Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for simulating movement in multidimensional space with polygonal projections

US5694531A · kind A · utility

26Cited by
8References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 2, 1995
Grant dateDec 2, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 2, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/20
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for generating views of an environment with proper perspective and parallax. This invention captures panoramic views at many points in the environment and stores them as planar polygons, which have been extended to include imagery occluded at their viewing position but visible at nearby points. Three-dimensional information on the environmental source of these polygons is determined and stored, enabling the playback system to simulate parallax as well as to produce stereographic images. Given a location and orientation in the environment, the playback system finds a nearby capture point and translates the polygons at that point to the specified location, producing an image. It then rotates that image to the desired orientation which it then displays.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.