Microsoft patents method for drawing lines on 3D surfaces in VR
Microsoft has filed a patent for a method that allows users to draw lines on three-dimensional surfaces in virtual or mixed reality. The system calculates how the line fits onto the object's surface by processing small sections of the drawing simultaneously, which is faster than traditional methods.
In the filing’s own words
A parallel processing drawing method operable on a computing device, such as a mixed- or virtual-reality head-mounted display (HMD) device, is utilized to provide a drawing tool that enables a user to virtually draw a line on a mesh of primitive geometric objects (e.g., triangles) that model three-dimensional (3D) surfaces of virtual or real-world objects. A device user provides inputs to a user interface on the computing device to virtually draw a line that the drawing tool then renders on a display system. The parallel processing drawing method simultaneously computes each of the individual line segments to conform the virtually drawn line to the mesh. The method is computationally efficient compared to conventional ray tracing which facilitates applications such as quick marking and drawing on meshes including complex meshes representing terrain and irregularly shaped objects.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method, operable on a computing device, for implementing a drawing tool enabling a user of the computing device to virtually draw a line on an object modeled by a three-dimensional mesh of triangles, comprising: for each triangle intersecting a plane containing the line, connecting two points intersecting the plane on edges of the triangle to generate triangle intersection segments used for rendering the line by a display system, the line having a range defined by a starting point and an ending point; excluding from rendering any triangle intersection segment having the two intersecting points outside the range; replacing any points of the triangle intersection segments falling outside the range with a nearer point selected from the starting point or the ending point; using the triangle intersection segments to generate an aggregation of rendering line segments for rendering the line, each rendering line segment comprising primitive geometric elements; and rendering the aggregation of rendering line segments to conform the line to the mesh using the display system.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- DRAWING ONTO A SURFACE OF A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MESH
- Publication number
- US20260260426A1
- Application number
- 19068576
- Filed
- Mar 3, 2025
- Published
- Sep 3, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06T 17/205 Physics & computingG02B 27/0172 Physics & computingG06T 19/20 Physics & computingG06T 2200/24 Physics & computingG06T 2219/2021 Physics & computingMore from Microsoft in AR, VR & displays
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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.