Abstract: A method for digitizing a two-dimensional ECG chart includes scanning the ECG chart. The ECG chart includes an ECG waveform that appears on a background grid having generally horizontal and generally vertical grid lines. The background grid is detected, and the number of pixels between grid lines is determined. The vertical axis of the scanned ECG chart is scaled in units of volts per pixel and the horizontal axis of the scanned ECG chart is scaled in units of time per pixel.

Abstract: A method for tracking the motion of a person's face for the purpose of animating a 3-D face model of the same or another person is disclosed. The 3-D face model carries both the geometry (shape) and the texture (color) characteristics of the person's face. The shape of the face model is represented via a 3-D triangular mesh (geometry mesh), while the texture of the face model is represented via a 2-D composite image (texture image). Both the global motion and the local motion of the person's face are tracked. Global motion of the face involves the rotation and the translation of the face in 3-D. Local motion of the face involves the 3-D motion of the lips, eyebrows, etc., caused by speech and facial expressions. The 2-D positions of salient features of the person's face and/or markers placed on the person's face are automatically tracked in a time-sequence of 2-D images of the face.

Abstract: A method for animating a 3-D model of a person's face is disclosed. The 3-D face model carries both the geometry (shape) and the texture (color) characteristics of the person's face. The shape of the face model is represented via a 3-D triangular mesh (geometry mesh), while the texture of the face model is represented via a 2-D composite image (texture image). A separate 3-D triangular mesh, called the shape mesh, is used to animate the nodes of the geometry mesh: Each triangle of the shape mesh controls the motion of a plurality of nodes of the geometry mesh that are connected to it. Thus, by moving the nodes of the shape mesh, which are small in number, the nodes of the geometry mesh, which can be very large in number, are animated realistically. The nodes of the shape mesh can be moved directly or indirectly. In the indirect method, the nodes of the shape mesh are moved in accordance with the so-called facial action values, which are even smaller in number than the nodes of the shape mesh.

Abstract: A method for generating a 3-D model of a person's face is disclosed. The 3-D face model carries both the geometry (shape) and the texture (color) characteristics of the person's face. The shape of the face model is represented via a 3-D triangular mesh (geometry mesh), while the texture of the face model is represented via a 2-D composite image (texture image). The geometry mesh is obtained by deforming a predefined standard 3-D triangular mesh based on the dimensions and relative positions of the person's facial features, such as eyes, nose, ears, lips, chin, etc. The texture image is obtained by compositing a set of 2-D images of the person's face which are taken from particular directions such as front, right, left, etc, and modifying them along region boundaries to achieve seamless stitching of color on the 3-D face model. The directional images are taken while the mouth is closed and the eyes are open.

Abstract: A method for tracking a predetermined, two-dimensional portion of an image throughout a sequence of images, the method comprises the steps of selecting a reference frame; selecting the predetermined, two-dimensional portion within the reference frame by choosing a polygon that defines the boundary of the predetermined portion; fitting a reference mesh having at least three corner nodes and an inside node to the reference polygon; tracking the reference polygon in subsequent or previous image frames by tracking the corner nodes; mapping the reference mesh into the tracked polygon in the subsequent or previous image frames; and refining locations of the inside and corner nodes in the subsequent or previous image frames for tracking local and global motion of the predetermined portion.

Abstract: A method for motion tracking and constructing a mosaic of video objects is disclosed. Also disclosed is a method for synthetic object transfiguration from a mosaic. A 2-D triangular mesh is employed to represent a video object, which permits to describe the motion of the object by the displacements of the node points of the mesh, and to describe any intensity variations by the contrast and brightness parameters estimated for each node point. Using the temporal history of the node point locations, the nodes of the 2-D mesh are continued to be tracked even when they become invisible because of self-occlusion or occlusion by another object. By adding new nodes or updating the 2-D triangular mesh, any uncovered parts of the video object are incrementally added to the mosaic. A finite number of views representing the constructed mosaic are selected and used for synthetic transfiguration of a replacement object in place of the original one.