MPEG-4 Compatible Faces from Orthogonal Photos

MPEG-4 is scheduled to become an International Standard in March 1999. This paper demonstrates an experiment for a virtual cloning method and animation system, which is compatible with the MPEG-4 standard facial object specification. Our method uses orthogonal photos (front and side view) as input and reconstructs the 3D facial model. The method is based on extracting MPEG-4 face definition parameters (FDP) from photos, which initializes a custom face in a more capable interface, and deforming a generic model. Texture mapping is employed using an image composed of the two orthogonal images, which is done completely automatically. A reconstructed head can be animated immediately inside our animation system, which is adapted to the MPEG-4 standard specification of face animation parameters (FAP). The result is integrated into our virtual human director (VHD) system.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: CA
• Authors: Won-Sook Lee, Marc Escher, Gaël Sannier, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann
• Keywords: Animation System, CA 1999, Computer Animation, MPEG-4, MPEG-4 Face Definition