Methods and apparatus for rapidly rendering photo-realistic surfaces on 3-dimensional wire frames automatically using user defined points

Claim 2

A computer implemented method of creating a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which a left image and a right image of the object are available and rendering a surface on said wireframe, comprising: a. defining respective pixel panels on the left and right images, each representing a substantially planar surface of said object, by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on the left and right images of said object in a sequence which forms a closed path around the planar surface; b. partitioning said pixel panels into triangular surface elements; c. defining a wireframe by calculating locations of each vertex of surface elements in a 3-dimensional object space using left and right images; and d. associating a bit map from either the left or right image with a corresponding surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 3

A computer implemented method of rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object is available, comprising: a. defining pixel panels each representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on said images of said object using a graphical user interface in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface; b. partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements; c. associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 4

A computer implemented method of rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object is available, comprising: a. defining pixel panels each representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on said images of said object using a graphical user interface in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface; b. partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements; c. associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 5

The method of claim 2 in which the perspective view of the object is transformed from an original perspective to a transformed perspective, further comprising: a. transforming the shape of discrete surface elements from an original perspective to a transformed perspective, b. for each pixel within the transformed triangular surface element, assigning a value based on one or more pixels at corresponding locations of the bit map associated with the discrete surface element.

Claim 6

A computer implemented method of rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a. defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on two images of said object using a graphical user interface in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface and storing location information for each point specified in a database; b. partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements; and c. for one or more surface elements, storing a pointer in said database to a bit map for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 7

A computer implemented method of rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a. defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on two images of said object using a graphical user interface in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface and storing location information for each point specified in a database; b. partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements; and c. for one or more surface elements, storing a pointer in said database to a bit map for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 8

The method of claim 4 in which the pointer points to locations on a set of pixel maps of varying levels of resolution.

Claim 9

The method of claim 4 in which the pointer points to pixel maps from an unrelated image.

Claim 10

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a. a user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on two images of said object in a sequence which forms a closed path around the planar surface; b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements and for associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective discrete surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 11

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a. a user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on two images of said object in a sequence which forms a closed path around the planar surface; b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements and for associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective discrete surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 12

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which a left image and a right image of the object is available, comprising: a. a user interface fr defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points in left and right images of siad object in a sequence forming a closed path around the palanar surface; and b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements, for defining a wireframe by calculating locations of each vertex of triangular surface elements in a 3-dimensional object space using left and right images, and for associating a bit map from either the left or right image with a corresponding discrete surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame depending on which of the bit maps is associated with a view more nearly perpendicular to the viewing plane.

Claim 13

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which a left image and a right image of the object is available, comprising: a. a user interface fr defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points in left and right images of siad object in a sequence forming a closed path around the palanar surface; and b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements, for defining a wireframe by calculating locations of each vertex of triangular surface elements in a 3-dimensional object space using left and right images, and for associating a bit map from either the left or right image with a corresponding discrete surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame depending on which of the bit maps is associated with a view more nearly perpendicular to the viewing plane.

Claim 14

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least one image of the object is availabel, comprising: a graphical user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of points on an image of said object in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface; and a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements and for associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 15

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least one image of the object is availabel, comprising: a graphical user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of points on an image of said object in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface; and a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface elements and for associating at least one bit map from an image with a respective surface element for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 16

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a a graphical user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on said images of said object in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface and storing location information for each point specified in a database; and b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface element and for storing a pointer for one or more surface elements in said database to a bit map from an image for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.

Claim 17

Computer apparatus for rendering a surface on a wire frame representation of a 3-dimensional object for which at least two images of the object are available, comprising: a a graphical user interface for defining pixel panels representing a substantially planar surface of said object by specifying a plurality of corresponding points on said images of said object in an order which forms a closed path around the planar surface and storing location information for each point specified in a database; and b. a processor for partitioning said pixel panels into discrete surface element and for storing a pointer for one or more surface elements in said database to a bit map from an image for selective application to the surface element as part of a surface when rendering a surface on a wire frame.