Avatar Facial Expression Techniques

• US 20140035934A1
• Filed: 04/11/2011
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Du, Yangzhou, Tong, Xiaofeng, Hu, Wei, Zhang, Yimin
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/474
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/20 Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, tesselation

Abstract

A method and apparatus for capturing and representing 3D wire-frame, color and shading of facial expressions are provided, wherein the method includes the following steps: storing a plurality of feature data sequences, each of the feature data sequences corresponding to one of the plurality of facial expressions; and retrieving one of the feature data sequences based on user facial feature data; and mapping the retrieved feature data sequence to an avatar face. The method may advantageously provide improvements in execution speed and communications bandwidth.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a database module to store a plurality of feature data sequences, each of the feature data sequences corresponding to one of a plurality of facial expressions; and

a face tracking module to retrieve one of the feature data sequences based on user facial feature data; and

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of feature data sequences include data for multiple features over a plurality of frames.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the database module is to further store trend data for each of the multiple features.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the face tracking module is to retrieve one of the feature data sequences based on trend data corresponding to the user facial feature data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tracking module is to determine the user facial feature data based on predetermined facial wireframe models.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a mapping module map the retrieved feature data sequence to an avatar face.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mapping module is to determine a lip line for the avatar.

8. A method, comprising:

storing a plurality of feature data sequences, each of the feature data sequences corresponding to one of a plurality of facial expressions; and

retrieving one of the feature data sequences based on user facial feature data; and

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of feature data sequences include data for multiple features over a plurality of frames.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing trend data for each of the multiple features.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the user facial feature data based on predetermined facial wireframe models.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising mapping the retrieved feature data sequence to an avatar face.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said mapping comprises determining a lip line for the avatar.

11. The method of claim 11, wherein said retrieving is based on trend data corresponding to the user facial feature data.

15. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

store a plurality of feature data sequences, each of the feature data sequences corresponding to one of a plurality of facial expressions; and

retrieve one of the feature data sequences based on user facial feature data.

16. The article of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by a machine, further cause the machine to:

map the retrieved feature data sequence to an avatar face.