ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,646,278, issued on June 2, was assigned to INAIT SA (Lausanne, Switzerland).

"Annotation of 3D models with signs of use visible in 2D images" was invented by Constantin Cosmin Atanasoaei (Chavannes-pres-Renens, Switzerland), Daniel Milan Lutgehetmann (Lausanne, Switzerland), Dimitri Zaganidis (Granges, Switzerland), John Rahmon (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Michele De Gruttola (Geneva).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for annotation of 3D models with signs of use that are visible in 2D images. In one aspect, methods are performed by data processi...