Patent ID: 6654018
Filing Date: 2003-11-25
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
A method for the synthesis of photo-realistic animation of an object using a unit selection process, comprising the steps of:a) creating a first database of image samples showing an object in a plurality of appearances; b) creating a second database of visual features for each image sample of the object; c) creating a third database of non-visual characteristics of the object in each image sample; d) obtaining for each frame in a plurality of N frames of an animation, a target feature vector comprised of the visual features and the non-visual characteristics; e) for each frame in the plurality of N frames of the animation, selecting candidate image samples from the first database using a comparison of a combination of visual features from the second database and non-visual characteristics from the third databases with the target feature vector; and f) compiling the selected candidates to form a photo-realistic animation.