Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dino!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!iuvax!shirley
From: shirley@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (peter shirley)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Pixar's patent on stochastic image generation
Message-ID: <67527@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 25 Oct 90 23:50:52 GMT
References: <SP6RAAD@cs.swarthmore.edu>
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 19

gessel@cs.swarthmore.edu (Daniel Mark Gessel) writes:

>As I understand it, Pixar's patent on using stochastic processes to Anti-Alias
>an image covers all forms of image generation, and all things one would want
>to anti alias (space, time, depth of field, etc).

>Every year, techniques for generating really cool pictures based on stochastic
>sampling are published in the SIGGRAPH conference proceedings.

>Does anybody know why?

I would assume that any such patent would NOT hold up... stochastic sampling
is just a classic form of Monte Carlo integration known in fields other
than Comp Graphics since the 1950s.  Of course, given our courts, you
never know!  Can I patent applications of quicksort to application X?
(Hey, nobody ever used it on X before!).

pete shirley
shirley@cs.indiana.edu