Comprehensive halftoning of 3D scenes

The display of images on binary output hardware requires a halftoning step. Conventional halftoning algorithms approximate image values independently from the image content and often introduce artificial texture that obscures fine details. The objective of this research is to adapt a halftoning tech nique to 3D scene information and thus to enhance the display of computer g enerated 3D scenes. Our approach is based on the control of halftoning text ure by the combination of ordered dithering and error diffusion techniques. We extend our previous work and enable a user to specify the shape, scale, direction and contrast of the halftoning texture using an external buffet: We control texture shape by constructing a dither matrix from an arbitrary image or a procedural texture. Texture direction and scale are adapted to the external information by the mapping function. Texture contrast and the accuracy of tone reproduction are varied across the image using the error d iffusion process. We halftone images of 3D scenes by using the geometry, po sition, and illumination information to control the halftoning texture. Thu s the texture provides visual cues and can be used To enhance the viewer's comprehension of the display.