PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CREATING AVATAR

• US 20120127164A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Texas A&M University System
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Texas A&M University System
• Inventors: Kim, Dokyoon, RHEE, Taehyun, Ha, Inwoo, Wei, Xiaolin, Chai, Jinxiang, Liu, Huajun
• Granted Patent: US 9,001,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/00 Three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects

Abstract

A processing apparatus for creating an avatar is provided. The processing apparatus calculates skeleton sizes of joints of the avatar and local coordinates corresponding to sensors attached to a target user, by minimizing a sum of a difference function and a skeleton prior function, the difference function representing a difference between a forward kinematics function regarding the joints with respect to reference poses of the target user and positions of the sensors, and the skeleton prior function based on statistics of skeleton sizes with respect to reference poses of a plurality of users.

Claims

1. A processing apparatus for creating an avatar, comprising:

a skeleton database to store statistics of skeleton sizes with respect to reference poses of a plurality of users;

a function determination unit to determine a difference function representing a difference between a forward kinematics function, the forward kinematics function regarding joints of the avatar with respect to a reference pose of a target user, and positions of sensors attached to the target user, and to determine a skeleton prior function based on the statistics of the skeleton sizes with respect to the reference poses of the plurality of users;

a calculation unit to calculate skeleton sizes of the joints of the avatar, and local coordinates corresponding to the sensors using at least one processor; and

a display unit to display the avatar based on the calculated skeleton sizes of the joints and the calculated local coordinates.

2. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the skeleton prior function comprises a mean, an eigen vector, and an eigen value calculated from the statistics of the skeleton sizes with respect to the reference poses of the plurality of users.

3. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates the skeleton sizes and the local coordinates to minimize a sum of the difference function and the skeleton prior function.

4. The processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a preprocessing unit to define the reference pose and to store information containing the statistics of the skeleton sizes of the reference poses of the plurality of users, in the skeleton database.

5. The processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an interface unit to receive information on the positions of the sensors attached to the target user from the sensors.

12. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the stored skeleton sizes are updated periodically according to changes of the reference poses.

13. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the stored skeleton sizes are updated non-periodically according to changes of the reference poses.

14. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensors are provided at five positions consisting of the forehead, both wrists, a chest, and a waist.

6. A processing method for creating an avatar, comprising:

maintaining a skeleton database storing statistics of skeleton sizes with respect to reference poses of a plurality of users;

determining a difference function representing a difference between a forward kinematics function regarding joints of the avatar with respect to a reference pose of a target user and positions of sensors attached to the target user;

determining a skeleton prior function based on the statistics of the skeleton sizes with respect to the reference poses of the plurality of users;

calculating skeleton sizes of the joints of the avatar and local coordinates corresponding to the sensors, using the difference function and the skeleton prior function using at least one processor; and

displaying the avatar based on the calculated sizes of the joints of the avatar and the calculated local coordinates.

7. The processing method of claim 6, wherein the skeleton prior function comprises a mean, an eigen vector, and an eigen value calculated from the statistics of the skeleton sizes with respect to the reference poses of the plurality of users.

8. The processing method of claim 6, wherein the skeleton sizes and the local coordinates are calculated to minimize a sum of the difference function and the skeleton prior function.

9. The processing method of claim 6, further comprising:

defining the reference poses; and

storing information containing the statistics of the skeleton sizes with respect to the reference poses of the plurality of users, in the skeleton database.

10. The processing method of claim 6, further comprising receiving information on positions of the sensors attached to the target user from the sensors.

11. At least one non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing computer readable instructions to control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 6.

15. A processing apparatus for creating an avatar, comprising:

a function determination unit to determine a difference function representing a difference between a forward kinematics function, the forward kinematics function regarding joints of the avatar corresponding to a reference pose of a target user, and positions of sensors attached to the target user, and to determine a skeleton prior function based on statistics of skeleton sizes corresponding to reference poses of a plurality of users;

a calculation unit to calculate skeleton sizes of the joints of the avatar, and local coordinates corresponding to the sensors using at least one processor; and

a display unit to display the avatar based on the calculated skeleton sizes of the joints and the calculated local coordinates.

16. The processing apparatus of claim 15, wherein the skeleton sizes and the local coordinates are calculated to minimize a sum of the difference function and the skeleton prior function.

17. A processing method for creating an avatar, comprising:

determining a difference function representing a difference between a forward kinematics function regarding joints of the avatar corresponding to a reference pose of a target user and positions of sensors attached to the target user;

determining a skeleton prior function based on statistics of skeleton sizes corresponding to reference poses of a plurality of users;

calculating skeleton sizes of the joints of the avatar and local coordinates corresponding to the sensors, using the difference function and the skeleton prior function using at least one processor; and

displaying the avatar based on the calculated sizes of the joints of the avatar and the calculated local coordinates.

18. The processing method of claim 17, wherein the skeleton sizes and the local coordinates are calculated to minimize a sum of the difference function and the skeleton prior function.

19. At least one non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing computer readable instructions to control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 17.