675 results about "Morphing" patented technology

Methods, articles of manufacture, systems, articles and programmable devices are provided for configuring a chameleon avatar in response to data associated with a target avatar within a virtual universe. In response to determining that an engagement of a chameleon avatar with a target avatar is indicated, it is determined whether the chameleon avatar should maintain an initial appearance or be auto-morphed for engagement with the target avatar. Auto-morphing may be accomplished by reading an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar, selecting a baseline avatar template and auto-morphing the baseline template to incorporate the read attribute. Target avatar attributes include gender, interests, outfits attribute, ethnic data, language and preferences, as well as others. The chameleon may mimic an appearance of the target avatar.

Methods and apparatus for light-field imaging. Light-field camera designs are described that produce higher spatial resolution than conventional plenoptic camera designs, while trading-off the light-field's angular sampling density. This lower angular resolution may be compensated for by a light-field image processing method that inserts data synthesized by view interpolation of the measured light-field. In one embodiment, a light-field image processing method that performs three-view morphing may be used to interpolate the missing angular samples of radiance. The light-field camera designs may be implemented in hand-held light-field cameras that may capture a light-field with a single exposure. Some of the light-field camera designs are internal to the camera, while others are external to the camera. One light-field camera design includes a single, relatively large lens and an array of negative lenses that are placed in front of (external to) the main lens of a conventional camera.

In a voice synthesis apparatus, by bounding a desired range of input text to be output by, e.g., a start tag “<morphing type=“emotion” start=“happy” end=“angry”>” and end tag < / morphing>, a feature of synthetic voice is continuously changed while gradually changing voice from a happy voice to an angry voice upon outputting synthetic voice.

The present invention relates to a method of intelligent 2D and 3D object and scene modeling, transformation and manipulation and more particularly this invention relates to the field of computer modeling, virtual reality, animation and 3D Web streaming. The method uses attributed hypergraph representations (AHR) for modeling, transforming and manipulating objects. From one or more 2D views of a 3D object or scene, range information is first computed and then a triangular mesh model is constructed. The data structure is designed to handle the transformations on the representation corresponding to movements and deformations of the object. In an attributed hypergraph, the attributes associated with the hyperedges and the vertices facilitates modeling of various shapes with geometrical, physical or behavior features. As a hierarchical and generic representation, AHR enables pattern matching, recognition, synthesis and manipulation to be carried out at different resolution levels on different subsets depending on the context. Symbolic computation on knowledge represented in the format of attributed hypergraphs becomes straightforward. Given the features of a 3D object or scene, the procedure of constructing the AHR corresponds to the concept of functor in category theory, which maps one category to another one. The transformations of AHR are in the form of a set of operations defined on attributed hypergraphs, which stand for the motions and deformations of the object. This representation is applied to various modeling and manipulation tasks on 3D objects. The process of motion analysis of a 3D object is the task of extracting a sequence of AH operators from the AHR of the object. A 3D scene can be modeled by AHR and then altered / augmented with other 3D models, by which an augmented reality can be built. Given the AHR's of two different 3D shapes, 3D morphing may be accomplished by matching the two AHR's and then mapping the difference to a sequence of AH operators. Model based animation of an object can be accomplished by applying a set of AH operators to its AHR. The AHR method forms a data compression system for efficient web streaming over the Internet.

A method for assessment of operational performance of a 3D manufacturing apparatus is provided. Images are obtained, in real-time during a 3D polymer printing build process in which at least one structure is built by the 3D manufacturing apparatus, the images being of an area of a build platform on which the at least one structure is built. The obtained images are evaluating, and it is determined, based on the evaluating, whether an operational flaw with the 3D manufacturing apparatus has occurred. Operational flaws include errors in the operation of the 3D manufacturing apparatus and / or component thereof, as evidenced by, for instance, distortions or other errors in the structure(s) being built and / or materials being used.

A method and system for air flight is shown. The blended lifting body system includes a lift module, a propulsion module, a payload module and a control system. A conventional control system morphs the other modules through variable buoyant lift, internal structures and a flexible exterior, and varies bio-inspired oscillation in the propulsion module in order to facilitate takeoff, flight and landing. The hybrid dynamic / morphing shape buoyant, dynamic lift-assisted (hybrid) air vehicle, employing aquatic-like (e.g. fin) propulsion was discussed, with many variations and examples.

User preference information is obtained from a user in order to personalize morphing of media for presentation to the user. User preference information may be provided by a user, generated based on user activity, or determined based on user group associations. Target media is analyzed and selected using user preference information. Contribution levels of source and target media are determined to morph target media into source media. Neurologically salient attributes of media are determined and morphed more significantly than less neurologically salient attributes. Morphed media is presented to the user to influence bias, persuasion, etc.

Icons can be combined to form toolbars such as those appearing on computer desktops and within application windows such as web browsers. Small icons are desired because desktop real estate is expensive. Small icons can be difficult to select or open because it can be hard to confirm which icon is indicated. An icon is indicated when the desktop cursor hovers over it. Altering the indicated icon provides good user feedback. Icons inside browser windows can be changed varying their size. Non-indicated icons can revert to a minimum size while an indicated one grows to a maximum size. Different images can be displayed for different sized icons, producing a more pleasing appearance. Alternatively, icons can be presented as display images produced by morphing two images together using morphing functions and icon weights. Morphing includes growing and shrinking as well as color changes, animating, and so forth.

Methods and apparatuses for nonlinear scaling of video images. To match the aspect ratios of a video image and the target display area, at least one embodiment of the present invention scales the video image according to one or more nonlinear functions along the horizontal direction and / or the vertical direction. In one embodiment, the nonlinear functions are such that the original aspect ratio of the video image is preserved near the center region (or strip) of the image and the image is gradually stretched (or compressed) as it is mapped to the edges. In one example, the scaling is implemented by the texture mapping functionality of OpenGL using graphics hardware. In one embodiment of the present invention, the nonlinear mapping is constructed according to a polynomial mapping; and, the coefficients of the polynomial are adjustable by a user to trade off distortion between the image center and the image edges, giving the user control over the location and the amount of distortion.

Unit cell bistable elements, and particular arrangements thereof, that can transform or morph a structure from one shape to another. In certain embodiments, the current invention includes unit cell bistable elements, and particular arrangements and uses thereof, that can transform or morph a structure from one shape to another. In an embodiment, the current invention provides a method / ability to transform any four-bar compliant mechanism into a bistable compliant mechanism. It is an object of the current invention to facilitate structures morphing from one specific shape to another specific shape using unit cell bistable elements.

The invention proposes a method and apparatus for significantly improving the quality of voice morphing and guaranteeing the similarity of converted voice. The invention sets several standard speakers in a TTS database, and selects the voices of different standard speakers for speech synthesis according to different roles, wherein the voice of the selected standard speaker is similar to the original role to a certain extent. Then the invention further performs voice morphing on the standard voice similar to the original voice to a certain extent, in order to accurately mimic the voice of the original speaker, so as to make the converted voice closer to the original voice features while guaranteeing the similarity.

An interactive computer program for seaming a number of images into a panorama. Various parameters which affect how the images are seamed can be changed interactively. Parameters such as position, orientation, focal length, which image will be visible where images overlap, and the opacity curve can be changed. The result of any change is immediately visible. A user can move the control points, thereby “morphing” or distorting the contribution to the panorama of an image. Each pixel is assigned an “alpha” value which indicates the opacity value of that pixel in an area where images overlap. Alpha values can be changed according to a pre-established curve. The original images are not changed. Instead, only the transform between the original images and the final panorama is changed.