Abstract:
A method and apparatus for modifying, or morphing, a video image. A video feed is received which include an image of a person&#39;s face. A number of facial features are detected from the video feed. One or more of those facial features are selected and modified, with the modification being applied to the video feed to produce a morphed image. For example, the morphing can produce fun effects such as oversized or too small eyes, lips, etc.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
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   STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
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   REFERENCE TO A “SEQUENCE LISTING,” A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISK 
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   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to modifying video images, in particular varying features of a person on live video. 
   Software has existed for some time to modify images, such as a person&#39;s face. U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,941 is an example of software allowing a patient to see the effects of proposed plastic surgery before it is done. Other software allows users to modify static pictures that can be saved and printed, such as by varying the features of the face or morphing two faces together. US Published Application No. 20050026685 shows a system for morphing video game characters. US Published Application No. 20040201666 shows using user voice or other inputs to modify a virtual character. 
   A variety of applications are directed to modifying avatars for use with instant messaging. These applications allow a user to personalize the avatar image that is the representation of the user. For example, U.S. Published Application No. 20030043153 shows determining facial expressions from a webcam video feed and mapping those expressions to an avatar. An animation vector is mapped to a target mix vector. Each morph target may represent a facial expression, such as a neutral facial expression, a surprised facial expression, an angry facial expression, and a smiling facial expression. 
   BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention provides a method for modifying, or morphing, a video image. A video feed is received which include an image of a person&#39;s face. A number of facial features are detected from the video feed. One or more of those facial features are selected and modified, with the modification being applied to the video feed to produce a morphed image. For example, the morphing can produce fun effects such as oversized or too small eyes, lips, etc. 
   In one embodiment, the user can choose to modify particular features directly. For example, the user can thicken the lips, widen the mouth, etc. The user can then do similar modifications separately to the eyes, nose, ears, etc. Additionally, the user can select to have a hat or other accessories superimposed over the face. 
   In another embodiment, the user can select from multiple expressions. The selected expression would then automatically change the particular features required to achieve that expression. For example, the expression for a smile can cause the lips and mouth to raise in the smile expression, and additionally can cause smile lines or dimples and a twinkling appearance in the eyes. Alternately another “expression” such as a younger age could cause the smoothing of the skin to eliminate wrinkles, modification of the facial features to produce a more defined chin, eyes, etc. 
   In one embodiment, a video feed from a web cam, such as a USB video feed is provided through a camera driver to feature recognition software. That software then provides the location of the identified features to a separate morphing software module. The morphing software module then responds to user inputs to select and apply modifications to the various facial features. These modifications are then applied to the video feed, to produce an output video feed which is only slightly delayed in real time. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the system and user layers of software in an embodiment of a system incorporating the morphing features of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system incorporating the morphing features of the present invention. 
       FIGS. 3A and 3B  are diagrams of a hovering dialog box and drop down menu in one embodiment of the invention. 
       FIG. 4  is a diagram of an embodiment of a user interface screen for selecting the type of morphing. 
       FIGS. 5A and 5B  are diagrams of an embodiment of a user interface screen for a manual morphing of features directly. 
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of a user interface screen for expression selection. 
       FIG. 7  is a screen shot of an embodiment of an instant messenger application incorporating the morphing feature of the invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   System 
     FIG. 1  illustrates the operation of one embodiment of the invention. Incoming video  100  is provided to a video pipe  102  which is received by the morphing engine  104  of the present invention. The video pipe can be provided directly to applications  106  as indicated by arrow  108 , or can be provided to the morphing engine. The morphing engine provides a modified video pipe to the applications as indicated by arrow  110 . 
   The modified video pipe can be used by any application that uses live video input. This includes instant messaging applications (MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL messenger, etc.) as well as video capture applications (when—for example—an artist is capturing the video to the disk). This means that the morphing can be applied before the video is captured to the disk and stored or before it is sent to the interlocutor on the other side of the communication channel. This is because the morphing engine is integrated into the system-level part of the software, which makes it transparent to the applications using the video stream that lay above the system layer at the user layer. In this way the present invention is generic—i.e. it can coexist with any video application and modify its input according to the settings on quick assistant. 
     FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system incorporating the morphing of the present invention. A web cam  10  is connected through a USB bus  12  to a computer  14 . The USB bus  12  acts as a video feed from the camera to the computer. Alternately, a wireless USB feed could be provided, or any other bus or interface could be used to provide the video. Additionally, a camera, other than the web cam, or any other video source could be used. Additionally, the video source could come from within the computer or through a network to the computer from a remote source. 
   Computer  14  includes a camera driver  16  which receives the live video and provides it to feature recognition software module  18 . Feature recognition module  18  could be any software which extracts information regarding facial features from a video image, such as the software produced by Neven Vision, a machine vision technology company with offices in Santa Monica, Calif. 
   The detected information regarding facial features is provided to a morphing module  20 . The morphing module responds to user inputs to select facial features, determine the type of morphing, and apply the morphing. The user input can be provided through any peripheral, such as keyboard  22  or mouse  24  with associated keyboard driver  26  and mouse driver  28 . After the morphing has been applied, the video feed is provided to application software  30 . The application software could be an instant messenger application, a video conferencing application, or any other application which uses video. In one embodiment, the delay caused by the use of the feature recognition and morphing software is less than one frame of video. 
   Morphing Quick Assistant 
     FIG. 3A  shows a hovering dialog box  32 , which is a quick assistant that will open and appear on the screen when live video is requested. This automatic activation is accomplished by the camera or video driver software, which detects when a request is made for a video feed from an application, such as an instant messenger application. The quick assistant will appear close to the window of the program that called for the live video, so it will appear as if it were part of that application. An example for instant messaging is shown in  FIG. 7 . This provides an advantage in allowing the morphing application to work with third-party applications that use a video feed and need not be modified to accommodate the morphing engine. The user will typically assume that the quick assistant is part of that third-party application. This increases the ease of use and acceptation of the new technology. 
     FIG. 3B  illustrates a drop down menu  34  of the quick assistant dialog box  32 . Examples of options are shown, others may be provided in other embodiments. The user can turn on or off face tracking, and can enable tracking of multiple faces. Face tracking may or may not be required for the feature recognition module. The user can click on the Video Effect Selection and another dialog box would appear, such as the examples set forth in  FIG. 4  or  5 A. The menu can include options that are not part of the morphing features, but which a user may desire to modify at the same time, such as camera position. The options may allow the user to enable a video morphing effect, select an effect, or go to the Internet to download more effects. 
   Options 
     FIG. 4  is a diagram of one embodiment of an interface screen  40  for the morphing module to allow user selection of different options. This screen in one embodiment is the first screen the user sees when clicking on Video Effect Selection in  FIG. 3B . A first button  42  is for selection of manual adjustment. This allows for the user to independently and directly adjust the facial features of the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. Button  44  allows expression selection. This would allow expressions, such as a smile, frown, anger, age, etc. The selection of one of these expressions, such as anger, would cause multiple facial features to be automatically adjusted appropriately without the user needing to adjust each one independently. For example, if anger is chosen, the software could automatically adjust the mouth position, the eyebrows, frown lines in the cheeks, etc. Outfits button  46  allows the user to apply various accessories to the video image. For example, a hat may be placed on the head, a scarf around the neck, earrings or other jewelry, piercings, tattoos, etc. 
   The morphing module allows a virtual makeover to be applied to a person. The size of the eyes can be changed, and their location can be modified slightly. The iris color can be changed. The lips could be made wider or narrower, or could be accentuated in other ways. A variety of other modifications are available. 
   Manual Selection 
     FIG. 5A  is a diagram of an embodiment of a user interface box  50  for manual adjustment of facial features. Box  50  includes a series of buttons or drop down menu  56  which allows selection of particular features, such as enhance lips, stretch eyes, trim eyebrows, change iris color and remove wrinkles, etc. When a particular button is selected, a specialized modification box will appear for the particular facial feature selected. 
   When Lips Enhancement is selected the box  58  of  FIG. 5B  will appear. In the example shown, separate adjustment sliders are provided for fullness, width, color saturation and curvature. Other facial features will bring up different combinations of adjustment options with different input methods. After setting the desired effects, when the preview button is clicked, a preview window, such as shown in  FIG. 7  below, will be provided to allow previewing in real time. In one embodiment, the adjustments of  FIG. 5B  are displayed at the same time as the preview window, or in the preview window, to allow the user to see the effects of moving the different sliders. It will be appreciated that other inputs than sliders can be used. 
   Expression Selection 
     FIG. 6  is a diagram of an embodiment of a user interface screen  60  for selecting particular expressions. A drop down menu  62  is provided. The user can select a particular one desired. Upon such a selection, a screen similar to that shown in  FIG. 5B  would appear with appropriate adjustment buttons. For example, for age, a slider icon may be provided to allow the user to linear move a pointer for a younger or older age. The software then automatically applies the appropriate adjustments to the various features of the face. 
   Preview Screen 
     FIG. 7  illustrates one embodiment of a preview screen. An instant messenger window  70  and a video window  72  are shown. Next to them is the hovering dialog box, or quick assistant  32 . A drop down menu  74  next to the quick assistant highlights the effect being displayed. In the example shown, a celebrity effect, “Spock,” is displayed, with the ears of the user being made pointed and the eyebrows being arched. Becoming more logical is up to the user. Alternate embodiments are possible, such as additional dialog boxes which allow other adjustments or combination of adjustments. For example, the Spock effect could be applied, and the user could also separately enhance the lips or eyes or put on a hat. 
   Variations 
   In one embodiment, the deformation applied to a face (e.g., ‘fuller lips’) would move with the subject. In some prior art applications, the deformation is applied to frontal face. In an embodiment of the present invention, the 3D position of the head and the features is localized and the deformation is adjusted from a frontal position to the actual position of the user. Thus, even if the face is not frontal, the deformation (e.g. full lips) is maintained when the subject rotates his head so the lips or other feature would still look natural, but they would be ‘fuller’. This is accomplished with a 3D image being stored and modified for each feature, or with algorithms for adjustment in 3D on the fly being used. 
   In one embodiment, the present invention is able to apply the modifications to live video on the fly with a delay of less than one frame. This is possible because only certain features of the face are morphed or modified, not the entire face. In one embodiment, less than 20% or less than 10% of the video is modified. This limits the amount of processing necessary and increases the speed at which the morphing can be done. 
   In another embodiment, the user selects the morphing to be applied before the video is fed to the application software program. In another embodiment, the user can also do the adjustments on the fly, morphing or changing the video image in the middle of an instant messenger conversation, for example. 
   In one embodiment, the invention is integrated into the video pipe so that it is transparent to any application program. The application program need not be modified to accommodate the present invention, which is applied at the driver level of the video feed. 
   In another embodiment, popular morphing combinations are stored as a macro or particular expression. These are provided on a website which is accessible by users, and users can create their own and upload them to the website for sharing with other users. Morphing to produce features similar to those of celebrities can be stored as a macro on the web site for downloading. 
   In one embodiment, such as for a conference call with multiple people present, the morphing can be applied independently to different facial features. Thus, one person could be made to have wider eyes, another can be made smile all the time, another could be made to be anger, and another could be made to look younger. 
   In addition, an entire image can be morphed with, for example, effects similar to those found in a fun house mirror room. By keeping the effects simple, they can be applied in real time without undue delay. Delay is also cut down by the ability to bypass the facial feature detection software, since this is not needed when the entire image is morphed. In one embodiment, the morphing causes a delay of less than 20 milliseconds. 
   As will be understood as those of skill in the art, the present invention could be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics of the invention. For example, the morphing could be applied to features of the face of a pet, such as a dog, or any other image. The morphing module could also be made to appear upon initiation of an application program which uses still pictures, such as the sending of snapshots from a cell phone. The morphing engine could be made to appear anytime a video feed is requested by an application program, or only for certain types of application programs. Accordingly, reference should be made to the appended claims which set forth the scope of the claimed invention.