Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for selectively storing depth information of a 3-D image

US5819017A · kind A · utility

74Cited by
4References
22Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 22, 1995
Grant dateOct 6, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 22, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M7/50
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a computer system for creating images of three-dimensional objects, an apparatus and method for processing depth values representing the relative depths of the objects. The depth values are transformed according to projections in order to give the appearance of depth when the objects are displayed on a two-dimensional computer screen. These transformed depth values are then interpolated using N bits of precision. Next, the depth values are encoded into a format whereby the depth values have less than N bits. These encoded depth values are stored into memory. In displaying the objects, the encoded depth values are read from memory and compared to determine the relative depths of the objects.

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