452 results about "Shadowings" patented technology

One embodiment of the present invention includes techniques for pre-computing ambient shadowing parameters for a computer-generated scene. A processing unit retrieves a reference object associated with the computer-generated scene and comprising a plurality of vertices. For each vertex in the plurality of vertices, the processing unit computes a local ambient shadowing parameter, and stores the local ambient shadowing parameter in a memory. For each instance of the reference object included in the computer-generated scene, the processing unit computes a first global ambient shadowing parameter based on the position of the instance within the computer-generated scene, and stores the first global ambient shadowing parameter in the memory. One advantage of the disclosed embodiments is that ambient obscurance is applied to instance objects in a scene in real time while reducing memory space dedicated to storing the AO parameters.

A high efficiency, environmentally friendly system comprising a plurality of photovoltaic solar collecting panels (PV panels) is disclosed. The system comprises an outer frame to which a plurality of inner frames are mounted to which the plurality of PV panels are attached. To minimize shadowing by the outer frame upon one or more PV panels, at least one PV panel may extend beyond an endpoint of the main frame. The system also comprises an outer frame rotation actuator that rotates the outer frame and an inner frame rotation actuator that rotates the inner frames and the plurality of PV panels. The solar tracking array frames disclosed herein help to improve the quality of the environment by conserving a variety of energy resources (e.g., fossil fuels, hydroelectric energy, etc.) The solar tracking array frames disclosed herein also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as solar tracking array frames do not produce carbon dioxide byproducts.

A system architecture for large concentrated solar power applications that increases heliostat utilization efficiency and land utilization efficiency is described. Embodiments of the invention include a large heliostat field in which are distributed a number of receiving locations, and wherein there is the assignment of heliostats to receiving locations is dynamic. Embodiments of the invention include dynamically targeting heliostats to receiving locations wherein the target determination process is performed frequently during operation and wherein such dynamic targeting can be utilized to various ends. Embodiments of the invention include configurations wherein cosine losses associated with heliostat pointing are significantly reduced, wherein heliostats may be closely packed without incurring substantial shadowing and blocking losses thereby significantly increasing land utilization, and wherein other benefits are realized.

A method for conveying and displaying a high-performance image in a standard web browser, via a pair of image data files in traditional formats which do not support such higher-performance individually, each downloaded by a web server in traditional manner and then re-combined via a software algorithm executed at the browser. Said high-performance features may include rendering the appearance of background transparency in and around opaque figures within the normal rectangular area of an image; variable semi-transparency; cropping (or retro-) transparency, and auto-shadowing of overlaid images.

Additionally, exploiting the infrastructure of the invention thus described, further means by which a single image, embedded in a group of images co-located within a shared display region, can be easily designated by a simple pointing device such as a computer mouse, even though said single image may appear substantially obscured by other irregularly-shaped images in the region.

A system for forming composite video images from one or more foreground images and one or more background images. In one embodiment, s sum of a suppressed foreground image signal with weight α, with one or more selected foreground colors suppressed, and a background image signal with weight 1−α′ (0≦α′≦1) is formed, where a and α′ may vary from pixel to pixel and with time. In another embodiment, a shadow from a selected foreground image is impressed on selected pixels of a background image. In another embodiment, foreground suppression and shadowing are combined, optionally by retrofitting, using an existing α-mixer or a newly constructed α-mixer. Provision of a chroma key map allows a foreground image shadow to be prescribed pixel by pixel, including a transition region in which the shadowed image slowly disappears.

The Secure Networked Data Shadowing System is connected to a plurality of monitored computer systems via an existing communication medium to store the shadowed data. The data is encrypted by the monitored computer system using a cryptokey, and the data file is processed using a hash function prior to encryption, so the contents of this file are uniquely identified. Thus, the encrypted file is stored in its encrypted form and the hash index is used to identify the encrypted file. A “data de-duplication” process avoids storing multiple copies of the same files by identifying instances of duplication via the hash index. Files that have the same hash index can be reduced to a single copy without any loss of data as long as the file structure information for each instance of the file is maintained.

A method for tracking solar panels includes the steps (a) beginning a tracking cycle substantially at sunrise with adjacent tilting panels all horizontal, (b) tilting the adjacent panels in unison in a first angular direction toward the rising sun at a tilt rate that just avoids shading of adjacent panels, (c) reversing direction of panel tilt at a point that the panels reach either a maximum tilt limited by mechanical design, or the panel surfaces are orthogonal to the rising sun, (d) tilting the adjacent panels in a second angular direction, following movement of the sun and keeping the surface of the panels at right angles to the sun's position, until a point is reached that shadowing is imminent from the angle of the setting sun, and (e) reversing direction of panel tilt again to the first angular direction, adjusting tilt as the sun sets to avoid shading until the panels are again horizontal.

The invention discloses a vehicle tracking method based on machine learning and optical flow. A vehicle model is obtained through one-off off-line training and used for detecting vehicle block mass Blobs in a video flow in real time, bidirectional pyramid optical flow tracking is performed on calculation characteristic point sets of all the vehicle mass block Blobs, and results of optical flow tracking in the forward direction and the backward direction are analyzed and filtered, so that multiple targets are stably and accurately tracked to form vehicle tracks. According to the complete vehicle tracking solution, the vehicle tracking method based on machine learning and optical flow can be widely applied to the fields of intelligent traffic, electronic polices, video monitoring, unmanned driving and others; by the utilization of the tracking method, a user can solve the classic problems in an existing tracking algorithm well, the multiple targets, such as long-period vehicle staying, size scale changing, shadowing, local shielding and touching, can be stably and accurately tracked; particularly, the vehicle tracking method has the good effects under the conditions of severe weather, a low illumination level and a high noisy point.

A microcontroller comprising a central processing unit and a further fault processing unit suitable for performing validation of operations of said central processing unit. The further fault processing unit is external and different with respect to said central processing unit and said further fault processing unit comprises at least a module for performing validation of operations of said central processing unit and one or more modules suitable for performing validation of operations of other functional parts of said microcontroller. Validation of operations of said central processing unit is performed by using one or more of the following fault tolerance techniques: data shadowing; code&flow signature; data processing legality check; addressing legality check; ALU concurrent integrity checking; concurrent mode/interrupt check. The proposed microcontroller is particularly suitable for application in System On Chip (SoC) and was developed by paying specific attention to the possible use in automotive System On Chip. The invention also includes a method for designing and verify such fault-robust system on chip, and a fault-injection technique based on e-language.

A method and system for automatically maintaining data consistency across two or more hierarchically arranged databases is disclosed. A master list and an environmental variable file are created for use in maintaining the data consistency of a cell view. A cell view in a selected database is then checked to see if it has been modified by performing date-time stamp shadowing. If the cell view is modified, the cell view is then retrieved by derivative lists created from the master list and the environmental variable file and translated based on criteria from the environmental variable file. Verification is then performed on the translated cell view once again based on criteria from the environmental variable file. This verification creates a signature for the translated cell view. Signatures are then checked for being out of date with respect to any dependency listing contained internally. Any signature found to be out of date triggers an automatic re-verification of the pertinent data file. The translated and verified cell view is then checked to see if it or any of its dependencies have been altered by performing an audit based on criteria from the environmental variable file using the signature. The translated and verified cell view is then promoted to a higher quality database based on the results of the audit.

The present invention relates to receivers, and, more particularly, to improved diversity receivers.

In some environments, such as those subject to multipath reflection or shadowing, some carriers may be received with low power. In these cases, diversity receivers may provide an improvement of around 3 dB to 6 dB, the latter figure referring to cases where the communication channel is under severe multipath fading and in mobile reception. A diversity receiver effectively comprises two or more separate receivers, or diversity branches, each with its own antenna. Each set of received carriers from each diversity branch is then combined.

The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for receiving multi-carrier signals.

Methods and apparatus are provided for converting electromagnetic radiation, such as solar energy, into electric energy with increased efficiency when compared to conventional solar cells. A photovoltaic (PV) unit may have all electrical contacts positioned on the back side of the PV device to avoid shadowing and increase absorption of the photons impinging on the front side of the PV unit. Several PV units may be combined into PV banks, and an array of PV banks may be connected to form a PV module with thin strips of metal or conductive polymer formed at low temperature. Such innovations may allow for greater efficiency and flexibility in PV devices when compared to conventional solar cells.

A method and apparatus for producing smooth light-intensity transitions in overlapping regions of a composite image projected by a plurality of electrically-controlled projectors and displayed on a screen by disposing shadowing devices between each projector and the screen to cast gradual shadow in the overlapping regions to reduce light-intensity variations therein; and electrically controlling the gain of the projectors to substantially eliminate any residual variations in light-intensity in the overlapping regions.

The invention discloses an analyzing and recognizing method for abnormal behaviors in intelligent videos. The method includes: firstly, analyzing video monitoring images of a security system, especially monitored scenes and behaviors; secondly, determining monitoring objects, and implementing target detection; and thirdly, performing behavior recognition according to analysis results of video monitoring data and target detection results. Abnormal behavior recognition is divided into following circumstances according to space-time phases: entering, leaving, appearing, disappearing, stopping, fluctuating, direction filtering and shadowing. Circumstances not belonging to the above are classified into non-abnormal behaviors. By the analyzing and recognizing method for the abnormal behaviors in the intelligent videos, various behaviors can be defined, recognized and analyzed, and automatic analysis and automatic alarming are realized when preset abnormal behaviors occur, so that intelligentialized level of the security system is improved.

Aspects comprise shadowing system as part of ray tracing. It is based on uniform grid of cells, and on local stencils in cells. The acceleration structures are abandoned along with high traversal and construction costs of these structures. The amount of intersection tests is cut down. The stencils are generated in the preprocessing stage and utilized in runtime. The relevant part of scene data, critical for shadowing of all visible intersection points in a cell, is registered in the local stencil map, as a volumetric data. The runtime use of stencils allows a complete locality at each cell, enhanced utilization of processing resources and load balancing of parallel processing.

In an IGFET device having at least one source/drain region with a lightly-doped sub-region proximate a channel region, the source/drain regions are formed by first implanting ions with parameters to form lightly-doped source/drain regions. A high density plasma deposition provides at least one spacer having preselected characteristics. As a result of the spacer characteristics, an ion implantation with parameters to form normally-doped source/drain regions is shadowed by the spacer. A portion of the source/drain region shadowed by the spacer results in a lightly-doped source/drain sub-region proximate the channel region. According to a second embodiment of the invention, the ion implantation resulting in the lightly-doped source/drain regions is eliminated. Instead, the spacer(s) formed by the high density plasma deposition and subsequent etching process only partially shadows the ion implantation that would otherwise result in normal doping of the source/drain regions. The parameters of the spacer(s) resulting from the high density plasma deposition and subsequent etching process result in a lightly-doped source/drain sub-region proximate the channel region. The shadowing of the spacer decreases with distance from the gate structure and results in a normal doping level for the portion of the source/drain terminal not shadowed by the spacer.

A solar cell having n-type and p-type interdigitated back contacts (IBCs), which cover the entire back surface of the absorber layer. The spatial separation of the IBCs is in a direction perpendicular to the back surface, thus providing borderless contacts having a zero-footprint separation. As the contacts are on the back, photons incident on the cell's front surface can be absorbed without any shadowing.