The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 14, 1996
Masaki Ishikawa, Suwa, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
A. I. Soft, Inc., Matsumoto, JP;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for appropriately and without error extracting specific feature areas of a facial image, and outputting accurate coordinate data for the extracted facial features for use in such applications as three-dimensional morphing, image blending, or facial image identification. Preferably, the inclusion of a searching range setting unit for each facial feature to be extracted develop a searching range for extracting each facial feature referenced to individual points specified by the user for the mouth and left and right eyes based on the coordinate data of those specified points. The areas of those facial features are then extracted from within the defined searching ranges by area extractors, and the coordinate data of the contour points forming the contours of those areas is extracted by contour point extractors. Based on the coordinate values of the specific point specified for each facial feature area, extraction content evaluators then evaluate the relative positions of the extracted areas to determine whether said areas were correctly extracted.