Nvidia corporation (20240355039). WATERTIGHT RAY TRIANGLE INTERSECTION simplified abstract

WATERTIGHT RAY TRIANGLE INTERSECTION

Organization Name

nvidia corporation

Inventor(s)

Samuli Laine of Uusimaa (FI)

Tero Karras of Uusimaa (FI)

Timo Aila of Helsinki (FI)

Robert Ohannessian of Austin TX (US)

William Parsons Newhall, Jr. of Woodside CA (US)

Greg Muthler of Austin TX (US)

Ian Kwong of San Jose CA (US)

Peter Nelson of San Francisco CA (US)

John Burgess of Austin TX (US)

WATERTIGHT RAY TRIANGLE INTERSECTION - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20240355039 titled 'WATERTIGHT RAY TRIANGLE INTERSECTION

Simplified Explanation:

This patent application describes a hardware-based traversal coprocessor that accelerates tree traversal operations to find intersections between primitives in a tree data structure and a ray, commonly used in virtual scene generation.

• Handles numerically challenging computations at edges and vertices of primitives.
• Ensures accurate reporting of a single intersection when a ray intersects a surface formed by primitives at or near edges and vertices.

Key Features and Innovation:

• Acceleration of tree traversal operations for intersection detection.
• Handling of numerically challenging computations at edges and vertices.
• Ensuring accurate reporting of single intersections.

Potential Applications:

• Virtual reality and augmented reality applications.
• Computer graphics rendering.
• Collision detection in gaming.

Problems Solved:

• Speeding up intersection detection in complex scenes.
• Ensuring accuracy in reporting intersections.
• Handling challenging computations at edges and vertices.

Benefits:

• Improved performance in virtual scene generation.
• Enhanced accuracy in intersection detection.
• Efficient handling of complex geometric computations.

Commercial Applications:

Accelerating Intersection Detection in Virtual Scene Generation: Market Implications

Questions about the Technology:

1. What are the potential challenges in implementing this hardware-based traversal coprocessor in real-time applications? 2. How does this technology compare to software-based approaches for intersection detection in virtual scenes?

Original Abstract Submitted

a hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. the primitives may include triangles used in generating a virtual scene. the hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to properly handle numerically challenging computations at or near edges and/or vertices of primitives and/or ensure that a single intersection is reported when a ray intersects a surface formed by primitives at or near edges and/or vertices of the primitives.