Visible-object determination for interactive visualization
AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorsHenry Sowizral, Karel Zikan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for performing visible object determination based upon a dual search of a cone hierarchy and a bounding (e.g. hull) hierarchy. Visualization software running on a host processor represents space with a hierarchy of cones constructed by recursive refinement, and represents a collection of objects with a hierarchy of bounding hulls. The visualization software searches the cone and hull hierarchies starting with the root cone and the root hull. Before exploring a given cone-hull pair, a cone-restricted minimum distance between the cone and the hull is measured and compared to the visibility distance value of the cone. Only when the former is smaller than the latter will the cone be searched against the hull.
Claims121
A method for displaying visible objects on a display device, the method comprising:
- searching (a) a bounding hierarchy generated from a collection of objects and (b) a cone hierarchy, to determine nearest objects for a subset of cones of the cone hierarchy;
- and
- displaying the nearest objects for the subset of cones of the cone hierarchy.
A computer system for displaying visible objects, the computer system comprising:
- a display device;
- a memory for storing a visibility search program;
- a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the visibility search program, wherein, in response to execution of the visibility search program, the processor is configured to search (a) a bounding hierarchy generated from a collection of objects and (b) a cone hierarchy, to determine nearest objects for a subset of cones of the cone hierarchy;
- wherein the display device is operable to display the nearest objects for the subset of cones in the cone hierarchy.
A memory media which stores program instructions for determining visible objects for display on a display device, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to implement:
- searching (a) a bounding hierarchy generated from a collection of objects and (b) a cone hierarchy, to determine nearest objects for a subset of cones of the cone hierarchy;
- displaying the nearest objects for the subset of cones of the cone hierarchy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.