Viewpoint Corporation

Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation

Dg Fastchannel, Inc

Veronika Shelyekhova

Alexei Lebedev

Alexander A Migdal

Michael Petrov

Vadim Abadjev

Leonid Polonskiy

Andrei Afanassenkov

Vladimir Bernstein

Improvement of the performance, usability, and functionality of software for editing three dimensional computer models and textures is described. Editing operations are performed on the model in an ordered list to reduce the amount of memory required to maintain previous versions, and certain editing operations are precalculated to reduce the amount of real time calculation required. Improvements to usability and functionality are provided by more precisely selecting portions of a model for editing, allowing textures to be moved more easily on the model, and allowing better blending of the appearance of adjacent textures.

Tools for 3D mesh and texture manipulation

System and method for constructing a 3D model of an object based on a series of silhouette and texture map images. In the exemplary embodiment an object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. In a second pass, the system gathers texture data. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object. The system uses the silhouette contour polygons to create a 3D polygonal mesh model of the object. The system determines the shape of the 3D model analytically by finding the areas of intersection between the edges of the model faces and the edges of the silhouette contour polygons. The system creates an initial, (rough) model of the 3D object from one of the silhouette contour polygons, then executes an overlaying procedure to process each of the remaining silhouette contour polygons. In the overlaying process, the system processes the silhouette contour polygons collected from each silhouette image, projecting each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the image plane of the silhouette contour polygons. The overlaying of each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the 2D plane of the silhouette contour polygons enables the present invention to determine those areas that are extraneous and should be removed from the (rough) 3D model. As the system processes the silhouette contour polygons in each image it removes the extraneous spaces from the initial object model and creates new faces to patch 'holes.' The polygonal mesh model, once completed, can be transformed into a triangulated mesh model. In a subsequent step, the system uses a deterministic procedure to map texture from the texture images onto the triangles of the 3D mesh model, locating that area in the various texture map images that is 'best' for each mesh triangle.

System and method of three-dimensional image capture and modeling

Systems and methods for identifying the contour of an object that is depicted in an image. An object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object by comparing light intensity values in the images of the object with light intensity values from an image of the background without the object.

System and method for constructing a 3D model of an object based on a series of silhouette and texture map images. In the exemplary embodiment an object is placed on a rotating turntable and a camera, which is stationary, captures images of the object as it rotates on the turntable. In one pass, the system captures a number of photographic images that will be processed into image silhouettes. In a second pass, the system gathers texture data. After a calibration procedure (used to determine the camera's focal length and the turntable's axis of rotation), a silhouette processing module determines a set of two-dimensional polygon shapes (silhouette contour polygons) that describe the contours of the object. The system uses the silhouette contour polygons to create a 3D polygonal mesh model of the object. The system determines the shape of the 3D model analytically-by finding the areas of intersection between the edges of the model faces and the edges of the silhouette contour polygons. The system creates an initial, (rough) model of the 3D object from one of the silhouette contour polygons, then executes an overlaying procedure to process each of the remaining silhouette contour polygons. In the overlaying process, the system processes the silhouette contour polygons collected from each silhouette image, projecting each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the image plane of the silhouette contour polygons. The overlaying of each face of the (rough) 3D model onto the 2D plane of the silhouette contour polygons enables the present invention to determine those areas that are extraneous and should be removed from the (rough) 3D model. As the system processes the silhouette contour polygons in each image it removes the extraneous spaces from the initial object model and creates new faces to patch 'holes.' The polygonal mesh model, once completed, can be transformed into a triangulated mesh model. In a subsequent step, the system uses a deterministic procedure to map texture from the texture images onto the triangles of the 3D mesh model, locating that area in the various texture map images that is 'best' for each mesh triangle.

The present invention provides a system for illuminating an object with a special kind of structured light pattern, recording the shape of the reflected points of light by means of a camera, and, by a triangulation technique that does not depend on the fixed direction of the light source relative to the camera, reconstructing the 3D shape of the object through a computer using the data points collected from the reflection of the structured light pattern. The scanning system is portable and does not require data processing contemporaneous with the data collection. The portable system stores in the storage media several images of the objects with different illumination patterns. The data is subsequently processed, by a computer system which applies data processing routines, i.e., the model building algorithms which provide 3D surface generation. The data acquisition according to the present invention is simplified to acquiring of only two or, optionally, four images of the object, thereby significantly increasing the digitization speed over that of laser-based scanners. The light source projects both structured light and uniform illumination light from the same apparent source, and that allows for numerical normalization of the images.

Growing community of inventors

Nutley, NJ, United States of America

Veronika Shelyekhova