SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AVATAR GENERATION, RENDERING AND ANIMATION
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Accused Products
Abstract
A video communication system that replaces actual live images of the participating users with animated avatars. The system allows generation, rendering and animation of a two-dimensional (2-D) avatar of a user'"'"'s face. The 2-D avatar represents a user'"'"'s basic face shape and key facial characteristics, including, but not limited to, position and shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, and face contour. The system further allows adaptive rendering for displaying allow different scales of the 2-D avatar to be displayed on associated different sized displays of user devices.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1-23. -23. (canceled)
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24. A system for avatar generation, rendering and animation during communication between a first user device and a remote user device, said system comprising:
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a camera configured to capture images; a communication module configured to initiate and establish communication between said first and said remote user devices and to transmit and receive information between said first and said remote user devices; and one or more storage mediums having stored thereon, individually or in combination, instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising; selecting at least one of a model-based two-dimensional (2-D) avatar and a sketch-based 2-D avatar for use during communication; initiating communication; capturing an image; detecting a face in said image; determining facial characteristics from said face; converting said facial characteristics to avatar parameters; transmitting at least one of said avatar selection and avatar parameters. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. The system of claim 29, further comprising a display, wherein the instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following additional operations:
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rendering said remote avatar selection based on said remote avatar parameters to allow an avatar based on said remote avatar selection to be displayed with little or no distortion; and displaying said avatar based on said remote avatar selection.
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30. The system of claim 30, wherein the instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following additional operations:
animating said displayed avatar based on said remote avatar parameters.
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31. An apparatus for avatar generation, rendering and animation during communication between a first user device and a remote user device, said apparatus comprising:
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a communication module configured to initiate and establish communication between said first and said remote user devices; an avatar selection module configured to allow a user to select at least one of a model-based two-dimensional (2-D) avatar and a sketch-based 2-D avatar for use during communication; a face detection module configured to detect a facial region in an image of said user and to detect and identify one or more facial characteristics of said face; and an avatar control module configured to convert said facial characteristics to avatar parameters; wherein said communication module is configured to transmit at least one of said avatar selection and avatar parameters. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method for avatar generation, rendering and animation, said method comprising:
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selecting at least one of a model-based two-dimensional (2-D) avatar and a sketch-based 2-D avatar for use during communication; initiating communication; capturing an image; detecting a face in said image; determining facial characteristics from said face; converting said facial characteristics to avatar parameters; transmitting at least one of said avatar selection and avatar parameters. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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Specification