Patent ID: 7646909

Claim:
A method in a computer system for generating a 3D image of an object, the method comprising: one or more processors implementing the following steps: providing a 3D model of an object, the 3D model including a 3D image of a standard object and parameters indicating variations of an individual object; receiving a 2D image of the object; locating feature points of the 2D image of the object; calculating parameters that map the located feature points of the 2D image to feature points of a 2D representation of the 3D image of the standard object; computing 3D feature points of the 3D image of the object using the provide 3D model and the calculated parameters; after computing the 3D feature points, interpolating 3D non-feature points of the 3D image from the computed 3D feature points; and after the 3D non-feature points of the 3D image are interpolated, texture mapping the 2D image of the object to the 3D image with the computed 3D feature points and interpolated 3D non-feature points, wherein the 3D model comprises a shape vector of the standard object, a matrix of the first m eigenvectors of the shape vector, and coefficients or parameter vector of the individual object.