WILLIAM D KELLY
Medical Practice at Marie Dr, Daytona Beach, FL

5367615, Nov 22, 1994

Sep 2, 1993

8/115727

Richard Economy - Ormond Beach FL
William A. Kelly - Port Orange FL
Anthony J. Pelham - Port Orange FL
Thomas A. Piazza - Port Orange FL
Lee T. Quick - Ormond Beach FL

General Electric Company - King of Prussia PA

G06F 1562

395129

In a computer image generation system, the number of vertices which define each of a plurality of terrain-defining polygons is augmented in real time for providing finer detail and for effecting substantially continuous smooth level of detail (LOD) transition. Augmented vertices may have components that are statistically derived, in which case it is not necessary to store and/or predefine them. Alternatively, some vertex components may have predetermined values derived from mapping data or from other deterministic sources and may be stored in compact form. Processing polygons, typically triangles defined by selected ones of the sum of the augmented vertices and the original vertices, may be used for displaying the finer detail. Statistically derived finer detail is especially suited for providing non-specific detail to features such as terrain, while deterministic data allows highly accurate representations of specific `real world` locations. The decision to augment vertices is controlled by a predetermined breakup criteria, which may be selected as one, or a combination, of: range from the viewpoint; angle from the viewpoint boresight; desired maximum error; and other defined criteria.

5319744, Jun 7, 1994

Apr 3, 1991

7/679807

William A. Kelly - Port Orange FL
Lee T. Quick - Ormond Beach FL
Edward M. Sims - Ormond Beach FL
Michael W. Tackaberry - Daytona Beach FL

General Electric Company - Philadelphia PA

G06F 1562

395136

A method for distortion correction of computer-generated textured images maps vertices and texture coefficients from viewer space to projector space, so that environmental objects are pre-distorted upon the projection raster in order to appear in their proper form and perspective when the raster is projected onto a curved surface in viewer space, and viewed therefrom. Distortion correction is carried out by utilizing a piecewise-linear approximation for smoothly, continuously and closely approximating the required pre-curvature. The viewing space raster is subdivided into a number of triangles, within each of which a linear approximation is applied to the image mapping: the raster faces are first subdivided along the lines of a rectangular grid and the face fragments falling within each rectangle are then subdivided along the grid diagonal. This produces face fragments which are small enough so that a linear approximation provides an accurate transformation of each fragment. Distortion maps, typically computed off-line and stored in a database memory, are utilized to project the edges and texture modulation gradients from view space back into projector space, so that the edges and texture patterns can now be matched at intersections of adjacent triangles, in a manner to be substantially devoid of any abrupt changes, and thus be properly pre-distorted.

5357579, Oct 18, 1994

Jul 15, 1993

8/091380

Gregory C. Buchner - Sunnyvale CA
William A. Kelly - Daytona Beach FL

Martin Marietta Corporation - Philadelphia PA

G09B 908, G06F 1500

382 1

The effect of multi-layer atmospheric scattering on the visibility F of each point P on a visible surface of each polygon in a display scene, in a computer image generation (CIG) system, is provided by determining the effective average reciprocal half-fading distance between viewpoint and the viewed point, knowing the altitudes at which each of the different scattering layers start and accounting for any transitional slopes therebetween. The total reduced visibility of that viewed point P is a function of the average reciprocal half-fading distance for that point and of the total range between the viewed point P and the viewpoint VP.