Face information transmission system

• US 20040207720A1
• Filed: 12/31/2003
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Tozawa, Yukiko, Miyahara, Saori, Matsuki, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 7,224,367 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/105 Synthesis of the lips movements from speech, e.g. for talking heads
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages

Abstract

An object is to provide a face information transmission system enabling the generation of images with a high possibility of reflecting such elements as the feelings and intentions of a user. A mobile phone, as such a face information transmission system, comprises an image acquisition part to acquire images of a face of a subject; a first generation part to generate first image information relating to the subject and including the positions of characteristic points of the face based on the acquired images; a second generation part to generate a character image according to the facial expression of the face of the subject based on the generated first image information; and a transmission part to transmit the generated character image to another mobile phone.

Claims

1. A face information transmission system, comprising:

image acquisition means to acquire an image of the face of a subject;

first generation means to generate first image information relating to said subject and including the positions of characteristic points of said face, based on the acquired image;

second generation means to generate second image information according to the facial expression of the face of said subject based on the generated first image information; and

,

transmission means to transmit the generated second image information to a prescribed communication terminal.

2. The face information transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising:

utterance acquisition means to acquire utterances issued by said subject; and

image judgment means to judge whether or not said first image information satisfies prescribed conditions,

wherein, when said image judgment means judges that said first image information satisfies prescribed conditions, said second generation means generates second image information according to the facial expression of the face of said subject based, at least, on said first image information, and when said image judgment means judges that said first image information does not satisfy prescribed conditions, said second generation means generates second image information according to the facial expression of the face of said subject based on said utterances.

3. The face information transmission system according to claim 2, further comprising:

phoneme identification means to identify phonemes corresponding to an utterance acquired by said utterance acquisition means; and

phoneme judgment means to judge whether an identified phoneme satisfies prescribed conditions,

wherein, when said phoneme judgment means judges that said phoneme satisfies prescribed conditions, said second generation means generates second image information according to the facial expression of the face of said subject based, at least, on said phoneme, and when said phoneme judgment means judges that said phoneme does not satisfy prescribed conditions, said second generation means generates second image information according to the facial expression of the face of said subject based on said first image information.

4. The face information transmission system according to claim 3, wherein, when neither said first image information nor said phoneme satisfies the respective prescribed conditions and said utterance cannot be acquired, said second generation means employs image information determined in advance as said second image information.

5. The face information transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said first image information comprises information to identify the distribution of said characteristic points in the face of said subject.

6. The face information transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said image acquisition means acquires images of said face along a time series, and said first generation means generates said first image information including displacements in the positions of said characteristic points along a time series based on the acquired images.

7. The face information transmission system according to claim 6, wherein said first image information includes information to identify the movement of said characteristic points relative to the face of said subject.