Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 11-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being rejected by Reddi (Patent No. US 20210118241 A1)
Regarding claim 1, Reddi teaches A computer-implemented method for aligning a first virtual manikin with a second virtual manikin, the method comprising: (Reddi, “[0015] An object that allows achieving this aim is then a computer-implemented method for a computer-implemented method for making a skeleton of a modeled human or animal body taking a posture”)
obtaining a first posture of the first virtual manikin matching a first posture of the second virtual manikin, each virtual manikin having joints each representing a respective articulation and segments each connecting a respective pair of joints, each respective joint of at least a portion of the joints of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective joint of the second virtual manikin, each joint of the first virtual manikin and joint of the second of the virtual manikin associated together both representing a same respective articulation; (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
determining, for each given joint of the first virtual manikin associated with a given joint of the second virtual manikin, an offset between a position of the given joint of the first virtual manikin and a position of the given joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for at least one association of joints being non-zero; (Reddi, “[0011] According to another aspect, postures are mapped from one skeleton to another, in order to maintain posture synchronization between two different skeletons. This will be called hereafter “retargeting”. Retargeting is known by itself, but it is usually applied to skeletons belonging to different DHM.”)
obtaining a gesture of the second virtual manikin, the gesture including one or more second postures of the second virtual manikin; and (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
for each second posture of the gesture, determining a second posture of the first virtual manikin matching the second posture of the second virtual manikin, the determined offsets between the associated joints being maintained in each determined second posture. (Reddi, “[0017] b) determining a relative configuration of the second skeleton, said relative configuration mapping each joint of the first skeleton associated to a joint of the second skeleton to said joint of the second skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 2, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first virtual manikin includes at least one first pair of associated joints connected by a single segment, the second virtual manikin comprising, for each first pair, two or more segments between the joints associated with those of the first pair, a length of the single segment connecting each first pair in the first posture differing from that in at least one second posture. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 3, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the joints of each virtual manikin include at least four distal joints, the segments connecting, for each virtual manikin, the pairs of joints successively up to the distal joints, each distal joint of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective distal joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for each association of distal joints being zero. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton; / [0028] FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E and 3F and FIG. 4 illustrate different steps of a method according to an embodiment")
Regarding claim 4, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein each distal joint has an orientation, the orientations between the associated distal joints being equal in each determined second posture. (Reddi, [0038] Then, the relative transformation matrix of each joint of SK1 (e.g. joint B) with respect to the corresponding joint of SK2 (e.g. joint F) is computed. Let T.sub.B the initial transformation matrix of joint B, expressing its position and orientation with respect to a point serving as a global origin, or root: / [0046] i.e. such that the relative transformation between the corresponding joints is unchanged. This applies for all joints of SK2, in such a way that its relative configuration with respect to SK1 (defined by the set of relative configurations of all its joints) remains unchanged.”)
Regarding claim 5, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the first posture of the first virtual manikin matching the first posture of the second virtual manikin includes performing a minimization of a cumulative distance between the associations of joints. (Reddi, “[0044] The relative configuration of the source skeleton SK1 is defined by the relative transformation matrices of all its joints. / [0045] When the pose of the source skeleton SK1 changes, joint B takes a different configuration (position and/or orientation along three rotation axes), which will be designated by B1 (see FIG. 3B) and described by a different transformation matrix T.sub.B1. Retargeting, or posture synchronization, includes finding a new configuration F1 for joint F, described by transformation matrix T.sub.F1 such that / [0049] Therefore, rotating the joints of the target skeleton SK2 is not sufficient, in general, to achieve perfect posture synchronization between SK1 and SK2. And indeed, in the prior art, retargeting often fails to achieve an exact posture synchronization between skeletons, and only allows to minimize an error in relative configuration change.”)
Regarding claim 6, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first virtual manikin includes at least one joint connected to two associated joints, the determining of the second posture of the first virtual manikin including aligning the at least one joint with the two associated joints. (Reddi, “[0028] FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E and 3F and FIG. 4 illustrate different steps of a method according to an embodiment; and / [0048] The compensatory movement to displace the joint F to match the position of B1 can be achieved only by using joint E. Let the unit vectors of EF and EB1 be P1 and P2 (see FIG. 3C), whose values can be computed from T.sub.F and T.sub.B1. Let θ.sub.Eswing be the angle between P1, P2 and let P3 be the unit vector normal to P1 and P2 (see FIG. 4). These parameters can all be determined from the transformation matrices. If joint E is rotated about axis P3 with magnitude θ.sub.Eswing, then joint F reaches location F′. However, in general, T.sub.B1.sup.F′≠T.sub.B.sup.F because the distance between E and F′, d.sub.EF′ is different from d.sub.AB1. Indeed, a comparison of FIGS. 3A and 3C shows that while B and F coincide, B1 and F′ do not.”)
Regarding claim 11, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a number of joints of the first virtual manikin is lower than a number of joints of the second virtual manikin. (Reddi, “[0012] According to yet another object, at least one of the skeletons of the DHM (intended to be used as a target of the retargeting operation) is provided with prismatic joints on some or all of its bones. Bones provided with a prismatic joint have a variable length. The additional degree of freedoms provided by the prismatic joints allow ensuring a perfect or near-perfect retargeting even when the target skeleton has substantially less rotational joints than the source skeleton. This, in turns, allows the retargeting process to be done accurately and at a low computational cost.”)
Regarding claim 12, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first virtual manikin is an ergonomically accurate skeleton and/or the second virtual manikin is a biomechanically accurate skeleton. (Reddi, “[0026] FIG. 1 represents a digital body model comprising a first (“source”) skeleton, a second (“target”) skeleton and a skin;”)
Regarding claim 13, Reddi teaches A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program having instructions for performing a computer-implemented method for aligning a first virtual manikin with a second virtual manikin, the method comprising: (Reddi, “0062] A computer suitable for carrying out a method according to an exemplary embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the computer includes a Central Processing Unit CPU which performs the processes described above. The process can be stored as an executable program, i.e. a set of computer-readable instructions in memory, such as RAM M1 or ROM M2, or on hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state driver (SDD) M3, DVD/CD drive M4, or can be stored remotely. Moreover, one or more computer files defining one or more digital body model and/or skeleton may also be stored on one or more of memory devices M1 to M4, or remotely.”)
obtaining a first posture of the first virtual manikin matching a first posture of the second virtual manikin, each virtual manikin having joints each representing a respective articulation and segments each connecting a respective pair of joints, each respective joint of at least a portion of the joints of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective joint of the second virtual manikin, each joint of the first virtual manikin and joint of the second of the virtual manikin associated together both representing a same respective articulation; (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
determining, for each given joint of the first virtual manikin associated with a given joint of the second virtual manikin, an offset between a position of the given joint of the first virtual manikin and a position of the given joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for at least one association of joints being non-zero; (Reddi, “[0011] According to another aspect, postures are mapped from one skeleton to another, in order to maintain posture synchronization between two different skeletons. This will be called hereafter “retargeting”. Retargeting is known by itself, but it is usually applied to skeletons belonging to different DHM.”)
obtaining a gesture of the second virtual manikin, the gesture including one or more second postures of the second virtual manikin; and (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
for each second posture of the gesture, determining a second posture of the first virtual manikin matching the second posture of the second virtual manikin, the determined offsets between the associated joints being maintained in each determined second posture. (Reddi, “[0017] b) determining a relative configuration of the second skeleton, said relative configuration mapping each joint of the first skeleton associated to a joint of the second skeleton to said joint of the second skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 14, Reddi teaches The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the first virtual manikin includes at least one first pair of associated joints connected by a single segment, the second virtual manikin including, for each first pair, two or more segments between the joints associated with those of the first pair, a length of the single segment connecting each first pair in the first posture differing from that in at least one second posture. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 15, Reddi teaches The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the joints of each virtual manikin include at least four distal joints, the segments connecting, for each virtual manikin, the pairs of joints successively up to the distal joints, each distal joint of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective distal joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for each association of distal joints being zero. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton; / [0028] FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E and 3F and FIG. 4 illustrate different steps of a method according to an embodiment")
Regarding claim 16, Reddi teaches The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein each distal joint has an orientation, the orientations between the associated distal joints being equal in each determined second posture. (Reddi, [0038] Then, the relative transformation matrix of each joint of SK1 (e.g. joint B) with respect to the corresponding joint of SK2 (e.g. joint F) is computed. Let T.sub.B the initial transformation matrix of joint B, expressing its position and orientation with respect to a point serving as a global origin, or root: / [0046] i.e. such that the relative transformation between the corresponding joints is unchanged. This applies for all joints of SK2, in such a way that its relative configuration with respect to SK1 (defined by the set of relative configurations of all its joints) remains unchanged.”)
Regarding claim 17, Reddi teaches A system comprising: a processor coupled to a memory and a graphical user interface, the memory having recorded thereon a computer program having instructions for aligning a first virtual manikin with a second virtual manikin, that when executed by the processor causes the processor to be configured to: (Reddi, “0062] A computer suitable for carrying out a method according to an exemplary embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the computer includes a Central Processing Unit CPU which performs the processes described above. The process can be stored as an executable program, i.e. a set of computer-readable instructions in memory, such as RAM M1 or ROM M2, or on hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state driver (SDD) M3, DVD/CD drive M4, or can be stored remotely. Moreover, one or more computer files defining one or more digital body model and/or skeleton may also be stored on one or more of memory devices M1 to M4, or remotely.”)
obtaining a first posture of the first virtual manikin matching a first posture of the second virtual manikin, each virtual manikin having joints each representing a respective articulation and segments each connecting a respective pair of joints, each respective joint of at least a portion of the joints of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective joint of the second virtual manikin, each joint of the first virtual manikin and joint of the second of the virtual manikin associated together both representing a same respective articulation; (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
determining, for each given joint of the first virtual manikin associated with a given joint of the second virtual manikin, an offset between a position of the given joint of the first virtual manikin and a position of the given joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for at least one association of joints being non-zero; (Reddi, “[0011] According to another aspect, postures are mapped from one skeleton to another, in order to maintain posture synchronization between two different skeletons. This will be called hereafter “retargeting”. Retargeting is known by itself, but it is usually applied to skeletons belonging to different DHM.”)
obtaining a gesture of the second virtual manikin, the gesture including one or more second postures of the second virtual manikin; and (Reddi, “[0016] a) providing a first skeleton and a second skeleton of at least one digital body model, each of said first and second skeleton comprising a plurality of rotational joints connected by bones, the first skeleton having a greater number of rotational joints than the second skeleton, each rotational joint of the second skeleton being associated to a respective joint of the first skeleton;”)
for each second posture of the gesture, determining a second posture of the first virtual manikin matching the second posture of the second virtual manikin, the determined offsets between the associated joints being maintained in each determined second posture. (Reddi, “[0017] b) determining a relative configuration of the second skeleton, said relative configuration mapping each joint of the first skeleton associated to a joint of the second skeleton to said joint of the second skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 18, Reddi teaches The system of claim 17, wherein the first virtual manikin includes at least one first pair of associated joints connected by a single segment, the second virtual manikin having, for each first pair, two or more segments between the joints associated with those of the first pair, a length of the single segment connecting each first pair in the first posture differing from that in at least one second posture. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton;”)
Regarding claim 19, Reddi teaches The system of claim 17, wherein the joints of each virtual manikin include at least four distal joints, the segments connecting, for each virtual manikin, the pairs of joints successively up to the distal joints, each distal joint of the first virtual manikin being associated with a respective distal joint of the second virtual manikin, the offset determined for each association of distal joints being zero. (Reddi, “[0027] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C represent, respectively, a source and a target skeleton in their initial (“zero”) pose, the source skeleton taking a different pose and the “retargeting” of the target skeleton; / [0028] FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E and 3F and FIG. 4 illustrate different steps of a method according to an embodiment")
Regarding claim 20, Reddi teaches The system of claim 19, wherein each distal joint has an orientation, the orientations between the associated distal joints being equal in each determined second posture. (Reddi, [0038] Then, the relative transformation matrix of each joint of SK1 (e.g. joint B) with respect to the corresponding joint of SK2 (e.g. joint F) is computed. Let T.sub.B the initial transformation matrix of joint B, expressing its position and orientation with respect to a point serving as a global origin, or root: / [0046] i.e. such that the relative transformation between the corresponding joints is unchanged. This applies for all joints of SK2, in such a way that its relative configuration with respect to SK1 (defined by the set of relative configurations of all its joints) remains unchanged.”)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 7-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Reddi (Patent No. US 20210118241 A1) in further view of Zhao (NPL, “FM-3DFR: Facial Manipulation-Based 3-D Face Reconstruction | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore”, 02/17/2023).
Regarding claim 7, Reddi teaches the method further comprising, after the determining of the second posture of the first virtual manikin matching the second posture of the second virtual manikin, deforming the mesh of the first virtual manikin to match with the surface landmarks of the second virtual manikin. (Reddi, “[0059] At this point, the three transformation matrices T.sub.Enew, T.sub.ϕFswing and T.sub.ϕFtwist allow computing the new configuration of joint F. It should be noted that, out of the seven DOF available, six are used to achieve posture synchronization. One DOF (twist parameter) is left at joint E and can be used to address the issues like joint ranges of motion at the joint F and possible distortions of the skin deformation which is attached the link EF. Indeed, in most practical cases it is required that the whole process of retargeting is carried out without disturbing the visual appearance of the skin. In these cases it's not enough to get exact solution for retargeting but also the appearance of the skin should be kept intact without distortions. The “modular” retargeting procedure described above, treating one bone at a time, allows isolation of one DOF to deal with additional constraints. In particular, this DOF can be used to preserve the natural appearance of the skin. Additionally, in some cases, the retargeting solution may drive some joints out of their allowed motion range; in this scenario, the remaining DOF can be used to ensure that the retargeting solutions respects the constraints on the joint positions and orientations”)
However, Reddi is silent about The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each virtual manikin represents a respective skin shape, the first virtual manikin including a mesh having vertices positioned on the skin shape represented by the first virtual manikin, the second virtual manikin having surface landmarks positioned on the skin shape represented by the second virtual manikin,
Zhao teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each virtual manikin represents a respective skin shape, the first virtual manikin including a mesh having vertices positioned on the skin shape represented by the first virtual manikin, the second virtual manikin having surface landmarks positioned on the skin shape represented by the second virtual manikin, (Zhao, Pg. 213, “Fig. 5. Example of the expression manipulation method based on mesh editing. The red points in (a) are the original key points. Blue points in (b) and (c) are target key points. In this process, following the blue points, the eye part of the mesh model is changed to achieve the effect of closing the eyes. Then, the eye-closing face image can be rendered by the new face model.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the
effective filing date of claimed invention to have modified Reddi art by including The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each virtual manikin represents a respective skin shape, the first virtual manikin including a mesh having vertices positioned on the skin shape represented by the first virtual manikin, the second virtual manikin having surface landmarks positioned on the skin shape represented by the second virtual manikin as taught by Zhao and use that with Reddi’s Computer-Implemented Method for Making a Skeleton of a Modeled Body Take a Posture.
The motivation for the combination is to improve accuracy of rendering the skin of the manikins.
Regarding claim 8, Reddi teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the deforming of the mesh includes, for each segment of the first virtual manikin: (Reddi, “[0059] At this point, the three transformation matrices T.sub.Enew, T.sub.ϕFswing and T.sub.ϕFtwist allow computing the new configuration of joint F. It should be noted that, out of the seven DOF available, six are used to achieve posture synchronization. One DOF (twist parameter) is left at joint E and can be used to address the issues like joint ranges of motion at the joint F and possible distortions of the skin deformation which is attached the link EF. Indeed, in most practical cases it is required that the whole process of retargeting is carried out without disturbing the visual appearance of the skin. In these cases it's not enough to get exact solution for retargeting but also the appearance of the skin should be kept intact without distortions. The “modular” retargeting procedure described above, treating one bone at a time, allows isolation of one DOF to deal with additional constraints. In particular, this DOF can be used to preserve the natural appearance of the skin. Additionally, in some cases, the retargeting solution may drive some joints out of their allowed motion range; in this scenario, the remaining DOF can be used to ensure that the retargeting solutions respects the constraints on the joint positions and orientations”)
However, Reddi is silent about determining the vertices of the mesh belonging to the segment of the first virtual manikin; and modifying the position of the determined vertices such that the resulting mesh contains the surface landmarks.
Zhao teaches determining the vertices of the mesh belonging to the segment of the first virtual manikin; and modifying the position of the determined vertices such that the resulting mesh contains the surface landmarks. (Zhao, Pg. 213, “Fig. 5. Example of the expression manipulation method based on mesh editing. The red points in (a) are the original key points. Blue points in (b) and (c) are target key points. In this process, following the blue points, the eye part of the mesh model is changed to achieve the effect of closing the eyes. Then, the eye-closing face image can be rendered by the new face model.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the
effective filing date of claimed invention to have modified Reddi art by including determining the vertices of the mesh belonging to the segment of the first virtual manikin; and modifying the position of the determined vertices such that the resulting mesh contains the surface landmarks as taught by Zhao and use that with Reddi’s Computer-Implemented Method for Making a Skeleton of a Modeled Body Take a Posture.
Regarding claim 9, Reddi is silent about The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, before the modifying of the position, determining a local coordinate system including a first axis along the segment and two second axes perpendicular to each other and to the first axis, the determined vertices having coordinates in the determined local coordinate system, the modifying of the position including, for each determined vertex, modifying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes.
Zhao teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, before the modifying of the position, determining a local coordinate system including a first axis along the segment and two second axes perpendicular to each other and to the first axis, the determined vertices having coordinates in the determined local coordinate system, the modifying of the position including, for each determined vertex, modifying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes. (Zhao, Pg. 211, “1) Mesh Editing: Because we want the deformed parts of the 3-D face model to be eyebrows and eyes, when rotating the face model to the frontal, we can regard the eyebrows and eyes as a plane. That is to say, when we deform the face mesh, we only need to consider the x - and y -axis, but not the z -axis. For the mesh deformation in the plane, the function can be shown as”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the
effective filing date of claimed invention to have modified Reddi art by including The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, before the modifying of the position, determining a local coordinate system including a first axis along the segment and two second axes perpendicular to each other and to the first axis, the determined vertices having coordinates in the determined local coordinate system, the modifying of the position including, for each determined vertex, modifying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes as taught by Zhao and use that with Reddi’s Computer-Implemented Method for Making a Skeleton of a Modeled Body Take a Posture.
Regarding claim 10, Reddi is silent about The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, for each pair of successive surface landmarks along the first axis: determining a shape function between the successive surface landmarks of the pair; and estimating a deformation factor to be applied to the mesh between the surface landmarks of the pair based on the determined shape function and an interpolation function, and wherein the modifying of the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes includes multiplying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes by the estimated deformation factor.
Zhao teaches The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, for each pair of successive surface landmarks along the first axis: determining a shape function between the successive surface landmarks of the pair; and estimating a deformation factor to be applied to the mesh between the surface landmarks of the pair based on the determined shape function and an interpolation function, and wherein the modifying of the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes includes multiplying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes by the estimated deformation factor. (Zhao, Pg. 213, “Fig. 5. Example of the expression manipulation method based on mesh editing. The red points in (a) are the original key points. Blue points in (b) and (c) are target key points. In this process, following the blue points, the eye part of the mesh model is changed to achieve the effect of closing the eyes. Then, the eye-closing face image can be rendered by the new face model.”)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the
effective filing date of claimed invention to have modified Reddi art by including The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the deforming of the mesh further includes, for each pair of successive surface landmarks along the first axis: determining a shape function between the successive surface landmarks of the pair; and estimating a deformation factor to be applied to the mesh between the surface landmarks of the pair based on the determined shape function and an interpolation function, and wherein the modifying of the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes includes multiplying the coordinates of the vertex along the two second axes by the estimated deformation factor as taught by Zhao and use that with Reddi’s Computer-Implemented Method for Making a Skeleton of a Modeled Body Take a Posture.
Conclusion
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/TAMMY GODDARD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611
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