Hair style simulation image creating method

Abstract

A hairstyle simulation image is formed by combining a face image and a hair image such that a hair image of any hairstyle can be simply combined with the face image without impairing the naturalness of the fitted face and hair images, irrespective of whether or not a part of the face is covered with the hair. The hairstyle simulation image formed by combining the face and hair images is formed as follows. First, two eyes in the face image are detected, and a semi-oval shaped curve Lis formed based on a facial width Dand a line passing through the eyes (an eye line L). The facial width Dis obtained by multiplying the distance between the eyes by a predetermined multiplier, and the semi-oval shaped curve Lserves as a temporary facial outline. By moving the semi-oval shaped curve Lin the right and left directions on the face image, the left and right edges Pb and Pc of the facial outline of the face image are detected based on the degree of overlap between the semi-oval shaped curve Land an edge line La of the jaw portion of the face image. The left and right edges Pb and Pc of the outline of the hair image are also detected as in the above. The widths Dand Dbetween the left and right edges Pb and Pc of the facial outlines of the face and hair images, respectively, are adjusted to the same width, and then the face and hair images are combined with each other.