sundar@ai.mit.edu (Sundar Narasimhan) (03/07/91)
In article <13709@life.ai.mit.edu>, sundar@ai.mit.edu (Sundar Narasimhan) writes: |> In article <9103050342.AA20065@maui.coral.com>, tomt@maui.coral.COM (Tom Tulinsky) writes: |> |> |> |> I'd like to allow the user to do 3d rotations of an object in the |> |> 'room' coordinate system; i.e. y is toward the ceiling, x is to his |> |> [ He basically wanted to view a room and be able to move his eye point |> [ under mouse control. In response to this I wrote ...] |> |> Think of viewing the object from the surface of a sphere. Your eye |> point can be specified by 2 co-ordinates (you can think of them |> as latitude and longitude). Have your mouse motion map to these |> co-ordinates ... I have since been informed that Apple may have a patent pending on using this technique. I believe that this technique is NOT new, and it could be classified as common knowledge amongst people in the graphics community. Although I have not seen the actual patent application, I find it somewhat disgusting that software companies are now seeking to patent anything and everything under the sun. If you are too, I'd advise you join the LPF (League for Programming Freedom) by sending mail to league@prep.ai.mit.edu. I'd also be interested in hearing about the actual patent application and what it covers from anyone who knows about this. Thanks in advance.
andreess@mrlaxs.mrl.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen) (03/07/91)
In article <13781@life.ai.mit.edu> sundar@ai.mit.edu writes: >I have since been informed that Apple may have a patent pending on >using this technique. [...concerning eyepoint as point on sphere] Can someone post a number for this, if it's true? Marc -- Marc Andreessen___________University of Illinois Materials Research Laboratory Internet: andreessen@uimrl7.mrl.uiuc.edu____________Bitnet: andreessen@uiucmrl
jsp@cs.ed.ac.uk (John Spackman) (03/07/91)
>|> Think of viewing the object from the surface of a sphere. Your eye >|> point can be specified by 2 co-ordinates (you can think of them >|> as latitude and longitude). Have your mouse motion map to these >|> co-ordinates ... > >I have since been informed that Apple may have a patent pending on >using this technique. I believe that this technique is NOT new, and >it could be classified as common knowledge amongst people in the >graphics community. > This technique is certainly not new. It has been a feature available for specifying views in Prime's MEDUSA CAD/CAM package for some years & was the technique I used myself for post-graduate work over four years ago. -- |: JANET: jsp@uk.ac.ed.lfcs :: ARPA: jsp%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk :| |: JANET: jsp@uk.ac.ed.castle: ARPA: jsp%castle.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk:| |: John Spackman, Computer Science, Edinburgh University, Room 2417 JCMB, :| |: The King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ. Tel 031 650 5125:|
naughton@wind.Eng.Sun.COM (Patrick Naughton) (03/08/91)
In article <1991Mar7.055600.4149@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, andreess@mrlaxs.mrl.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen) writes: |> In article <13781@life.ai.mit.edu> sundar@ai.mit.edu writes: |> >I have since been informed that Apple may have a patent pending on |> >using this technique. [...concerning eyepoint as point on sphere] |> |> Can someone post a number for this, if it's true? |> |> Marc |> |> -- |> Marc Andreessen______University of Illinois Materials Research Laboratory |> Internet: andreessen@uimrl7.mrl.uiuc.edu_______Bitnet: andreessen@uiucmrl I believe this is the paper we are talking about: "A Study in Interactive 3-D Rotation Using 2-D Control Devices" Michael Chen, S. Joy Mountford and Abigail Sellen ACM Siggraph '88 proceedings (Volume 22, Number 4, August 1988). and the technique which I think may have a patent pending is the "Virtual Sphere Controller". The principal author can be reached at: internet: chen@apple.com AppleLink: CHEN.M mail: 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 76-3H Cupertino, CA 95014 -Patrick -- ______________________________________________________________________ Patrick J. Naughton email: naughton@sun.com Sun Laboratories voice: (415) 336 - 1080