Alpha compositing

About: Alpha compositing is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 482 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11035 citations. The topic is also known as: alpha blend & alpha channel.

Adjustment layers for composited image manipulation

Abstract: A method and system for compositing graphical images, wherein an advanced adjustment layer may be applied during a compositing process to a set of image layers 1 . . . n, or to any subordinate subset of such image layers. One or more adjustment layers are applied to an intermediate merged image, generated by compositing previous image layers, and the adjusted result is stored as a temporary image. The temporary image is then in turn composited with the intermediate merged image. Any remaining image layers are then composited in with the intermediate merged image to generate a final merged image. The invention allows a user to apply a vast array of effects without requiring significant new knowledge on the part of the user. For example, if there are "A" adjustments and "T" transfer modes, the present invention allows A×T effects which leverage existing knowledge of the user of only A+T functions.

Method and apparatus for displaying an alpha channel virtual image

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for displaying a virtual image and for providing control over the "alpha channel" or transparency of the virtual image. The present invention uses a beam splitter to provide a virtual image to a viewer. Behind the beam splitter is a liquid crystal region for controlling the transparency of the virtual image. Behind the liquid crystal region is a background image. Control of the liquid crystal region is coordinated with control of the virtual image so as to make transparency and opacity of the liquid crystal region follow the portions of the virtual image that are intended to be transparent and opaque, respectively.

An SoC with 1.3 gtexels/s 3-D graphics full pipeline for consumer applications

Abstract: A high-speed three-dimensional (3-D) graphics SoC for consumer applications is presented. A 166-MHz 3-D graphics full pipeline engine with performance of 33 Mvertices/s and 1.3Gtexels/s, and 333-MHz ARM11 RISC processor, and video composition IPs are integrated together on a single chip. The geometry part of 3-D graphics IP provides full programmability in vertex and triangle level, and two-level multi-texturing with trilinear MIPMAP filtering are realized in the rasterization part. Per-pixel effects such as fog effects, alpha blending, and stencil test are also implemented in the proposed 3-D graphics IP. The rasterization architecture is designed for reducing external memory accesses to achieve the peak performance. The chip is fabricated using 0.13/spl mu/m CMOS technology and its area is 7.1/spl times/7.0mm/sup 2/.

Real-time automatic facial feature replacement

Abstract: A method for modifying selected regions of a target image based on selected regions of a source image. In one embodiment, facial features are detected in a video image from a webcam. One or more of those facial features are selected and superimposed on the target image. Resizing and alpha blending techniques are used to blend the source portions into the target images. For example, this can produce fun effects such as moving the eyes and lips of an image of Mona Lisa.

Pixel masks for screen-door transparency

Abstract: Rendering objects transparently gives additional insight in complex and overlapping structures. However, traditional techniques for the rendering of transparent objects such as alpha blending are not very well suited for the rendering of multiple transparent objects in dynamic scenes. Screen door transparency is a technique to render transparent objects in a simple and efficient way: no sorting is required and intersecting polygons can be handled without further preprocessing. With this technique, polygons are rendered through a mask: only where the mask is present, pixels are set. However, artifacts such as incorrect opacities and distracting patterns can easily occur if the masks are not carefully designed. The requirements on the masks are considered. Next, three algorithms are presented for the generation of pixel masks. One algorithm is designed for the creation of small (e.g. 4/spl times/4) masks. The other two algorithms can be used for the creation of larger masks (e.g. 32/spl times/32). For each of these algorithms, results are presented and discussed.