IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 20160148420A1
• Filed: 11/19/2015
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2014
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: HA, Inwoo, PARK, Seungin, AHN, Minsu, LEE, Hyong Euk
• Granted Patent: US 10,262,454 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/50 Lighting effects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/80 Shading

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model at a first resolution to obtain a light shading result of the first resolution; a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model at a second resolution different from the first resolution to obtain a surface shading result of the second resolution; and a processor configured to generate a rendering result by combining the light shading result of the first resolution with the surface shading result of the second resolution.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model at a first resolution to obtain a light shading result of the first resolution;

a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model at a second resolution different from the first resolution to obtain a surface shading result of the second resolution; and

a processor configured to generate a rendering result by combining the light shading result of the first resolution with the surface shading result of the second resolution.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first resolution is lower than the second resolution.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to upscale the light shading result of the first resolution to have a resolution equal to the second resolution to obtain an upscaled light shading result, and generate the rendering result by combining the upscaled light shading result with the surface shading result.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the surface shading result of the second resolution corresponds to an interlaced frame constituted by two fields;

the light shading result of the first resolution corresponds to one of the two fields of the interlaced frame; and

the first resolution is half of the second resolution.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first shader is further configured to decrease the first resolution in a dynamic scene more than in a static scene.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first shader is further configured to decrease the first resolution in a scene with a relatively high brightness more than in a scene with a relatively low brightness.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first shader is further configured to consider indirect lights in performing the light shading operation, and decrease the first resolution as a number of indirect lights considered in the light shading operation increases.

8. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model in a plurality of frames including a first frame to obtain light shading results of the plurality of frames;

a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model in the first frame to obtain a surface shading result of the first frame; and

a processor configured to combine the light shading results of the plurality of frames to obtain a combined light shading result, and generate a rendering result by combining the combined light shading result with the surface shading result of the first frame.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a buffer configured to buffer light shading results of a predetermined number of frames preceding the first frame, and provide the buffered light shading results to the processor;

wherein the processor is further configured to combine the buffered light shading results with a light shading result of the first frame to obtain the combined light shading result.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to interpolate or extrapolate the buffered light shading results in obtaining the combined light shading result.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first shader is further configured to perform the light shading operation at a first resolution;

and

the second shader is further configured to perform the surface shading operation at a second resolution different from the first resolution.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first resolution is lower than the second resolution.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to calculate a weighted sum of the light shading results of the plurality of frames to obtain the combined light shading result.

14. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model in at least one frame preceding a first frame to obtain a light shading result for the at least one frame;

a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model in the first frame to obtain a surface shading result for the first frame; and

a processor configured to generate a rendering result for the first frame by combining the light shading result for the at least one frame with the surface shading result for the first frame.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first shader is further configured to perform the light shading operation once in every two frames.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first shader is further configured to perform the light shading operation at a first resolution;

and

the second shader is further configured to perform the surface shading operation at a second resolution different from the first resolution.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first shader is further configured to group pixels of each frame into groups of pixels, and perform the light shading operation for the pixels in each of the groups sequentially in successive frames so that the light shading operation is performed for a different one of the pixels in each of the groups in each of the successive frames.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first shader is further configured to reuse a light shading result of a previous frame for each pixel in each of the groups for which the light shading operation is not performed in each of the successive frames.

19. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation on a three-dimensional (3D) model in a plurality of frames by grouping pixels of each frame into groups of pixels, performing the light shading operation for the pixels in each of the groups sequentially in successive frames so that the light shading operation is performed for a different one of the pixels in each of the groups in each of the successive frames, and reusing a light shading result of a previous frame for each pixel in each of the groups for which the light shading operation is not performed in each of the successive frames to obtain a light shading result;

a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model in each frame to obtain a surface shading result; and

a processor configured to generate a rendering result by combining the light shading result with the surface shading result.

20. An image processing method of an image processing apparatus comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

performing, using the at least one processor, a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model at a first resolution to obtain a light shading result of the first resolution;

performing, using the at least processor, a surface shading operation on the 3D model at a second resolution higher than the first resolution to obtain a surface shading result of the second resolution; and

generating, using the at least one processor, a rendering result by combining the light shading result of the first resolution with the surface shading result of the second resolution.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising adjusting the light shading result of the first resolution to have a resolution equal to the second resolution to obtain an adjusted light shading result;

wherein the generating comprises generating the rendering result by combining the adjusted light shading result with the surface shading result.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

analyzing a characteristic of a scene to be rendered; and

adaptively adjusting the first resolution based on the analyzed characteristic of the scene.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the characteristic of the scene is an inter-frame difference;

and

the adjusting comprises decreasing the first resolution in a dynamic scene more than in a static scene based on the analyzed inter-frame difference.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the characteristic of the scene is a scene brightness;

and

the adjusting comprises decreasing the first resolution in a scene with a relatively high brightness more than in a scene with a relatively low brightness based on the analyzed scene brightness.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the performing comprises considering indirect lights in performing the light shading operation;

the characteristic of the scene is a number of indirect lights considered in performing the light shading operation; and

the adjusting comprises decreasing the first resolution as the number of indirect lights considered in the light shading operation increases based on the analyzed number of indirect lights.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to cause computing hardware to perform an image processing method, the method comprising:

performing a light shading operation associated with at least one light source on a three-dimensional (3D) model at a first resolution to obtain a light shading result of the first resolution;

performing a surface shading operation on the 3D model at a second resolution different from the first resolution to obtain a surface shading result of the second resolution; and

generating a rendering result by combining the light shading result of the first resolution with the surface shading result of the second resolution.

27. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first shader configured to perform a light shading operation on a three-dimensional (3D) model to obtain a light shading result having a first characteristic;

a second shader configured to perform a surface shading operation on the 3D model to obtain a surface shading result having a second characteristic that is a same kind of characteristic as the first characteristic but is different in quantity; and

a processor configured to generate a rendering result by combining the light shading result with the surface shading result.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein an amount of computing resources needed by the first shader to perform the light shading operation to obtain the light shading result having the first characteristic is less than an amount of computing resources that would be needed by the first shader to perform the light shading operation to obtain a light shading result having the second characteristic.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the first characteristic is a first resolution, and the second characteristic is a second resolution greater than the first resolution.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the first characteristic is a first frame rate, and the second characteristic is a second frame rate greater than the first frame rate.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first shader is further configured to perform the light shading operation once in every N frames (N 2), and reuse a previous light shading result in each of the N frames in which the light shading operation is not performed;

and

the second shader is further configured to perform the surface shading operation in each of the N frames.

32. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the first characteristic is a first pixel update rate, and the second characteristic is a second pixel update rate greater than the first pixel update rate.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the first shader is further configured to group pixels of each frame into groups of pixels each containing N pixels (N≧

2), perform the light shading operation once in every N frames for each of the pixels in each of the groups so that the light shading operation is performed for a different one of the N pixels in each of the N frames, and reuse a light shading result of a previous frame for each pixel in each of the groups for which the light shading operation is not performed in each of the N frames; and

the second shader is further configured to perform the surface shading operation for each pixel in each of the N frames.