Apple patents system to control lighting in generated 3D images
Apple describes a system that creates realistic images of 3D objects by analyzing how light hits them from different angles. It uses specific software steps to calculate how surfaces reflect light, allowing for detailed control over the final picture's brightness and shine.
In the filing’s own words
An electronic device may include a light based image generation system configured to generate images of a 3-dimensional object in a scene. The light based image generation system can include a feature extractor, a triplane decoder, and a volume renderer. The feature extractor can receive lighting information about the scene and a perspective of the object in the scene and generate corresponding triplane features. The triplane decoder can decode diffuse and specular reflection parameters based on the triplane features. The volume renderer can render a set of images based on the diffuse and specular reflection parameters. A super resolution image can be generated from the set of images and compared with ground truth images to fine tune weights, biases, and other machine learning parameters associated with the light based image generation system. The light based image generation system can be conditioned to generate photorealistic images of human faces.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method of generating an image of an object in a scene, the method comprising: receiving lighting information of the scene and a perspective of the object in the scene; extracting geometric features based on the received lighting information and the perspective; with a diffuse decoder, generating diffuse reflection parameters from the extracted geometric features; with a specular decoder, generating one or more specular reflection parameters from the extracted geometric features; and performing volume rendering based on the diffuse reflection parameters and the one or more specular reflection parameters to output a set of images.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Image generation system with controllable scene lighting
- Patent number
- US12749259B2
- Application number
- 18451242
- Filed
- Aug 17, 2023
- Granted
- Sep 29, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 22
Classified under
G06T 15/50 Physics & computingG06T 15/08 Physics & computingG06T 15/506 Physics & computingG06T 17/00 Physics & computingMore from Apple in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.