Patent ID: 6724384
Filing Date: 2004-04-20
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A method comprising the steps of:covering a region for walkthrough with at least one closed surface, wherein each point in the region is surrounded by at least one closed surface; dividing each of the at least one closed surface into a plurality of patches such that each point of each of the at least one closed surface is contained within at least one patch; providing a representation of a collection of light rays crossing each patch of the plurality of patches in a direction oriented toward the interior of a corresponding closed surface using methods drawn from image based rendering, wherein the representation of a collection of light rays for each patch being kept to within a predetermined size constraint; and for any selected viewing point and viewing angle within a region for walkthrough, constructing a corresponding visible image by methods drawn from image based rendering applied to the representation of the collection of light rays crossing at least one patch of at least one closed surface surrounding the selected viewing point.