Patent Document ID: 7812839
Application ID: 11634996
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of creating a 3-D surface of a realistic physical subject, the method comprising: capturing a plurality of photos of the realistic physical subject in respectively different positions with camera calibration, said photos including a first photo and second photos other than the first photo; the method further comprising the following steps being performed by an image-based curved surface modeling tool in interactions with user input: (a) performing a NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline) curve fitting with respect to the subject on the first photo by using control points designated in a curve characterizing a shape of the subject; (b) performing a curve fitting with respect to the subject on each of the second photos, by using the control points and camera calibration information of each said second photo; (c) creating a 3-D curve by using the control points of each of the photos and camera calibration information of the corresponding photo; and (d) creating the 3-D surface by designating the 3-D curve created in the step (c); wherein the step (a) includes displaying the first photo on a monitor of the tool; receiving user input that designates at least some of the control points on the curve characterizing the shape of the subject in the first photo being displayed; and displaying the NURBS fitting curve, with the control points, over the first photo being displayed for facilitating user edit of the control points.