Patent · US Expired

Multiple processor visibility search system and method

US6437796B1 · kind B1 · utility

41Cited by
5References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 29, 2001
Grant dateAug 20, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 29, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/40
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for performing visible object determination based upon a dual search of a cone hierarchy and a bound hierarchy performed by multiple processors. Each processor is configured to read a (global and/or local) problem queue to access a bound-cone pair. The bound-cone pair points to a bound in the bound hierarchy and a cone in the cone hierarchy. The processor computes a bound-cone distance between the bound and the cone, and compares the bound-cone distance to a visibility distance associated with the cone. If the bound-cone distance is smaller than the visibility distance, the processor may write two or more refined bound-cone pairs corresponding to a refinement of the original pair to the global or local problem queue. When the processor detects a leaf bound and a leaf cone, it updates a nearest object pointer and the visibility distance associated with the leaf cone.

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