SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APPLYING A REFLECTANCE MODIFYING AGENT TO CHANGE A PERSON'S APPEARANCE BASED ON A DIGITAL IMAGE

• US 20080192999A1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TCMS Transparent Beauty, LLC
• Original Assignee: TCMS Transparent Beauty, LLC
• Inventors: Edgar, Albert D., Iglehart, David C., Yeager, Rick B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,901 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/622 with simulation on a subsidiary picture reproducer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/628 Memory colours, e.g. skin or sky

Abstract

A computer-controlled system determines attributes of a frexel, which is an area of human skin, and applies a reflectance modifying agent (RMA) at the pixel level to automatically change the appearance of human features based on one or more digital images. The change may be based on a digital image of the same frexel, for as seen in a prior digital photograph captured previously by the computer-controlled system. The system scans the frexel and uses feature recognition software to compare the person'"'"'s current features in the frexel with that person'"'"'s features in the digital image. It then calculates enhancements to the make the current features appear more like the features in the digital image, and it applies the RMA to the frexel to accomplish the enhancements. Or the change may be based on a digital image of another person, through the application of RMAs.

Claims

1. A system to change the appearance of a region of a first person'"'"'s skin, the system comprising

at least one desired image of skin;

a computing device comprising enhancement software to determine the difference between the region of the first person'"'"'s skin and the desired image; and

an apparatus comprising

at least one reflectance modifying agent application element, such that the reflectance modifying agent application element selectively applies a reflectance modifying agent to specific frexels in accordance with the difference between the region of the first person'"'"'s skin and the desired image.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a desired image of skin further comprises

a previously captured digital image of the first person.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein a desired image of skin further comprises

a previously captured digital image of a second person.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the enhancement software

compares a stored digital image of the first person with a recently captured image of the first person;

uses the stored digital image as a model to derive enhancement values for the recently captured image; and

derives a printable enhancement image based on the enhancement values.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the enhancement software further comprises

software for recognizing features in digital images;

software for creating a digital image feature map;

software for creating a frexel feature map; and

software for deriving an enhancement image from the difference between values in the digital image feature map and those in the frexel image map, reduced by a filtering ratio.

6. An method to change the appearance of a region of a first person'"'"'s skin, the method comprising

obtaining a digital image showing at least a portion of the first person'"'"'s desired appearance;

scanning a plurality of frexels of the first person to obtain a frexel feature map;

deriving enhancement data by comparing the plurality of frexels to the digital image;

defining a printable reconstruction image from the enhancement data;

applying a reflectance modifying agent to the plurality of frexels to create an enhancement.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein obtaining a digital image showing at least a portion of the first person'"'"'s desired appearance further comprises

obtaining a stored digital image of the first person.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein obtaining a digital image showing at least a portion of the first person'"'"'s desired appearance further comprises

averaging more than one digital images of the first person.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein obtaining a digital image showing at least a portion of the first person'"'"'s desired appearance further comprises

obtaining a digital image of a second person.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising

providing an apparatus comprising

at least one reflectance modifying agent application element, such that the reflectance modifying agent application element selectively applies a reflectance modifying agent to specific frexels in accordance with the difference between the actual appearance of the region of a first person'"'"'s skin and the desired image;

and

applying the reflectance modifying agent to the plurality of frexels with the apparatus.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising

scanning the plurality of frexels of the first person with the apparatus.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein obtaining a digital image showing at least a portion of the first person'"'"'s desired appearance further comprises

obtaining the digital image in a data format that comprises reflectance and topographical data.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the frexel feature map further comprises

scan data in a format that comprises reflectance and topographical data.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein deriving enhancement data by comparing the plurality of frexels to the digital image further comprises

comparing the reflectance and topographical data of the digital image and the frexel feature map.

15. The method of claim 6 wherein deriving enhancement data by comparing the plurality of frexels to the digital image further comprises

applying a filter to the difference between the digital image and the frexel feature map.