Patent ID: 6262739
Filing Date: 2001-07-17
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A computer-based system for displaying an image of a three dimensional (3-D) object comprising:a set of data points with each data point providing information that describes the 3-D object and with each of the data points ordered in a data structure according to a predetermined ordering scheme according to their determined significance in describing the surface characteristics of the object;a mesh model constructed with a first subset of the set of data points, the mesh model organizing the first subset of the data points into a set of connected faces, each face being a geometric shape with a predetermined number of vertices, and the ones of the points for each face comprising the vertices of that face, the boundary connection between any two adjacent vertices of a face comprising an edge of the face, with a face being connected to another adjacent face in the mesh through a shared edge and shared vertices creating that shared edge;a data set containing entries that indicate the alterations that should occur to the faces of the mesh model as each of the data points not in the first subset of data points (the remaining data points) is inserted into the mesh model following the sequence of the ordering of the data points;a mesh building module configured to incrementally insert a plurality of the remaining data points into the mesh model following the sequence of the ordering of the data points and, for each of the data points inserted, to execute alterations to the faces of the mesh model as indicated by the entries in the data set; anda display module configured to display a view of the 3-D object from a predetermined vantage point, using data contained in the mesh model.