System and method for applying a reflectance modifying agent to change a persons appearance based on a digital image

• US 8,582,830 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2012
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Chan S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thomas, Mia M
• Application Number:
  US13/476,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20120230562A1
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382115-118, 382/128, 382162-167, 382/209, 382/254, 382/256, 382/312, 347/111, 604/290, 359/359, 600/310, 600/473, 600/476, 401/118, 401/119
• US Class Current: 382/115
• 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 for changing an appearance of at least one frexel within a region of human skin of a first person, the system comprising:

at least one reflectance modifying agent application element, the reflectance modifying agent application element being operable to selectively apply one or more reflectance modifying agents to frexels of the human skin; and

a computing environment that is coupled to the at least one reflectance modifying agent application element and that is operable to perform operations comprising;

obtaining a digital image feature map that provides data regarding at least one desired feature,

scanning the region of human skin to generate a frexel feature map that identifies at least one feature associated with the first person,

comparing the digital feature map and the frexel feature map to generate a reconstruction image, the reconstruction image comprising enhancement data, and

instructing the at least one reflectance modifying agent application element to apply the one or more reflectance modifying agents to the at least one frexel based on the enhancement data such that the at least one feature associated with the first person appears more like the at least one desired feature.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital image feature map is generated based on a first image showing one or more features desired for the region of the human skin.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first image comprises a digital image of the first person.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the first image comprises a digital image of a region of human skin of a second person.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the first image comprises reflectance and topographical data.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein comparing the digital feature map and the frexel feature map to generate a reconstruction image comprises:

using the digital feature map as a model to derive enhancement values; and

generating the reconstruction image as an enhancement image based on the enhancement values.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing environment is further operable to perform operations comprising:

recognizing features in digital images;

creating the digital image feature map from a digital image;

creating the frexel feature map; and

generating the reconstruction image as an enhancement image based on a difference between values in the digital image feature map and values in the frexel feature map.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein generating the reconstruction image comprises applying a filtering ratio to the digital image feature map.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital image feature map is based on a plurality of digital images.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the digital image feature map comprises data provided as an average of data across the plurality of digital images.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the reconstruction image comprises applying a filter to a difference between the digital image feature map and the frexel feature map.

12. A method for changing an appearance of at least one frexel within a region of human skin of a first person, the method comprising:

obtaining a digital image feature map that provides data regarding at least one desired feature;

scanning the region of human skin to generate a frexel feature map that identifies at least one feature associated with the first person;

comparing the digital feature map and the frexel feature map to generate a reconstruction image, the reconstruction image comprising enhancement data; and

instructing at least one reflectance modifying agent application element to apply one or more reflectance modifying agents to the at least one frexel based on the enhancement data such that the at least one feature associated with the first person appears more like the at least one desired feature.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the digital image feature map is generated based on a first image showing one or more features desired for the region of the human skin.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first image comprises a digital image of the first person.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first image comprises a digital image of a region of human skin of a second person.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first image comprise reflectance and topographical data.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein comparing the digital feature map and the frexel feature map to generate a reconstruction image comprises:

using the digital feature map as a model to derive enhancement values; and

generating the reconstruction image as an enhancement image based on the enhancement values.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

recognizing features in digital images;

creating the digital image feature map from a digital image;

creating the frexel feature map; and

generating the reconstruction image as an enhancement image based on a difference between values in the digital image feature map and values in the frexel feature map.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the reconstruction image comprises applying a filtering ratio to the digital image feature map.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the digital image feature map is based on a plurality of digital images.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the digital image feature map comprises data provided as an average of data across the plurality of digital images.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein generating the reconstruction image comprises applying a filter to a difference between the digital image feature map and the frexel feature map.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the reflectance modifying agent application element is operable to selectively apply the one or more reflectance modifying agents to frexels of the human skin.