Patent No – US 9,082,222
Patent Title: Physical face cloning
Inventors: Bickel; Bernd (Zurich, CH), Kaufmann; Peter (Liebefeld, CH), Thomaszewski; Bernhard (Zurich, CH), Bradley; Derek Edward (Zurich, CH), Jackson; Philip John (Glendale, CA), Marschner; Stephen R. (Ithaca, NY), Matusik; Wojciech (Lexington, MA), Gross; Markus (Uster, CH), Beeler; Thabo Dominik (Savognin, CH)
Assignee: DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. (Burbank, CA)
ETH ZURICH (EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZURICH) (Zurich, CH)
Family ID: 1000001213854
Appl. No.: 13/275,481
Filed: October 18, 2011
Abstract: A computer-implemented method is provided for physical face cloning to generate a synthetic skin. Rather than attempt to reproduce the mechanical properties of biological tissue, an output-oriented approach is utilized that models the synthetic skin as an elastic material with isotropic and homogeneous properties (e.g., silicone rubber). The method includes capturing a plurality of expressive poses from a human subject and generating a computational model based on one or more material parameters of a material. In one embodiment, the computational model is a compressible neo-Hookean material model configured to simulate deformation behavior of the synthetic skin. The method further includes optimizing a shape geometry of the synthetic skin based on the computational model and the captured expressive poses. An optimization process is provided that varies the thickness of the synthetic skin based on a minimization of an elastic energy with respect to rest state positions of the synthetic skin.
