University of Southern California

Otoy, Inc.

Timothy S Hawkins

Paul E Debevec

Chris D X N Tchou

Wan-Chun Ma

Julian Michael Urbach

Clay Sparks

Andreas Wenger

Malcolm Taylor

Andrew J Gardner

A subject is imaged using imaging equipment arranged on portable, wireless vehicles. The vehicles are positioned in a pattern in proximity to the subject and illuminate the subject in order to collect image data. The image data can be collected by cameras carried by the vehicles in addition to or instead of external high speed cameras.

Portable mobile light stage

A high dynamic range image editing system for editing an image file having pixels spanning a first range of light intensity levels in an image editing system that only displays differences in the light intensity levels of pixels within a second range of light intensity levels that is less than the first range of light intensity levels, without reducing the range of light intensity levels in the image file.

High dynamic range image editing

Acquisition, modeling, compression, and synthesis of realistic facial deformations using polynomial displacement maps are described. An analysis phase can be included where the relationship between motion capture markers and detailed facial geometry is inferred. A synthesis phase can be included where detailed animated facial geometry is driven by a sparse set of motion capture markers. For analysis, an actor can be recorded wearing facial markers while performing a set of training expression clips. Real-time high-resolution facial deformations are captured, including dynamic wrinkle and pore detail, using interleaved structured light 3D scanning and photometric stereo. Next, displacements are calculated between a neutral mesh driven by the motion capture markers and the high-resolution captured expressions. These geometric displacements are stored in one or more polynomial displacement maps parameterized according to the local deformations of the motion capture dots. For synthesis, the polynomial displacement maps can be driven with new motion capture data.

Facial performance synthesis using deformation driven polynomial displacement maps

An apparatus for generating a surface normal map of an object may include a plurality of light sources having intensities that are controllable so as to generate one or more gradient illumination patterns. The light sources are configured and arranged to illuminate the surface of the object with the gradient illumination patterns. A camera may receive light reflected from the illuminated surface of the object, and generate data representative of the reflected light. A processing system may process the data so as to estimate the surface normal map of the surface of the object. A specular normal map and a diffuse normal map of the surface of the object may be generated separately, by placing polarizers on the light sources and in front of the camera so as to illuminate the surface of the object with polarized spherical gradient illumination patterns.

Acquisition of surface normal maps from spherical gradient illumination

A lighting reproduction apparatus for illuminating a subject includes a reproduction light optical source that generates reproduction light. The optical source includes a plurality of light emitters, each characterized by an individual color channel. There may be nine different color channels. A driver drives the light emitter color channels with intensity values at which a substantial spectral match is achieved between the reproduction light and the desired illuminant, so that the subject appears to be illuminated by the desired illuminant. These channel intensity values may be determined by solving a minimization equation that minimizes a sum of square residuals of the reproduction light spectra to the desired illuminant spectra. The output reproduction light may be metamerically, matched with the desired illuminant, with respect to a particular camera's spectral response. One or more spectral reflectances of the subject may be measured and incorporated into the optimization process.

Color matching in lighting reproduction systems

A reflectometry apparatus and method is presented that allow the diffuse and specular reflectance parameters of an object to be independently and reliably measured, and that allow the variations in surface normal and surface height to be estimated. An extended light source having an elongated configuration, for example a linear cylindrical light source such as a neon tube, is moved across the surface of an object while a digital camera detects the reflected light to acquire a series of images of the object surface. A reflectance trace table is synthesized for a range of model parameters using a virtualized rendition of the linear light source. For each pixel, the observed reflectances are compared to the synthesized reflectance trace table, to determine the reflectance parameters that most closely match the observed data.

Reflectometry apparatus and method

A lighting simulation process for simulating the lighting of a subject at a location in a scene. Scene illumination data is created that specifies the illumination that the scene provides at the location at which the subject is to be simulated from a plurality of spatial directions. Subject illumination data is created that specifies the appearance of the subject when illuminated from a plurality of different spatial directions. The subject is then illuminated as if at the location in the scene by combing the scene illumination data with the subject illumination data.

Growing community of inventors

Marina Del Rey, CA, United States of America

Timothy S Hawkins