Patent Document ID: 8144976
Application ID: 12961350
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An Active Appearance Model (AAM) machine, comprising: (A) a learn module providing a plurality of statistical fitting pairs, each statistical fitting pair consisting of a model image of a class of object and a corresponding statistical model fitting function defining shape and appearance features of said class of object, wherein: (i) a first statistical fitting pair within said plurality of statistical fitting pairs includes a first model image and corresponding first statistical model fitting function defined from feature information drawn from a first image library of true image samples of said class of object, said first statistical fitting pair being effective for fitting said first model image to less than 100% of the images within said first image library, the images of said first image library to which said first model image cannot be fit defining a second image library of true image samples; (ii) a second statistical fitting pair within said plurality of statistical fitting pairs includes a second model image and a corresponding second statistical model fitting function defined from feature information drawn from only said second image library of true image samples; (B) an AAM input for receiving an input image; (C) an align module for conditionally and separately accessing each statistical fitting pair within said plurality of statistical fitting pairs, and for each accessed statistical fitting pair, applying a fitting sequence wherein the accessed statistical fitting pair's corresponding statistical model fitting function is optimized to determine a best fit of its corresponding model image to said input image through iterative applications of said corresponding statistical model fitting function to produce an aligned image if its corresponding model image can successfully be fitted to said input image, and if its corresponding model image cannot be successfully fitted to said input image, then sequentially accessing each remaining statistical fitting pair, in turn, until a statistical fitting pair is accessed wherein the model image of the currently accessed statistical fitting pair is successfully fitted to said input image or until all statistical fitting pairs within said plurality of statistical fitting pairs have been accessed; and (D) an AAM output for outputting said aligned image.