4868693
An efficient texture generation technique for human head cloning and morphing
This paper presents a technique to efficiently generate a parameterized full-head texture from a single face image of the scanned data for modeling photorealistic 3D heads. We automatically register face scans in a database by deforming a generic head mesh to fit the specific person’s face geometry with a volume morphing approach. After the face texture is transferred onto it, the 3D generic mesh is parameterized over a 2D texture domain to establish a correspondence between all the scanned textures. After having performed a vertex-toimage binding for all vertices of the head mesh, we automatically generate a full-head texture using color interpolation for unbound regions and weighted average splines for visual boundary removal. We also use a deformation method to extract ear textures from the input image for texturing individual ears. With the exception of the initial feature point selection, our method is fully automated. We show photorealistic and real-time head rendering and morphing with the resulting texture.
31519303
Data-Driven Facial Feature Morphing for 3D Face Synthesis
59703933
Anatomy-based 3D facial modeling for expression animation
In this paper we propose a new hierarchical 3D facial model that conforms to the human facial anatomy for realistic facial expression animation. The facial model has a hierarchical biomechanical structure, incorporating a physically-based approximation to facial skin tissue, a set of anatomically-motivated facial muscle actuators and underlying skull structure. The deformable skin model has multi-layer structure to approximate different types of soft tissue. It takes into account the nonlinear stress-strain relationship of the skin and the fact that soft tissue is almost incompressible. Different kinds of muscle models have been developed to simulate the distribution of the muscle force on the skin due to muscle contraction. By the presence of the skull model, our facial model takes advantage of both more accurate facial deformation and the consideration of facial anatomy during the interactive definition of facial muscles. Under the muscular force, the deformation of the facial skin is evaluated by solving the governing dynamic equation numerically. To improve computational efficiency, we use a localized, semi-implicit integration method which allows a larger time step to be taken in the simulation while retaining stability. The dynamic facial animation algorithm runs at an interactive rate with flexible and realistic facial expressions to be generated.
39711298
Data-Driven Feature Control Models for Creating Virtual Faces
This paper presents a novel data-driven method for creating realistic face models based on estimated high-level feature control models. Our method takes as examples 3D face scans. By bringing scanned models into full correspondence with a model fitting approach, we apply principal component analysis (PCA) to the exemplar shapes of each facial feature to build a shape space. We compute a set of face anthropometric measurements to parameterize example feature shapes in the measurement spaces. Using the PCA coefficients as a compact shape representation, we approach the shape synthesis problem by forming scattered data interpolation functions that are devoted to the generation of desired shape by taking the anthropometric parameters as input. The correspondence among all exemplar textures is obtained by parameterizing a 3D generic mesh over a 2D image domain. The new feature texture with desired attributes is synthesized by interpolating the example textures.
43457446
Synthesis of facial expressions using a 3D anatomical model
In this paper we propose an individualized 3D facial model constructed from the anatomical perspective for realistic facial expression synthesis. Our model incorporates a physically-based approximation to facial skin tissue, a set of anatomically-motivated facial muscle actuators and underlying skull structure. The skin is modeled as a multi-layer mass-spring lattice by taking into account the nonlinear stress-strain relationship of the real skin. The 3D face model incorporates a skull structure which extends the scope of facial motion and facilitates facial muscle definition. The automatic facial muscle construction is achieved by using an efficient muscle mapping approach that ensures different muscles to be located at the anatomically correct positions between the skin and skull layers. For computational efficiency, we devise a semi-implicit integration method to numerically solve the governing dynamics. The dynamic facial animation algorithm runs at an interactive rate with realistic facial expressions to be synthesized.
45254253
A physically-based model for real-time facial expression animation
In this paper we propose a physically-based 3D dynamic facial model based on anatomical knowledge for facial expression animation. The facial model incorporates a physically-based approximation to facial skin and a set of anatomically-motivated facial muscles. The skin model is established through the use of a mass-spring system with nonlinear springs which simulate the elastic dynamics of a real facial skin. Facial muscle models are developed to emulate facial muscle contraction. Lagrangian mechanics governs the dynamics, dictating the deformation of facial surface in response to muscle forces. The dynamic facial modeling algorithm runs at interactive rate with continuous 3D display on a graphics workstation. Using our system, we can effectively synthesize realistic facial expressions and analyze tile relationship between facial surface deformation and the activation of underlying facial muscles.
205397705
On the system of rational difference equations xn=A + 1/yn-p, yn=A+yn-1/xn-tyn-s
Abstract In this paper, we study the behavior of the positive solutions of the system of two difference equations x n = A + 1 y n - p , y n = A + y n - 1 x n - r y n - s , n = 1 , 2 , … , where p ⩾ 1, r ⩾ 1, s ⩾ 1, A ⩾ 0, and x1−r, x2−r, … , x0, y1−max{p,s}, y2−max{p,s}, … , y0 are positive real numbers.
44825167
Restoring warped document image through segmentation and full page interpolation
In camera-based optical character recognition (OCR) applications, warping is a primary problem. Warped document images should be restored before they are recognized by traditional OCR algorithm. This paper presents a novel restoration approach, which first makes an estimation of baseline and vertical direction estimation based on rough line and character segmentation, then selects several key points and determines their restoration mapping as a result of the estimation step, at last performs Thin-Plate Splines (TPS) interpolation on full page image using these key points mapping. The restored document image is expected to have straight baselines and erect character direction. This method can restore arbitrary local warping as well as keep the restoration result natural and smooth, consequently improves the performance of the OCR application. Experiments on several camera captured warped document images show effectiveness of this approach.
15044843
Learning from facial aging patterns for automatic age estimation
Age Specific Human-Computer Interaction (ASHCI) has vast potential applications in daily life. However, automatic age estimation technique is still underdeveloped. One of the main reasons is that the aging effects on human faces present several unique characteristics which make age estimation a challenging task that requires non-standard classification approaches. According to the speciality of the facial aging effects, this paper proposes the AGES (AGing pattErn Subspace) method for automatic age estimation. The basic idea is to model the aging pattern, which is defined as a sequence of personal aging face images, by learning a representative subspace. The proper aging pattern for an unseen face image is then determined by the projection in the subspace that can best reconstruct the face image, while the position of the face image in that aging pattern will indicate its age. The AGES method has shown encouraging performance in the comparative experiments either as an age estimator or as an age range estimator.
62060172
Multi-octagon-grid search algorithm for fast motion estimation
The UMHexagonS algorithm has been accepted for the possible implementation of the block motion estimation process in the H.264 video coding standard due to its high accuracy and low computational requirement. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed, which improves on the UMHexagonS algorithm in three aspects. Firstly, a new prediction vector is added for avoiding being trapped in a local minimum. Secondly, the 5times5 full-search is replaced with an octagon search and possibly two small diamond searches to reduce the computational requirement. Thirdly, the multi-hexagon-grid search is changed to a multi-octagon-grid search to both reduce the computational complexity and better catch the direction of the optimal vector. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can reduce five to ten percent of the computational complexity of the UMHexagonS algorithm without loss of its accuracy.
31009913
Synthesis of 3D faces using region-based morphing under intuitive control
This paper presents a new region-based method for automatically synthesizing varied, natural looking 3D human face models by morphing local facial features according to intuitive control parameters. We automatically compute a one-to-one vertex correspondence among the unregistered face scans in a large database by deforming a generic mesh to fit the specific person's face geometry in a global-to-local fashion. With the obtained correspondence, we transform the generated data sets of feature shapes into vector space representations. We parameterize the example models using the face anthropometric measurements that reflect the facial physical structure, and predefine the interpolation functions for the parameterized example models based on radial basis functions. At runtime, the interpolation functions are evaluated to efficiently generate the appropriate feature shape by taking the anthropometric parameters as input. We use a shape blending approach for generating a seamlessly deformed mesh around the feature region boundary. The correspondence among all example textures is established by parameterizing the 3D generic mesh over a 2D image domain. The new feature texture with desired attributes is synthesized by interpolating the example textures. Our 3D face synthesis method has several advantages: (1) it regulates the naturalness of synthesized faces, maintaining the quality existing in the real face examples; (2) the region-based morphing and comprehensive face shape and texture control parameters allow more diverse faces to be generated readily; and (3) the automatic runtime face synthesis is efficient in time complexity and performs fast. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.