Foveal Adaptation of Temporal Anti-Aliasing in VR Rendering

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current anti-aliasing techniques are inadequate in addressing aliasing issues in peripheral regions of foveated rendering in virtual reality head-mounted displays, leading to a degraded user experience due to increased aliasing artifacts in non-foveal areas.

Innovation Solution

Adapting temporal anti-aliasing techniques by using different jitter offsets for foveal and peripheral regions within foveated rendering systems, where foveal regions are rendered at higher resolution and peripheral regions at lower resolution, with the anti-aliasing method selecting appropriate jitter offsets based on vertex location within the graphics pipeline.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If temporal anti-aliasing is used uniformly across the entire display, then aliasing is reduced in foveal regions, but aliasing artifacts persist in peripheral regions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverendering qualityVSAvoidaliasing artifacts in peripheral regions
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies different anti-aliasing strategies to different regions of the display: foveal regions use one approach while peripheral regions use another. Specifically, the system applies temporal anti-aliasing with position-dependent jitter offsets where the jitter magnitude varies by region, allowing optimized anti-aliasing performance for each zone's specific requirements

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The display is divided into distinct regions (foveal and peripheral) with different rendering characteristics. The patent segments the anti-aliasing application by region, applying different jitter offsets and potentially different anti-aliasing intensities to foveal versus peripheral areas, allowing each segment to be optimized independently

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If foveated rendering is used to reduce computational load, then rendering efficiency improves, but aliasing artifacts increase in peripheral regions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverendering efficiencyVSAvoidaliasing artifacts
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different anti-aliasing treatments to different regions: peripheral regions (rendered at lower resolution) receive enhanced anti-aliasing through position-dependent jitter offsets, while foveal regions (rendered at higher resolution) use standard anti-aliasing. This allows efficient foveated rendering while maintaining overall image quality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent converts the harmful effect of reduced resolution in peripheral regions into a benefit by applying stronger anti-aliasing measures specifically to those areas. The position-dependent jitter offsets compensate for the lower resolution by reducing aliasing artifacts, turning the resolution reduction into an opportunity for targeted anti-aliasing optimization

Inventive Principle:
Principle #22Blessing in disguise (Convert harm into benefit)

3Reliability

If standard anti-aliasing techniques are applied to the entire scene, then processing complexity is maintained, but computational resources are wasted in peripheral regions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveanti-aliasing effectivenessVSAvoidcomputational resources
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the scene into foveal and peripheral regions and applies different anti-aliasing processing to each. Peripheral regions use position-dependent jitter offsets with the patent selectively applying anti-aliasing operations only where needed, reducing overall computational load while maintaining effectiveness in critical areas

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system applies anti-aliasing selectively: full anti-aliasing processing is applied to foveal regions where it is most needed, while peripheral regions receive a different level of processing through position-dependent jitter. This partial application of anti-aliasing techniques reduces computational waste while maintaining overall quality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3635516B1Foveal adaptation of temporal Anti-aliasing
Publication Date: 2023.08.02 SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LLC
  • EP3635516B1 patent drawingFigure 1A~1B
  • EP3635516B1 patent drawingFigure 2A~2B
  • EP3635516B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~3F

AI summary

Methods and systems are provided for enabling foveal adaption of temporal anti-aliasing within a foveated rendering presentation. A method for rendering a multi-resolution scene with anti-aliasing within a head mounted display (HMD) is provided. The method includes an operation for rendering a scene that includes a series of video frames. The method also includes operations for applying anti-aliasing to a first region of the scene using a first jitter offset and applying anti-aliasing to a second region of the scene using a second jitter offset. Further, the method provides for generating a foveated scene that includes the first region and the second region and for sending the foveated scene to be displayed on a display associated with the HMD, wherein the first region is associated with a higher resolution than the second scene and the first jitter offset is smaller than the second jitter offset, according to certain embodiments.