Facial image processing methods and systems

• US 6,850,872 B1
• Filed: 08/30/2000
• Issued: 02/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kang, Sing Bing, Olynyk, Kirk, Guenter, Brian K., Raghupathy, Sashi, Marschner, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Broda, Samuel
• Application Number:
  US09/652,600
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 703 1- 2, 703/6, 702/159, 702/167, 382/154, 382/224, 356/601, 356/364
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/506 Illumination models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/521 from laser ranging, e.g. using interferometry; from the projection of structured light
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/60 relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation

Abstract

In the described embodiment, methods and systems for processing facial image data for use in animation are described. In one embodiment, a system is provided that illuminates a face with illumination that is sufficient to enable the simultaneous capture of both structure data, e.g. a range or depth map, and reflectance properties, e.g. the diffuse reflectance of a subject'"'"'s face. This captured information can then be used for various facial animation operations, among which are included expression recognition and expression transformation.

Claims

1. A facial image-processing method comprising:

illuminating a face with multiple different light sources, wherein at least one of the light sources is polarized;

measuring range map data from said illuminating;

measuring image data from said illuminating;

deriving a 3-dimensional surface from the range map data;

computing surface normals to the 3-dimensional surface; and

processing the surface normals and the image data to derive an albedo map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the light sources is infrared.

3. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 1.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the light sources are at different frequencies.

5. A facial image-processing method comprising:

illuminating a face with multiple different light sources, wherein all of the light sources are polarized;

measuring range map data from said illuminating;

measuring image data from said illuminating;

deriving a 3-dimensional surface from the range map data;

computing surface normals to the 3-dimensional surface; and

processing the surface normals and the image data to derive an albedo map.

6. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 5.

7. A facial image-processing method comprising:

illuminating a face with multiple different light sources;

measuring range map data from said illuminating;

applying a generic face template to the range map data to reject noise that is associated with the range map data;

measuring image data from said illuminating;

deriving a 3-dimensional surface from the range map data;

computing surface normals to the 3-dimensional surface; and

processing the surface normals and the image data to derive an albedo map.

8. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 7.

9. A facial image-processing method comprising:

illuminating a face with multiple different light sources;

measuring range map data from said illuminating;

measuring image data from said illuminating;

filtering the range map data;

deriving a 3-dimensional surface from the range map data;

computing surface normals to the 3-dimensional surface; and

processing the surface normals and the image data to derive an albedo map.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 9.