Fast rendering of ink

• US 7,154,511 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bernstein, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sajous, Wesner
• Application Number:
  US10/692,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20050088464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/593, 345/589, 345/592, 345/156, 345/162, 345179-183, 345/557, 345/619, 345/581, 345629-630, 178/18.01, 715/700, 382/181, 382/219, 382186-189, 382213-214, 382/283, 347/1, 347 5- 6, 347/100, 347/111
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/171 by use of digital ink
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/08 Cursor circuits

Abstract

A system and process for quickly rendering ink is described. Rendered ink information is placed into a transparency map of an image. The image is combined with foreground and background information to produce a final image. Using this process, the painting of ink using transparency map information may be performed quickly and with less processor work than a slow rendering process.

Claims

1. A process for caching ink information comprising the steps of:

receiving ink input from a user;

rendering said ink;

creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information corresponding to said ink; and

,

caching said transparency map, wherein the transparency map is later combined with foreground information to define one or more attributes of a likeness of the rendered ink and produce a resultant image that includes the likeness of said ink.

2. The process according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing said transparency map.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein said rendering step produces a bitmap of said ink.

4. The process according to claim 1, wherein said transparency map is an alpha channel of an image.

5. The process according to claim 4, wherein said image is a bitmap image.

6. A system for caching ink information comprising:

means for receiving ink input from a user;

means for rendering ink;

means for creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores only transparency information, wherein at least a portion of the transparency information corresponds to said ink, and wherein the transparency map is later combined with foreground information to define one or more attributes of a likeness of the rendered ink and produce a resultant image including the likeness of said ink; and

,

means for caching said transparency map.

7. The system according to claim 6, further comprising:

means for storing said transparency map.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein said means for rendering produces a bitmap of said ink.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein said transparency map is an alpha channel of an image.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said image is a bitmap image.

11. A process for displaying ink information comprising the steps of:

creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information corresponding to ink input from a user;

applying foreground information to said transparency map to define one or more attributes of a likeness of said ink;

combining the transparency map defined by said foreground information with background information to form a resultant image; and

,

displaying said resultant image.

12. The process according to claim 11, wherein said transparency information is in an alpha channel of an image.

13. The process according to claim 12, wherein said image is a bitmap image.

17. The process of claim 11, wherein the one or more attributes includes a color of said ink.

14. A system for displaying ink information comprising:

means for creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information relating to ink input from a user;

means for applying foreground information to said transparency map to define one or more attributes of a likeness of said ink;

means for combining the transparency map defined by said foreground information with background information to form a resultant image; and

,

means for displaying said resultant image.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said transparency information is in an alpha channel of an image.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein said image is a bitmap image.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more attributes includes a color of said ink.