a Web authoring tool that provided the ability to interactively place objects in scenes were available. Also in the fall of 1995, the VRML Architecture Group (VAG) met to discuss the next version of VRML. During early 1996, the VRML community considered a number of proposals and by August 1996, VRML 2.0 was largely finalized.
VRML is not a programming language like C++ or JAVA. VRML is a modeling language which is used to describe 3D worlds, and VRML provides a relatively efficient format for describing simple and complex 3D objects and worlds. The description of a virtual world contained in a VRML file is brought to life by a software program known as a VRML browser. The VRML browser generates a computer display of the virtual world described by a VRML file. VRML browsers also provide capabilities to allow a user to change viewpoints, to walk or fly through the virtual world, and to interact with the virtual world.
VRML 1.0 provided static worlds. With VRML 1.0, the user could travel through the virtual world, but interactions, such as opening a door, were not provided. In VRML 2.0, objects in the virtual world can move and can respond to both time-based and user-initiated events. For example, VRML 2.0 provides proximity sensors that open doors or turn on lights when a user is near the sensor. VRML 2.0 also allows the incorporation of multimedia objects such as sound and movies into the virtual world. Moreover, VRML 2.0 provides simple animations, scripting (the calling of functions written in true programming languages), and prototypes (essentially subroutines written in VRML).
In VRML, the fundamental element of construction is the node. VRML provides nodes to specify shapes such as boxes, cones cylinders, extrusions, etc. VRML provides a appearance node to specify color, position, texture, etc. Nodes can “contain” other nodes. For example, VRML provides a group node which contains a list of nodes as a logical group. The All of the nodes in a VRML file are collected in a hierarchy known as a scene graph (similar to the way in which files often are collected in a directory hierarchy).
Although VRML files are text files that can be created and edited using a text editor, it is generally easier to use a modeling editor to generate the VRML files. Modeling editors provide graphical modeling capabilities, much like a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program. VRML modeling editors are provided by the Caligari Corp., Integrated Data Systems, Kinetix, Paragraph International, Radiance Software International (VRML 1.0 only), Sense8, Silicon Graphics, Virtus Corp, and VREAM. Many of the these companies also provide VRML browsers. VRML browsers are also provided by Chaco Communications, Intervista, Netscape, Microsoft, and others.
VRML 2.0 provides some capabilities for motion and interaction, and thus VRML 2.0 worlds are interactive to a limited extent. For example, by using scripting nodes, VRML provides support for scripted, but not compiled, behaviors (e.g., motions, reactions). Scripting nodes can be inserted at various places in the scene graph, but they are not intrinsically bound to any other content other than through their placement within the scene graph or through explicit reference to fields in other nodes. There is no direct support for inheritance, compiled behaviors, rules that govern behaviors, or dependency information. These behavioral concepts must be added to the language using new constructs.
VRML is largely a geometry description language that is used to describe a 3D scene. VRML 2.0 provides no notion of the separation of content, i.e., the separation of graphical models from behavior models. Thus, VRML 2.0 provides no mechanism for generating a behavior model (e.g., stop, walk, run) that can be used with different graphical models (e.g., dog, cat, human). The concept of a modular software component (or creature) which has a graphical model and a separate behavior model does not exist in VRML. The concept of such a component which has some measure of autonomy is even more foreign to VRML. As a result, it is very difficult to generate dynamic, living, virtual worlds in which various objects move through the world (e.g., people moving in a building) in a manner which simulates real life.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the present invention is a system and method that allows a living (dynamic) virtual reality environment to be quickly and efficiently constructed by providing a framework, or paradigm, in which the various aspects of the virtual world may be separately constructed, and then brought together to create the desired virtual reality. The framework includes views, which are windows into a virtual world, virtual worlds which are complete 3D models of the virtual reality, and modular components which are beings (or entities or creatures) that populate the virtual world. The components have both a graphical model and a behavioral model. The process of creating a virtual world is similar to the way in which a motion picture is made. In this case, the components are the actors and props, the world is the set, and the view is the presentation medium. There is an important difference, of course, in that VR applications are by definition interactive and allow the audience to interact with and control character and prop behavior. Nevertheless, the development processes use
Alvarado Kevin
Cunningham Cass
Falacara Gary
Needham Brad
Tamashiro Nolan
Aesthetic Solutions
Padmanabhan Mano
Zimmerman Mark
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