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US 6,271,850 B1Granted
Image generation apparatus, image generation method, image generation program recording medium, image composition apparatus, image composition method, and image composition program recording medium
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsMitsuteru Kida, Tadashi Kobayashi, Akio Nishimura, Minobu Abe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides an image generation/composition apparatus and method capable of performing an anti-aliasing process or translucency process, and capable of obtaining a high quality image from shape data comprising coordinate values representing a three-dimensional shape without requiring an increase in cost.
Claims14
An image generation apparatus for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, said apparatus comprising:
- polygon identification device operable to identify each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- image data calculating device operable to generate pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculate a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification device, and calculate a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said polygon identification device;
- temporal storage device operable to temporarily store the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said image data calculating device;
- and
- image composition device operable to calculate a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporal storage device, and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporal storage device based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
2 more elements
An image generation method for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, said method comprising:
- identifying each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- generating pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculating a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification, and calculating a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said polygon identification;
- temporarily storing the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said calculating;
- and
- calculating a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing, and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
2 more elements
An image generation program recording medium for recording an image generation program for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, said program comprising:
- identifying each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- generating pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculating a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification, and calculating a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said polygon identification;
- temporarily storing the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said calculating;
- and
- calculating a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing, and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
2 more elements
An image composition apparatus for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, and composing the generated image and a photo image, to generate a composite image, said apparatus comprising:
- polygon identification device operable to identify each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- image data calculating device operable to generate pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculate a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification device, and calculate a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said identification device;
- temporal storage device operable to store the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said image data calculating device;
- photo image processing device operable to process the photo image to generate photo image pixel values indicating luminance and color, and degrees of contribution of the photo image indicating ratios of the photo image to pixels as display units;
- and
- image composition device operable to calculate a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporal storage device, the degrees of contribution of the photo image generated by said photo image processing device, and preset photo image depth values and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporal storage device with the photo image pixel values generated by said photo image processing device based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
3 more elements
An image composition method for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, and composing the generated image and a photo image, to generate a composite image, said method comprising:
- identifying each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- generating pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculating a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification, and calculating a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said polygon identification;
- temporarily storing the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said calculating;
- processing the photo image to generate photo image pixel values indicating luminance and color, and degrees of contribution of the photo image indicating ratios of the photo image to pixels as display units;
- and
- calculating a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing, the degrees of contribution of the photo image generated by said photo image processing, and preset photo image depth values and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing with the photo image pixel values generated by said photo image processing based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
3 more elements
An image composition program recording medium for recording an image composition program for generating a three-dimensional image based on shape data as a set of polygons, which is represented by three-dimensional coordinates, and compositing the generated image and a photo image, to generate a composite image, said program comprising:
- identifying each polygon by deciding whether or not it is opaque, for the shape data as the set of polygons;
- generating pixel values indicating luminance and color of respective pixels as display units of an image and depth values indicating depth with which polygons to be processed are displayed, calculating a degree of contribution from an area of a polygon in a pixel for the pixel belonging to the polygon which is identified opaque by said polygon identification, and calculating a degree of contribution from a degree of transparency of a pixel for the pixel belonging to a polygon which is identified non-opaque by said polygon identification;
- temporarily storing the pixel values, the depth values, and the degrees of contribution which have been generated by said calculating;
- processing the photo image to generate photo image pixel values indicating luminance and color, and degrees of contribution of the photo image indicating ratios of the photo image to pixels as display units;
- and
- calculating a mixing ratio of the respective pixels employing the degrees of contribution and the depth values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing, the degrees of contribution of the photo image generated by said photo image processing, and preset photo image depth values and mixing the respective pixel values temporarily stored in said temporarily storing with the photo image pixel values generated by said photo image processing based on the mixing ratio, to generate an image to be displayed.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.