Patent ID: 7535472

Claim:
A method for generating intuitive quasi-eigen faces comprising steps of: a) representing a dynamic shape of a three dimensional face model with a vector; b) making a hand-generated expression basis; c) converting the hand-generated expression basis into a new expression basis, wherein the new expression basis is a quasi-eigen faces generated using a computer; and d) synthesizing expression with the quasi-eigen faces using a computer, wherein the new expression basis comprises a plurality of quasi-eigen faces, wherein the linear combinations of the quasi-eigen faces cover a motion capture data, wherein each of the quasi-eigen faces resembles a corresponding element of the hand-generated expression basis, wherein the dynamic shape of a three dimensional face model is represented by a vector, v=v(t)=[v 1 T , . . . , v N T ] T , wherein superscript T represents a transpose of a vector, and wherein v i represents the 3D position of the i-th vertex, N is a number of vertices, wherein the vector v is represented by a triangular mesh comprising N vertices, wherein the vector forms a facial mesh data, wherein the expression v is synthesized by v = v 0 + ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ w i H ⁢ e i H , wherein the neutral face, v 0 =[(v 1 0 ) T , . . . , (v N 0 ) T ] T , and the weights, w i H , are given, wherein the hand-generated expression basis is given by Ê H ={ê 1 H , . . . , ê n H }, wherein n is the number of elements of the hand-generated expression basis and ê i H is the geometry of the i-th element, and wherein superscript H stands for hand-generated and e i H represents a displacement of ê i H from a neutral face, and wherein the step of converting the hand-generated expression basis into a new expression basis comprises steps of: a) forming an approximate hyperplane out of the motion capture data or the facial mesh data; and b) identifying the orthogonal axes that spans the hyperplane.