Method and apparatus for using a general three-dimensional (3D) graphics pipeline for cost effective digital image and video editing, transformation, and representation

摘要

A method in accordance with our invention permits the manipulation of a two-dimensional pixel array using a standard 3D graphics pipeline. The method comprises the steps of forming a wire mesh of the two-dimensional image. This wire mesh comprises a set of triangles, in which all of the vertices and sides of the triangles are located in the same plane in x, y, z coordinate space. The 2D image is then mapped into the mesh. The resulting object representation can then be manipulated in the same manner that 3D representations are manipulated by a 3D graphics pipeline.