Soul Machines Limited

Xiani Tan

Mark Andrew Sagar

Tim Szu-Hsien Wu

Xueyuan Zhang

Werner Ollewagen

To realistically animate a String (such as a sentence) a hierarchical search algorithm is provided to search for stored examples (Animation Snippets) of sub-strings of the String, in decreasing order of sub-string length, and concatenate retrieved sub-strings to complete the String of speech animation. In one embodiment, real-time generation of speech animation uses model visemes to predict the animation sequences at onsets of visemes and a look-up table based (data-driven) algorithm to predict the dynamics at transitions of visemes. Specifically posed Model Visemes may be blended with speech animation generated using another method at corresponding time points in the animation when the visemes are to be expressed. An Output Weighting Function is used to map Speech input and Expression input into Muscle-Based Descriptor weightings.

Real-time generation of speech animation

A method for creating a model of a virtual object or digital entity is described, the method comprising receiving a plurality of basic shapes for a plurality of models; receiving a plurality of specified modification variables specifying a modification to be made to the basic shapes; and applying the specified modification(s) to the plurality of basic shapes to generate a plurality of modified basic shapes for at least one model.

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Auckland, New Zealand

Xiani Tan