Method and apparatus for quickly generating natural terrain

• US 9,619,936 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2015
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Park, Jeung Chul, Jeong, Il Kwon
• Primary Examiner(s): Lett, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US14/594,501
• Publication Number:
  US 20150262392A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 345441
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models

Abstract

A method and apparatus for quickly generating a natural appearing terrain image. The method according to an exemplary embodiment may include generating a new terrain image through a patch-based synthesis from one or more virtual noise-based terrain models and one or more realistic terrain models; and processing blending of a boundary between synthesized terrain images in the newly generated terrain image.

Claims

1. A method of generating a new terrain image, the method comprising:

generating an original terrain image through a patch-based synthesis from one or more virtual noise-based terrain models and one or more realistic terrain models; and

blending a boundary of the original terrain image to expand the boundary of the original terrain image, wherein blending comprises;

selecting a patch size from the original terrain image;

selecting a patch area from the original terrain image which is calculated to have a minimum matching error between a regularly overlapped boundary area of the original terrain image and that of the selected patch area; and

adding the selected patch area onto the boundary of the original terrain image to complete the new terrain image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more noise-based terrain models are at least one of a Perlin terrain model and a fractal terrain model.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more realistic terrain models are a digital elevation model (DEM).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the new terrain image utilizes a patch-based synthesis on each terrain model used to generate the original terrain image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the new terrain image has a higher resolution than that of the original terrain image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein blending comprises parallelizing the calculation of the minimum matching error to accelerate a processing speed.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

calculating and finding a curvature area within the original terrain image; and

smoothing the found curvature area.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein calculating and finding comprises parallelizing the calculation of the curvature area to accelerate a processing speed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein calculating and finding comprises using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) as a method for parallel processing.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein calculating and finding comprises parallel-processing through multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input of selection of one or more noise-based terrain models and one or more realistic terrain models from a user.

12. An apparatus, configured to synthesize a new terrain image, the apparatus comprising:

a first database configured to store one or more virtual noise-based terrain models;

a second database configured to store one or more realistic terrain models;

a terrain image synthesizer configured to

select at least one noise-based terrain model from the first database,

select at least one realistic terrain model from the second database, and

generate an original terrain image through a patch-based synthesis from the selected terrain models; and

a blending processor configured to blend a boundary of the original terrain image to synthesize the new terrain image by

selecting a patch size from the original terrain image;

selecting a patch area from the original terrain image which is calculated to have a minimum matching error between a regularly overlapped boundary area of the original terrain image and that of the selected patch area; and

adding the selected patch area onto the boundary of the original terrain image to synthesize the new terrain image.

13. The apparatus of claim 12,

wherein the terrain image synthesizer is configured to generate the original terrain image through the patch-based synthesis on each selected terrain model used for generating the original terrain image, and.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the new terrain image has a higher resolution than the original terrain image.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the blending processor is configured to calculate and find a curvature in the original terrain image;

and

configured to smooth the curvature.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the apparatus is configured to parallelize the calculation of the curvature to accelerate a processing speed.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is configured to use CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) as a method for parallel processing.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the apparatus is receive input of selection of one or more noise-based terrain models and one or more realistic terrain models from a user.