Patent ID: 7239321
Filing Date: 2007-07-03
Classification: G06K,G06T,G10L

Abstract:
1. A system for animating a face, comprising: a surface acquisition arrangement for acquiring a set of three-dimensional surface models that approximate a shape of a subject's face in different poses, the surface models including a base surface model that includes a set of control points which have default position vectors, the surface models further including at least one sequence of surface models such that the surface models in a given sequence approximate the shape of the subject's face at successive phases of a particular one of muscle movement and facial expression, and for acquiring a set of displacement fields representing motion patterns of the subject's face such that each displacement field generates a three-dimensional displacement vector that varies over the control points of the base surface model and over an intensity variable; a displacement field derivation unit configured to derive one of the displacement fields from one of the sequences of surface models by mapping the control points of the base surface model to positions in the surface of each of the surface models in the sequence, and by calculating a displacement of each control point from its mapped position in the first surface model in the sequence to its mapped position in each of the other surface models in the sequence; a storage arrangement for storing the set of surface models and the set of displacement fields; an intensity generator to generate a current intensity value for each displacement field in the set of displacement fields; a deformation unit to combine the displacement vectors generated by the displacement fields at the control points and at the current intensity values with the default position vectors of the control points to generate a deformed surface model; a rendering unit to translate the deformed surface model into a two-dimensional image of the face; and a video output subsystem to at least one of display and store the two-dimensional image.