Patent · US Active

Transparency-conserving system, method and computer program product to generate and blend images

US7978204B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
22References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateApr 26, 2006
Grant dateJul 12, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 30, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG09G2360/06
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A1A system embodying the invention includes a controlling device and a set of rendering devices, with the effect that the controlling device can distribute a set of objects to the rendering devices. Each rendering device computes a (2D) image in response to the objects assigned to it, including computing multiple overlapping images and using a graphics processor to blend those images into a resultant image. To interface with the graphics processor, each rendering device spoofs the α-value with a pixel feature other than opacity (opacity is expected by the graphics processor), with the effect that the graphics processor delivers useful α-values, while still delivering correct color values, for each pixel. This has the effect that the resultant images include transparency information sufficient to combine them using transparency blending.

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