Appeal No. 2002-1491
Application 08/845,526
The Invention
The claimed invention is directed to an apparatus and method for displaying 3D graphics
on a display by using a graphics rendering pipeline to render a NURBS (non-uniform rational B-
splines) defined curve or surface. According to the discussion of prior art in the applicant’s
specification (Spec. pp. 6-7), prior art systems first transform the NURBS model of curve or
surface into a representation in polygon meshes on a separate processor before calling on special
dedicated rendering hardware, e.g., a graphics rendering pipeline, to render the curve or surface
represented by a polygonal mesh. According to the summary of invention in the specification
(Spec. p. 8), the method and system of the present invention accurately renders NURBS models
without first burdening the data transfer bandwidth of the computer system (e.g., from separate
processor to dedicated rendering hardware), and does not consume an inordinate amount of
separate processor clock cycles (needed by processing curve or surface as a polygonal mesh).
The Summary of the Invention portion of the applicant’s appeal brief states, in pertinent
part:
The process of the present invention functions by receiving a NURBS model for
rendering from a software program running on the one or more host processors
(e.g., processors 1502 of figure 15). The NURBS model defines a curve or
surface. The process efficiently converts the NURBS model to a Bezier model
using the hardware of the graphics rendering pipeline (e.g., graphics rendering
pipeline 301 of figure 15). The Bezier model describes the same curve or surface.
The process of the present invention subsequently generates a plurality of points
on the curve or surface using the Bezier model and the graphics rendering
pipeline. The points on the surface are then used by the graphics rendering
pipeline to render the curve or surface defined by the Bezier model.
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007