Method and apparatus for rendering an image impinging upon a non-planar surface

1. A method of rendering an image that impinges upon a non-planar surface, said method comprising:

mapping said image as a plurality of spaced-apart planar cells to surface coordinates of said non-planar surface, with each of said plurality of planar cells including multiple pixels of said image; and

minimizing a distance between said plurality of planar cells while minimizing a change in distance between each of said plurality of planar cells with respect to said surface coordinates; and

impinging said plurality of planar cells upon said non-planar surface,

wherein mapping further includes associating pixels of said image with a plurality of polygons, each of which corresponds to one of said plurality of spaced-apart planar cells and includes multiple vertices having an initial spatial relationship and mapping said vertices to coordinates of said non-planar surface, producing mapped polygons and generating a matrix of distortions coefficients from the vertices of said mapped polygons, with said distortion coefficients defining a relative spatial relationship among said pixels upon said non-planar surface; producing, from said distortion matrix, an inverse matrix having a plurality of inverting coefficients associated therewith.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said minimizing further includes fitting edges of adjacent planar cells of said plurality of planar cells to a linear function, located between said edges, employing least-squares fit.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said mapping further includes filtering said distortion coefficients through a cubic filter to minimize the presence of noise.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said image includes a plurality of pixels each of which has an initial relative position with respect to the remaining pixels of said image and said mapping further includes obtaining a calibration matrix that defines an offset in said initial relative position between first and second subgroups of pixels and generating an inverse of said calibration matrix, defining an inverse matrix having a plurality of inverting coefficients associated, with said impinging further including defining a relative spatial relationship among said pixels of each of said plurality of planar cells being defined by said inverting coefficients.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 further including impinging said image upon said non-planar surface and rendering said image spaced-apart from said non-planar surface.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 further including impinging said image upon said non-planar surface and rendering said image upon said non-planar surface.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 further including transmitting said image through said non-planar surface.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 further including reflecting said image from said non-planar surface.