Patent Application
20190371049
Within the field of computing, many scenarios involve a presentation of an object set as a scene, such as a graphical presentation of a set of controls comprising a user interface of an application; a presentation of a set of regions, such as windows, comprising the visual output of a set of applications in a computing environment; and an arrangement of objects in a three-dimensional space as a media or gaming experience.
In such scenarios, the objects are often arranged in a space that features a simulated light source that causes objects to cast shadows on other objects. Many techniques may be utilized to calculate and generate such shadows, and the techniques may vary in some visual respects, such as geometric complexity among the objects of the scene; accuracy with respect to the shapes of the objects and the resulting shapes of the shadows cast thereby; adaptability to various types and colors of the light source; and suitability for more complex shadows, such as an object casting a shadow across a plurality of more distant objects. More sophisticated techniques may be devised that produce more realistic or aesthetically appealing shadows at the cost of computational complexity, which may not be suitable for lower-capacity computational devices, or which may not be compatible with other considerations such as maintaining high framerates. Conversely, less sophisticated techniques, such as simple drop shadows, may be devised that produce simple shadows in a computationally conservative manner, but that impose constraints on the geometric complexity of the scene and/or produce visual defects.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key factors or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Presented herein are techniques for rendering scenes of objects that provide shadows that are more visually robust than simple drop-shadow techniques, yet significantly less computationally intensive than full-range shadows such as produced by raytracing. When the content of an object is rendered, the position of a light source relative to the object may create a silhouette that may be cast upon a plane within the scene. Such determinations may be efficiently calculated using geometric transforms to determine the shape and size of the silhouette based on a boundary of the object and the relative orientation of the object and the light source and/or the shape and size of the portion of the silhouette that is cast upon the plane.
In an embodiment, a device presents a scene comprising a set of objects, where the device comprises a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to render shadows using the techniques presented herein. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render content of a selected object; identify, within the scene, a position of the selected object, a plane, and a light source; determine a silhouette of the selected object that is cast by the light source; and apply a transform to the silhouette to generate a shadow according to a position of the object relative to the light source. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to render, into the scene, at least a portion of the shadow onto the plane; and present the scene including the content of the respective objects and the shadow rendered upon the plane.
In an embodiment, a method of presenting a scene comprising a set of objects involves an execution of instructions on a processor of a device. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render content of respective objects of the set; identify positions within the scene of a light source, a selected object, and a plane; determine a silhouette of the selected object created by the light source; and apply a transform to the silhouette to generate a shadow cast on the plane by the light source according to the positions. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to render at least a portion of the shadow onto the plane and present the scene including the content of the respective objects and the shadow cast upon the plane.
In an embodiment, a method of presenting a scene comprising a set of objects involves an execution of instructions on a processor of a device. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render content of a first object of the set that is closer to a light source than a second object; determine, for the first object, a silhouette that is cast by the light source; and apply a transform of the silhouette to generate a shadow cast on the plane of the second object by the light source according to positions of the first object, the second object, and the light source within the scene. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to render content of the second object including at least a portion of the shadow cast onto a plane of the second object and present the scene including the content of the first object and the shadow cast onto the plane of the second object.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the following description and annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative aspects and implementations. These are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which one or more aspects may be employed. Other aspects, advantages, and novel features of the disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the annexed drawings.
The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. It may be evident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the claimed subject matter.
Scenes of objects often involve rendering techniques that include the rendering of shadows cast by a first object on a second object due to a light source. Such rendering techniques may occur in a variety of scenarios to render a variety of object sets and may be applied on a variety of devices ranging from high-performance servers and workstations and gaming consoles to mobile devices such as phones and tablets. Many techniques may be devised for rendering the shadows into the scene that may be suitable for particular contexts, but unsuitable or even unusable in different scenarios.
In such environments, the objects 102 may be arranged in a manner that causes a partial overlap of a first object 102 by a second object 102, such as a button that is positioned on top of an image. Alternatively or additionally, some computing environments may present a non-overlapping arrangement of objects 102, but may permit a rearrangement of the objects 102, such as relocation or resizing, that causes some objects 102 to overlap other objects 102. The overlapping may be achieved by storing a depth order of the objects 102, sometimes referred to as a z-order relative to a z-axis that is orthogonal to the display plane, and rendering the objects 102 in a particular order (such as a back-to-front order). However, the visual appearance of the overlapping objects 102 may be confusing to the user, e.g., if the boundaries of the objects do not clearly indicate whether an overlapping portion belongs to a first object or a second object. It may therefore be advantageous to supplement the rendered scene by including a visual representation of the depth, and a familiar visual representation for such depth includes the use of shadows. It may further be advantageous to produce such shadows in a computationally simple and efficient manner, e.g., without involving an excessive amount of calculation that diverts computational capacity away from the presented applications.
As further shown in the first example scenario 108, the depth relationships of the objects 102 may be represented using drop shadows 106, based on a simulated light source at a selected position (e.g., if the scene is a downward-facing view of the scene from a perspective, the light source may be selected at a position that is above the perspective and slightly offset upward and leftward). When a first object 102 is rendered, a boundary of the first object 102 may be adjusted by a fixed offset 104, such as a fixed number of pixels to the right and below the boundary of the object. When a second object 102 is rendered that is within the offset 104 of the first object 102, the intersecting portion of the second object 102 that is within the offset 104 of the first object 102 may be darkened to simulate a drop shadow 106 cast by the first object 102 on the second object 102.
Drop shadows 106 rendered such as depicted in the example scenario 108 of
However, the comparatively simple presentation of drop shadows 106 as presented in the example scenario 108 of
In a second example scenario 108, a full three-dimensional scene may be rendered as a set of volumetric objects 102, such as three-dimensional polygons of different shapes, sizes, colors, textures, positions, and orientations within a three-dimensional space. The rendering may involve a variety of techniques and calculations that render the volumetric objects 102 with various properties, including volumetric shadows 112 that are created by a light source 110. The volumetric shadows 112 are properly mapped onto other volumetric objects 102 within the scene, as well as portions of the background such as a representation of planes representing the ground, floor, walls, and/or ceiling of the scene. The rendering of volumetric shadows 112 may be achieved through techniques such as raytracing, involving a mapping of the path of each linear projection of light emanating from the light source 110 through the volumetric objects 102 of the scene to produce lit effects that closely match the appearance of such objects in a real-world scene. Other techniques that may be used to render volumetric shadows of the volumetric objects 102 in this three-dimensional space, including raycasting techniques that map rays emanating from the point of perspective through the scene of objects 102 and shadow-mapping techniques that test individual pixels of the display plane to determine the incidence of shadows.
The techniques depicted in the second example scenario may produce renderings of shadows that match the perspective within the scene; complex interactions and spatial arrangements of the volumetric objects 102; lighting types, such as specular vs. atmospheric lighting; and complex and sophisticated variety of volumetric objects, shape, and properties such as surface reflectiveness and texturing. However, the calculations involved in the implementation of these techniques may be very complicated and may consume a significant amount of computation. Many devices may provide plentiful computational capacity that is adequate for the implementation of complex shadowing techniques, including specialized hardware and software, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) with computational pathways that are specifically adapted for sophisticated shadow rendering techniques and graphics processing libraries that automate the rendering of shadows in a scene of volumetric objects. However, other devices may present limited computational capacity and may lack specialized graphics hardware and software support for shadowing. The application of such computationally intensive techniques may diminish the available computational capacity for other processing, including the substantive processing for an application for which a user interface is presented and in which shadowing is presented, resulting in delayed responsiveness of the user interface or the functionality exposed thereby. In some cases, complex shadowing techniques may be beyond the computational capacity of the device. In other scenarios, the aesthetic qualities of complex shadowing may be excessive compared with other qualities of the graphical presentation; e.g., complex volumetric shadows may look out of place when cast by simple and primitive graphics. In still other scenarios, the use of complex shadow rendering calculations may be significantly wasteful, such as complex rendering among primarily rectangular objects that results in simple, rectangular shadows that could be equivalently produced by simpler calculations.
These and other considerations may be reflected by the use of various shadowing techniques. For a particular object set, the use of a particular shadowing technique to render the scene may be overcomplicated or simplistic; may appear too sophisticated or too basic as compared with the content of the scene; may involve excessive computation that detracts from other computational processes; and may be inefficient, incompatible, or unachievable. It is therefore desirable to choose and provide new shadowing techniques that may be more suitable for selected rendering scenarios and object sets.
Presented herein are techniques for rendering shadows in a manner that may be more robust than simple drop shadowing, and also less computationally intensive than full shadow-rendering techniques such as raytracing.
The example scenario 200 of
As further shown in the example scenario 200 of
As further shown in the example scenario 200 of
The rendering of shadows 212 in the presentation of scenes of object sets in accordance with the techniques presented herein may provide one or several of the following technical effects.
As a first technical effect that may be achievable in accordance with the techniques presented herein, the rendering of a scene using the techniques presented herein may include shadows 212 that are more robust and aesthetically rich than many simple shadow rendering techniques, including the use of drop shadows 106 as depicted in the example scenario 108 of
As a second technical effect that may be achievable in accordance with the techniques presented herein, the shadowing techniques presented herein may be easily extended to support a variety of additional features that otherwise may entail a significant increase in the computational cost of shadow rendering. As a first such example, relatively modest extensions of the shadow rendering techniques presented herein may add a variable opacity to shadows 212, which may be used, e.g., as a visual indicator of a directness of the light source toward the object 102 (such as distinguishing between a spotlight source and an ambient light source) and/or a distance 204 between the object 102 and the light source 110. As a second such example, relatively modest extensions of the shadow rendering may add a variable blurriness to the edges of shadows 212, which may be used, e.g., as a visual indicator of a distance 204 between the object 102 and the plane 202 upon which the shadow 212 is cast. As a third such example, relatively modest extensions of the shadow rendering may include some of the content of the object 102 in the shadow 212, such as tinting the shadow in accordance with the pictorial content of the object 102. Such tinting may promote the appearance of translucency of the object 102, e.g., as a stained-glass window effect. Whereas more sophisticated techniques like raytracing may entail a significant and perhaps large increase in computational complexity to achieve such features, the shadow rendering techniques presented herein may enable such features as merely an adjustment of the step in which the shadow 212 is rendered upon the plane 202.
As a third technical effect that may be achievable in accordance with the techniques presented herein, the shadowing techniques presented herein may involve simpler computational complexity than other rendering techniques, such as the volumetric shadowing technique shown in the example scenario 108 of
The example system 308 renders the scene 214 of the objects 102 that includes, for a selected object 102, a shadow 212 cast onto a plane 202 in the following manner. The example system 308 comprises a transform calculator 310 that identifies, within the scene 214, a position of a selected object 102, a plane 202, and a light source 110; that determines a silhouette 208 of the selected object 102 that is cast by the light source 110; and that applies a transform 210 to the silhouette 208 to generate a shadow 212 to be cast upon the plane 202 according to the position of the object 102 relative to the light source 110 and the plane 202. The example system 308 further comprises a scene renderer 312, which rendering content of the selected object 102; renders, into the scene, at least a portion of the shadow 212 cast onto the plane 202 by the selected object 102; and presents the scene 214 including the content of the respective objects 102 and the shadow 212 rendered upon the plane 202. The scene 214 of the objects 102 may be presented, e.g., by a display 314 of the device 302, which may be physically coupled with the device 302 (e.g., an integrated display surface, such as a screen of a tablet, or a display connected by a cable, such as an external liquid-crystal display (LCD) display), or may be remote with respect to the device 302 (e.g., a display that is connected wirelessly to the device 302, or a display of a client device that is in communication with the device 302 over a network such as the internet). In this manner, the example device 302 enables the presentation of the scene 214 in accordance with the shadowing techniques presented herein.
The first example method 400 begins at 402 and involves executing 404, by the device, instructions that cause the device to operate in the following manner. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render 406 the content of respective objects 102 of the object set. Execution of the instructions causes the device to identify 408 positions within the scene 214 of a light source 110, a selected object 102, and a plane 202. Execution of the instructions causes the device to determine 410 a silhouette 208 of the selected object 102 created by the light source 110. Execution of the instructions causes the device to apply 412 a transform 210 to the silhouette 208 to generate a shadow 212 cast on the plane 202 by the selected object 102 and the light source 110 according to the positions of the light source 110, the selected object 102, and the plane 202 within the scene 214. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render 414 at least a portion of the shadow 212 onto the plane 202. Execution of the instructions causes the device to present 416 the scene 214 including the content of the respective objects 102 and the shadow 212 cast upon the plane 202. Having achieved the presentation of the scene 214 in accordance with the shadowing techniques presented herein, the example method 400 ends at 418.
The fourth example method 500 begins at 502 and involves executing 504, by the device, instructions that cause the device to operate in the following manner. Execution of the instructions causes the device to render 506 content of a first object of the set that is closer to a light source than a second object. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to determine 508, for the first object, a silhouette that is cast by the light source. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to apply 510 a transform of the silhouette to generate a shadow cast on the plane of the second object by the light source according to positions of the first object, the second object, and the light source within the scene. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to render 512 content of the second object including at least a portion of the shadow cast onto a plane of the second object. Execution of the instructions further causes the device to present 514 the scene including the content of the first object and the shadow cast onto the plane of the second object. Having achieved the presentation of the scene 214 in accordance with the shadowing techniques presented herein, the example method 500 ends at 516.
Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to apply the techniques presented herein. Such computer-readable media may include various types of communications media, such as a signal that may be propagated through various physical phenomena (e.g., an electromagnetic signal, a sound wave signal, or an optical signal) and in various wired scenarios (e.g., via an Ethernet or fiber optic cable) and/or wireless scenarios (e.g., a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as WiFi, a personal area network (PAN) such as Bluetooth, or a cellular or radio network), and which encodes a set of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to implement the techniques presented herein. Such computer-readable media may also include (as a class of technologies that excludes communications media) computer-computer-readable memory devices, such as a memory semiconductor (e.g., a semiconductor utilizing static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) technologies), a platter of a hard disk drive, a flash memory device, or a magnetic or optical disc (such as a CD-R, DVD-R, or floppy disc), encoding a set of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to implement the techniques presented herein.
An example computer-readable medium that may be devised in these ways is illustrated in
The techniques discussed herein may be devised with variations in many aspects, and some variations may present additional advantages and/or reduce disadvantages with respect to other variations of these and other techniques. Moreover, some variations may be implemented in combination, and some combinations may feature additional advantages and/or reduced disadvantages through synergistic cooperation. The variations may be incorporated in various embodiments (e.g., the example device 302 and/or example system 308 of
E1. Scenarios
A first aspect that may vary among implementations of these techniques relates to scenarios in which the presented techniques may be utilized.
As a second variation of this first aspect, the presented techniques may be utilized with a variety of device, such as workstations, laptops, consoles, tablets, phones, portable media and/or game players, embedded systems, appliances, vehicles, and wearable devices. The techniques may also be implemented on a collection of interoperating devices, such as a collection of processes executing on one or more devices; a personal group of interoperating devices of a user, such as a personal area network (PAN); a local collection of devices comprising a computing cluster; and/or a geographically distributed collection of devices that span a region, such as a remote server that renders a scene and transmits the result to a local device that displays the scene for a user. Such devices may be interconnected in a variety of ways, such as locally wired connections (e.g., a bus architecture such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) or a locally wired network such as Ethernet); locally wireless connections (e.g., Bluetooth connections or a WiFi network); remote wired connections (e.g., long-distance fiber optic connections comprising Internet); and/or remote wireless connections (e.g., cellular communication).
As a second variation of this first aspect, the presented techniques may be utilized a variety of scenes and object sets. For example, the respective objects may comprise user interface elements (e.g., buttons, textboxes, and lists) comprising the user interface of an application, and the scene may comprise a rendering of the user interface of the application. The respective objects may comprise the user interfaces of respective applications, and the scene may comprise a rendering of the computing environment. The respective objects may comprise media objects, and the scene may comprise an artistic depiction of the collection of media objects. The respective objects may comprise entities, and the scene may comprise the environment of the entities, such as a game or a simulation. As a second example, the scene may be rendered as a three-dimensional representation or as a two-dimensional representation with the use of shadows to simulate depth in a z-order. As a third example, the light source may comprise a narrowly focused directed beam of light, such as a spotlight, flashlight, or laser, or a broadly focused source of ambient lighting, such as the sun or an omnidirectional light bulb. As a fourth example, a plane 202 onto which a shadow is cast may comprise an element of another object 102 or a background element, such as the ground, floor, walls, or ceiling of the environment. The plane 202 may also be defined, e.g., as a mathematical description of a distinct region of a two- or three-dimensional space, such as a mathematical description of the plane 202; or as a set of coordinates that define a boundary of the plane 202; or as a set of parameters defining the boundaries of a two- or three-dimensional geometric shape; or as a selected surface portion of an object 102, such as a portion of a two- or three-dimensional model. As a fifth example, the plane may also be positioned, e.g., further from the object 102 casting the shadow 212, such that the shadow 212 is projected along the vector rooted at the object 102 and opposite the direction of the light source 110. Alternatively, in some scenarios, the plane 202 may be positioned within the scene 214 between the light source 110 and the object 102, and it may be desirable to render the shadow 102 on the plane 202, e.g., as a darkened portion of a translucent plane 202 through which the object 102 is partially visible. Many scenarios may be devised in which a scene is presented with shadows rendered in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
E2. Shadow Rendering Variations
A second aspect that may vary among embodiments of the techniques presented herein involves the computational process of rendering the shadows 212.
As a first variation of this second aspect, the transform 210 may comprise a variety of techniques and may be generated and used in a variety of ways. As a first such example, the transform 210 may be encoded in various ways. For example, the transform 210 may comprise a mathematical formula that is applied to a mathematical representation of the silhouette 208 of the object 102 to generate an altered mathematical representation of the shadow 212. Alternatively, the transform 210 may comprise a set of logical instructions that are applied to a data set representing the silhouette 208 to generate an updated data set representing the shadow 212. As another alternative, the silhouette 208 may comprise an image representation of a border of the object 102, and the transform 210 may comprise a filter that is applied to the silhouette 208 to produce an image representation of the shadow 212. As a second example, a device may store a transform 210 before receiving a request to render the scene 214, and shadows 212 may be rendered into a scene by retrieving the transform 210 stored before receiving the request to generate the shadow 212 from the silhouette 208. Storing the transform 210 prior to rendering the scene 214 may be advantageous, e.g., for scenes with comparatively static content that are anticipated to be rendered in the future, such as a scene that presents a subset of viewing perspectives that are respectively associated with a stored transform 210 to generate a shadow upon a particular plane 202, where retrieving the stored transform 210 further comprises retrieving the stored transform 210 that is associated with the viewing perspectives of the scene 214. Alternatively, the transform 210 may be stored after a first rendering of the scene including a first content of the selected object 102 (e.g., as part of a transform cache that may be reused a scene that is typically dynamic, but where the object 102, light source 110, and plane 202 are at least briefly static), and the rendering may involve applying the stored transform 210 to a second rendering of the scene 214 including a second content of the selected object.
As a second variation of this second aspect, the transform 210 may be applied at various stages of the rendering pipeline. As a first such example, a transform 210 may be applied to generate the silhouette 208, e.g., by comparing a basic representation of the object 102 (e.g., a rectangular depiction such as a window, or the three-dimensional model of the object 102) and the relative positions of the object 102 and the light source 110 to determine the silhouette 208 of the object 102, such as the boundary of the object 102 from the perspective of the light source 110. The silhouette 208 may be generated using a transform 210 as part of the process of generating the shadow 212 or as a separate discrete step, e.g., while rendering the content of the object 102. As a second such example, the determination of the incidence of shadow 212 cast by the object 102 upon the plane 202 (e.g., the determination of which paths between a light source 110 and a plane 202 are at least partially occluded by an object 102) may occur at various stages, including before the objects 102 and planes 202; while rendering the objects 102 and planes 202; and after rendering the objects 102 and planes 202. As a third such example, the shadow 212 for a particular plane 202 may be generated while rendering the object 102, and then stored until the rendering process begins to render the plane 202, at which point the plane 202 may be rendered together with its shadow 212. Alternatively, the shadow 212 of the object 102 may be determined to fall upon the plane 202 while rendering the plane 202, and the shadow 212 may be generated and promptly applied to the content of the plane 202. As another alternative, the objects 102 and planes 202 of the scene 214 may be rendered, and then shadows 212 may be determined from the light sources 110 and the previously rendered planes 202 may be updated with the shadow 212. That is, the step of determining which shadows 212 exist within the scene 214 may occur as part of the same step as rendering the content of the objects 102 and planes 202 or as a separate rendering step.
As a third variation of this second aspect, the rendering of shadows 212 in accordance with the techniques presented herein may give rise to a variety of shadow effects within a scene 214. As a first such example, a variety of additional aspects of rendering the shadows 212 on the planes 202 may be included at various stages of the rendering. For example, a second object 102 of the set may comprise a selected object shape that presents a first shadow shape using a first transform 210, and a different object 102 of the set that exhibits the same selected object shape may presents a second shadow shape using a second transform 210 (e.g., because the objects 102 have different positional and/or orientation relationships with respect to the light source 110). As a second such example, a selected object 102 may comprises a selected object shape, and the rendering may comprise rending a first shadow 212 of the selected object 102 onto a first plane 202 with a first shadow shape using a first transform 210, and rending a second shadow of the selected object 102 onto a second plane 202 with a second shadow shape that is different than the first shadow shape using a second transform 210 that is different than the first transform 210 (e.g., starting with the same silhouette 208 of the selected object 102, but rendering different shadows 212 with different shapes upon different planes 202 that have a different positional and/or orientation relationships with respect to the selected object 102). As a third such example, a selected object 102 may comprises a selected object shape, but rendering the shadows 212 created by the selected object 102 may comprise rending a first shadow 212 of the selected object 102 onto the plane 202 with a first shadow shape using a first transform 210 according to a first light source 110, and rending a second shadow 212 of the selected object 102 onto the plane 202 with a second shadow shape using a second transform 210 according to a second light source 110 that is different than the first light source 110 (e.g., casting two different shadows from the object 102 onto the plane 202 from two different light sources 110). Many such variations may arise in the rendering of shadows 212 in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
E3. Additional Shadowing Features
A third aspect that may vary among embodiments of the techniques presented herein involves the implementation of additional features that may be included in the rendering of shadows 212 in accordance with the techniques presented herein.
In some scenarios in which the currently presented techniques are applied, the planes 202 and objects 102 may be substantially coplanar, e.g., in a simple desktop environment in which the plane of each window is substantially parallel with every other window, and the shadows 212 are created as a function of z-order that is visually represented as depth. Additionally, in some scenarios in which the currently presented techniques are applied, the objects 102 may be substantially two-dimensional, e.g., representing two-dimensional planes with no depth. Additionally, in some scenarios in which the currently presented techniques are applied, the planes 202 and objects 102 may be substantially square, rectangular, or another polygonal shape that enables shadows 212 to be rendered in a consistent manner. Alternatively, the currently presented techniques may be applied in scenarios featuring objects 102 and planes 202 that are not coplanar and/or substantially the same shape and/or not two-dimensional, but may vary among objects 102 and planes 202, or may vary for an object 102 and/or plane 202 that changes shape, position, or orientation over time or in response to various events. The currently presented techniques may be readily adaptable to cover such alternative scenarios.
Although not required, embodiments are described in the general context of “computer readable instructions” being executed by one or more computing devices. Computer readable instructions may be distributed via computer readable media (discussed below). Computer readable instructions may be implemented as program modules, such as functions, objects, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures, and the like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the computer readable instructions may be combined or distributed as desired in various environments.
In other embodiments, device 1102 may include additional features and/or functionality. For example, device 1102 may also include additional storage (e.g., removable and/or non-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic storage, optical storage, and the like. Such additional storage is illustrated in
The term “computer readable media” as used herein includes computer storage media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions or other data. Memory 1108 and storage 1110 are examples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by device 1102. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 1102.
Device 1102 may also include communication connection(s) 1116 that allows device 1102 to communicate with other devices. Communication connection(s) 1116 may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a Network Interface Card (NIC), an integrated network interface, a radio frequency transmitter/receiver, an infrared port, a USB connection, or other interfaces for connecting computing device 1102 to other computing devices. Communication connection(s) 1116 may include a wired connection or a wireless connection. Communication connection(s) 1116 may transmit and/or receive communication media.
The term “computer readable media” may include communication media. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions or other data in a “modulated data signal” such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” may include a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
Device 1102 may include input device(s) 1114 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, infrared cameras, video input devices, and/or any other input device. Output device(s) 1112 such as one or more displays, speakers, printers, and/or any other output device may also be included in device 1102. Input device(s) 1114 and output device(s) 1112 may be connected to device 1102 via a wired connection, wireless connection, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, an input device or an output device from another computing device may be used as input device(s) 1114 or output device(s) 1112 for computing device 1102.
Components of computing device 1102 may be connected by various interconnects, such as a bus. Such interconnects may include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), such as PCI Express, a Universal Serial Bus (USB), Firewire (IEEE 1394), an optical bus structure, and the like. In another embodiment, components of computing device 1102 may be interconnected by a network. For example, memory 1108 may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in different physical locations interconnected by a network.
Those skilled in the art will realize that storage devices utilized to store computer readable instructions may be distributed across a network. For example, a computing device 1120 accessible via network 1118 may store computer readable instructions to implement one or more embodiments provided herein. Computing device 1102 may access computing device 1120 and download a part or all of the computer readable instructions for execution. Alternatively, computing device 1102 may download pieces of the computer readable instructions, as needed, or some instructions may be executed at computing device 1102 and some at computing device 1120.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system”, “interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. One or more components may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
Furthermore, the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications may be made to this configuration without departing from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.
Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. In one embodiment, one or more of the operations described may constitute computer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readable media, which if executed by a computing device, will cause the computing device to perform the operations described. The order in which some or all of the operations are described should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having the benefit of this description. Further, it will be understood that not all operations are necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein.
Any aspect or design described herein as an “example” is not necessarily to be construed as advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word “example” is intended to present one possible aspect and/or implementation that may pertain to the techniques presented herein. Such examples are not necessary for such techniques or intended to be limiting. Various embodiments of such techniques may include such an example, alone or in combination with other features, and/or may vary and/or omit the illustrated example.
As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims may generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.
Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respect to one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. The disclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and is limited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated example implementations of the disclosure. In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosure may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”
