Patent ID: 7168953

Claim:
Computer method for generating a videorealistic audio-visual animation of a subject comprising the computer implemented steps of: (a) receiving video recorded data of a subject including sound data of the subject enunciating certain speech and image data of the subject posing certain facial configurations; (b) forming a multidimensional model based on the video recorded data, said model synthesizing at least images of new facial configurations, wherein for synthesizing images of new facial configurations, the model employs morphing according to mouth parameters; (c) for a given target speech stream or a given target image stream, mapping from the target stream to a trajectory of parameters in the model, the trajectory of parameters enabling the model to generate at least one of (1) synthesized images of new facial configurations of the subject for the target stream and (2) synthesized speech sound of new speech of the subject for the target stream, wherein for synthesizing images of new facial configurations, the model uses the trajectory of parameters to smoothly morph between a subset of images of the certain facial configurations of the video recorded data; and (d) rendering video images and speech sound from the synthesized images of new facial configurations of the subject and the target stream, such that a videorealistic audio-visual animation of the subject is produced.