Abstract:
A method of making a three dimensional head representative of a head of a three dimensional object includes the steps of creating a geometric file of the head of the three dimensional object, creating an image file of the head of the three dimensional object, milling a milled head based upon the geometric file, recasting the milled head into a sculptable head, sculpting the sculptable shape, painting features onto the sculpted shape based upon the image file.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) from provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/584,597, entitled “Custom 3-D Figurine Created from a 3-D Camera”, filed on Jul. 1, 2004, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to three dimensional (3D) object capture, and more particularly to capturing two dimensional (2D) and 3D images and fitting 2D details onto a 3D object.  
         [0003]     It is well known in the art to capture images of people and other 3D objects using traditional cameras. More recently, digital cameras have been used to capture 2D images of 3D objects. The captured digital images may be stored for later viewing and printing. Such images allow for impressive detail and color.  
         [0004]      FIGS. 1A and 1B  show a digital camera  12  operable to capture a 2D image and a computer  14  and printer  16  for displaying the 2D image. In  FIG. 1A , digital camera  12  has a lens that captures light from a 3D object  10 . The light collected from object  10  may be sent to a charge-coupled-device (CCD) or other image sensor within digital camera  12 . The 2D surface of the CCD converts the captured light to pixels that represent color and shades at different ordinate positions on the surface of the CCD. The pixels generated by digital camera  12  may be stored in a standard format, such as the Joint-Pictures-Experts-Group (JPEG) or bit map format (BMP). The pixels may be in a pattern such as a Bayer pattern where some x and y positions may have pixels of some colors but not other colors, requiring interpolation to generate the missing colors.  
         [0005]     With reference to  FIG. 1B , computer  14  may receive a JPEG image file from digital camera  12 . A memory card from digital camera  12  can be inserted into a special reader on computer  14 , or an interface such as a Universal-Serial-Bus (USB) cable may be used to transfer the digital image file to computer  14 . The digital image represented by the JPEG file may be converted to display pixels and displayed by computer  14 , or may be converted to printable pixels and printed by printer  16 . Printer  16  can output a 2D picture  18  of 3D object  10 . While colorful and detailed, 2D picture  18  is still a flat image and thus is not a perfect representation of 3D object  10  as it lacks the third dimension.  
         [0006]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  show a 3D cameras  20  and  20 ′ and a 3D milling machine  24  operable to generate a 3D replica. In  FIG. 2A , 3D camera  20  may capture a 3D image of 3D object  10 . A variety of technologies can be used by 3D camera  20  to capture not only the 2D image, but also 3D information of object  10 . For example, some 3D cameras may have a mechanical probe that touches the surface of 3D object  10 . As the probe slides along the surface of 3D object  10 , 3D camera  20  records movements of the probe that correspond to 3D features of object  10 .  
         [0007]     Other implementations may use a laser range-finder to determine distances from 3D camera  20  to locations on the surface of 3D object  10 . The range-finder may be scanned across the surfaces of 3D object  10 . Another method is to project a grid pattern onto the surface of 3D object  10 , and then distortions in the projected grid pattern are visible on the surface of 3D object  10  and captured by 3D camera  20 . The grid pattern can have different colors to aid contour identification. A time-varying sinusoidal pattern can a Iso be projected onto 3D object  10  and variations captured by 3D camera  20  at different times. A second 3D camera  20 ′ may be used for stereoscopic image-capture methods, or 3D camera  20  or object  10  may be moved to capture views from different sides or angles that are later combined into a single 3D model for object  10 . The 3D information can be stored as a contour map of Z or range data in addition to the normal 2D image information captured by a camera. Some standard 3D geometry-file formats exist such as DXF, VRML, and STL. Various proprietary formats may also be used.  
         [0008]     With reference to  FIG. 2B , 3D milling machine  24  may read the geometry file from the 3D camera  20  and mill a 3D shape of the captured object. Various rapid-prototyping systems are available, such as a Computer-Numeric-Control CNC milling machine. Milling machine  24  receives the geometry file captured by 3D camera  20  and converts the geometry file to a series of motions of a drill or lathe bit  22 . A milling blank  28  may be loaded into milling machine  24  and can be moved up, down, left, right, and rotated by a turn-table  25  to allow bit  22  to cut at desired locations on milling blank  28 . After some time, bit  22  has cut away portions of milling blank  28  to reveal the desired milled shape  26 . Milled shape  26  is a representation of 3D object  10  that was captured by 3D camera  20  and described by the geometry file sent to milling machine  24 . While milled shape  26  is a 3-dimensional representation of 3D object  10 , it may lack color, texture, and other details of 3D object  10 . For example, milling blank  28  may be a block of wax or soft plastic and may be of uniform color and texture. Then milled shape  26  has the same uniform color and does not have the same colors and textures as 3D object  10 .  
         [0009]     The color and texture details of 2D picture  18  ( FIG. 1B ) are lost in order to add the 3D details of milled shape  26 . However, 2D picture  18  lacks the depth and shape of milled shape  26 . Neither 2D picture  18  nor milled shape  26  satisfyingly copies the color, details, and shapes of 3D object  10 .  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates a conventional way of making a custom 3D figurine  39 . After an image of an object  30  is captured by camera  31 , a picture  34  may be printed by color printer  33  or developed from an application such as Photoshop available from Adobe Systems, Incorporated of San Jose, Calif., and shown as a digital image  32 . A sculptor may use picture  34  as a basis to sculpt a sculpted object  35  featuring the face and head shown in picture  34 . The sculpted object  35  may be sculpted from a soft clay. The completed sculpted object  35  may then go through a hardening process such as by placing it into a kiln or oven  36  to harden. Alternatively other resin materials that can be harden quickly may be used to sculpt the features shown in picture  34  to sculpted object  35 . Further, porcelain materials may be used.  
         [0011]     After the hardening process, a paint master may use the picture  34  or digital image  32  to paint additional features onto the sculpted object  35  including skin color facial hair. Following the painting process, a fully colored and hardened head  38  may be attached with a spring and later engaged to a body to comprise a figurine  39 .  
         [0012]     Sculpting a generic human face and head is simple because it does not have to resemble to any person. Custom sculpting an actual face of a person entails a high degree of difficulty, and is both costly and time consuming. Alternative prior art techniques include using a mask to mask the geometry of the face and casting a mold from the mask to build the face and head. This technique is limited in that once masked, the resulting mold cannot be scaled. This technique disadvantageously requires putting masking material on the subjects face and waiting for the masking material to dry before removing the mask  
         [0013]     Another technique includes taking pictures at different angles to determine the depth, position, ratio and contour of varied parts of the face, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and head. However, all techniques using pictures to sculpt a human face and head are very error prone, time consuming, provide inconsistent quality and are costly.  
         [0014]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,926 issued to George et al. provides a system and method for producing realistic doll heads that have the facial appearance of particular children. The customer, using ten facial characteristics set forth in a chart, selects from among a predetermined number of facial characteristics those most closely resembling the facial appearance of the child. The facial characteristics that are selected comprise seven face shapes; skin tone; eye color; eyelash color; eyebrow color, thickness, and shape; hair color, cut, length, and style; and birthmarks, moles, and/or freckles. The selected characteristics are then applied to the doll head to produce a one-of-a-kind doll closely resembling the child.  
         [0015]     U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,987 issued to Hull et al. pertains to creating a doll having a personalized, photographic face such as a mother&#39;s face, impregnated in the material of which the doll is constructed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,388 relates to a system and method for producing a three dimensional relief. U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,819 relates to a method of producing a three-dimensional image.  
         [0016]     In view of the foregoing disadvantages in the prior art, there is a need for a custom 3D figurine which provides for a realistic likeness to the subject being represented. Preferably such a 3D figurine is inexpensive and a method of producing such a 3D figurine requires little turn around time, provides consistent quality and a 3D figurine having realistic features including color, contour, and depth.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0017]     In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a three dimensional head representative of a head of a three dimensional object includes a milled and sculpted head of the head of the three dimensional object having painted features thereon.  
         [0018]     In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of making a three dimensional head representative of a head of a three dimensional object includes the steps of creating a geometric file of the head of the three dimensional object, creating an image file of the head of the three dimensional object, milling a milled head based upon the geometric file, recasting the milled head into a sculptable head, sculpting the sculptable shape, painting features onto the sculpted shape based upon the image file.  
         [0019]     These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description, and claims.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]      FIGS. 1A and 1B  illustrate a prior art digital camera for capturing a 2D image and a computer and printer for displaying the 2D image.  
         [0021]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  illustrate a prior art 3D camera and a 3D milling machine that generate a 3D replica.  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  illustrates a prior art process of a making a custom 3D figurine.  
         [0023]      FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating a process of making a 3D figurine in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating the process of making a 3D figurine in accordance with the present invention; and  
         [0025]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a milling process in accordance with the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0026]     The present invention relates to a method of making custom 3D figurines. The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention as provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment will be apparent to those with skill in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments shown and described, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features herein disclosed.  
         [0027]     With reference to  FIG. 4 , a schematic representation of a method of making a custom 3D figurine is shown. Laser range-finding or other techniques may be used by a 3D camera  41  to capture geometric details of a 3D object  40 . The geometric details captured by 3D camera  41  may be loaded into a geometry file  42  which may include a standard format file such as DXF, STL, VRML, and IGES. Geometry file  42  may contain three dimensional coordinate data representative of points on the surface of 3D object  40 .  
         [0028]     3D camera  41  may also be operable to capture a 2D image of object  40 . In a preferred embodiment, the 2D image may be captured contemporaneously with the capture of geometric details of the 3D object  40  through a lens of 3D camera  41  in order to minimize distortions between the captured 2D image and the captured geometric details. In another embodiment, the laser range-finder may be slightly offset from a 2D image capturing lens.  
         [0029]     The captured 2D image may be loaded into a JPEG 2D image file  43  or into a 2D image file having any other format such as a TIFF file. Color pixel data for 2D coordinate locations in the captured 2D image may be stored in 2D image file  43 .  
         [0030]     In this manner, 3D camera  41  outputs both geometry file  42  and 2D image file  43 . Some commercially available 3D cameras are capable of outputting both files  42 ,  43 , such as the VIVID 700 available from Konica Minolta of Tokyo, Japan.  
         [0031]     Geometry file  42  may be sent to a 3D milling machine  44  which may be a computer-numerical-controlled (CNC) machine such as a computer-controlled lathe, mill, and drill. Geometry file  42  may first be processed and converted by a computer to generate machine-instruction files that may control the positioning of a cutting bit and work piece on milling machine  44 . A milling blank  45  may comprise wax or a soft plastic material that can be shaped by milling machine  44 . Milling blank  45  may be loaded onto milling machine  44  and shaped to generate a custom milled shape  46  which has the shape of 3D object  40  described by geometry file  42 .  
         [0032]     The 2D image file  43  may be sent to a personal computer (PC)  47 . PC  47  may generate a printer file of the 2D image file  43  that may be sent to a printer  48 . Printer  48  may generate a printed 2D image sheet  49  which has printed on it the 2D image captured by 3D camera  41  as 2D image file  43 . Both printed 2D image sheet  49  and custom milled shape  46  may be custom representations of 3D object  40 .  
         [0033]     Custom milled shape  46  may be re-cast into sculptable material such as clay to refine features such as a face, eyes, nose, mouth and ears and to create a sculptable head  50 . If only the face is captured by 3D camera  41  instead of the whole head, a sculptor may build a back side of the head and merge the back side with the face re-cast from custom milled shape  46  to complete the sculptable head  50 .  
         [0034]     The sculptable head  50  may go through a hardening process such as by placing the sculptable head  50  in a kiln or oven to create a hardened head  51 . Alternatively, the sculptable head  50  may be re-cast with a self-hardening material such as a resin material to create the hardened head  51 .  
         [0035]     A paint master or artist may use the printed 2D image sheet  49  or the 2D image from a monitor of PC  47  to paint flesh tones of the face, eyes, eyebrows, lips, teeth and hair onto the hardened head  51  to create a figurine head  52 .  
         [0036]     The figurine head  52  may be attached to a body with or without a spring to complete a custom 3D figurine  53 .  
         [0037]     With reference to  FIG. 5 , a method of forming the custom 3D figurine  53  is shown. In a step  102 , a 3D camera may capture both a 2D image and 3D geometric details of a 3D object. Some scanning may be performed to determine the geometric details, such as scanning by a laser range-finder or processing of fringe diffraction patterns of a projection on the 3D object. Two files may be generated by the 3D camera; a geometry file indicating 3D coordinate data and a 2D image file indicating 2D coordinate color data. The geometry file is typically coordinate data that corresponds to an industry standard such as DXF of AutoCAD, IGES, or STL format. The geometry file may be mono-color (black and white or grayscale) while 2D image file contains color information.  
         [0038]     The geometry file may be output by 3D camera in a step  104 . In a step  108  a CNC milling machine may machine a custom milled shape. Some pre-processing may be performed by the CNC machine itself or by another computer, such as converting a DXF/STL format of the geometry file into a file of machine-control instructions or Numerical Control format (NC). The custom milled shape may represent the object described by the geometry file.  
         [0039]     In a step  110  the custom milled shape may be re-molded and re-cast into a sculptable shape. The sculptable shape may be formed of a clay material or a resin material. Next in a step  116  a sculptor may sculpt features onto the sculptable shape to complete a sculptable head.  
         [0040]     The sculptable head may be hardened in a step  118  to create a hardened head. Such hardening may include placing the sculptable head into a kiln or oven. Alternatively, a sculptable head formed of resin may self-harden.  
         [0041]     In a step  106 , the 2D image file may be sent to a personal computer or workstation. The 2D image file may have a standard format such as JPEG, BMP, and TIFF. The personal computer may processes the 2D image file in a step  112 , such as by generating a printer file. The processed 2D image file may be printed by a printer in a step  114 .  
         [0042]     A paint master may paint the hardened head based upon the printed 2D image file to resemble the eyes, eye color, eyebrows, flesh tones, and the lips of the 3D object in a step  120  to create a figurine head. Finally, in a step  121 , the figurine head may be attached to a body with or without a spring to complete the custom 3D figurine.  
         [0043]     With reference to  FIG. 6 , a more detailed flowchart of CNC milling step  108  is shown. In a step  122 , the CNC milling machine may receive the DXF/STL geometry file. The size of the 3D object may be scaled in a step  124  to fit the shape and size of a milling blank. In a step  126 , the geometry file may be compiled into machine instructions or industry NC numerical-code files which control movement and operation of cutting instruments of the CNC milling machine. In a step  127 , the converted NC code files may be downloaded into the CNC milling machine.  
         [0044]     The milling blank is placed on the CNC machine in a step  128 . The milling blank may be wood, plastic, wax, foam, or other millable material that can be cut by the CNC milling machine. The converted geometry file of machine instructions is then executed by the CNC milling machine causing the milling machine to cut the milling blank according to the instructions in a step  130 . The milling machine may pause part-way through the program to allow a human operator to change cutting instruments or flip over the partially-milled blank. The final milled 3D object can be removed once execution is complete in a step  131 .  
       Alternate Embodiments  
       [0045]     Several alternative embodiments are contemplated by the inventor. It is possible to capture a 3D human face only or a whole head from different angles to build the custom 3D figurine. Capturing the whole head requires milling the front face and back head separately. Some CNC machines include a rotary axis that can mill the whole head without milling the front and back of the head separately. 3D printer from Z. Corporation of Burlington, Mass. can be used instead of a CNC milling machine.  
         [0046]     There are a variety of means for attaching the figurine head to the body. For example, a magnet may be attached inside the center the figurine head and a metal piece may be attached on the body&#39;s upper neck to allow the figurine head to easily snap onto the body and also allow the same figurine head to be easily attached to different type of body.  
         [0047]     The custom 3D figurines of the present invention and the method of making the custom 3D figurines of the present invention overcome the deficiencies of the prior art by providing for a realistic likeness to the subject being represented. The custom 3D figurine described is inexpensive and the method of producing the custom 3D figurine requires little turn around time, provides consistent quality and a custom 3D figurine having realistic features including color, contour, and depth.  
         [0048]     The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.