Patents by Inventor Menglei Chai

Menglei Chai has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240112401
    Abstract: A system and method are described for generating 3D garments from two-dimensional (2D) scribble images drawn by users. The system includes a conditional 2D generator, a conditional 3D generator, and two intermediate media including dimension-coupling color-density pairs and flat point clouds that bridge the gap between dimensions. Given a scribble image, the 2D generator synthesizes dimension-coupling color-density pairs including the RGB projection and density map from the front and rear views of the scribble image. A density-aware sampling algorithm converts the 2D dimension-coupling color-density pairs into a 3D flat point cloud representation, where the depth information is ignored. The 3D generator predicts the depth information from the flat point cloud. Dynamic variations per garment due to deformations resulting from a wearer's pose as well as irregular wrinkles and folds may be bypassed by taking advantage of 2D generative models to bridge the dimension gap in a non-parametric way.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2022
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Panagiotis Achlioptas, Menglei Chai, Hsin-Ying Lee, Kyle Olszewski, Jian Ren, Sergey Tulyakov
  • Publication number: 20240029346
    Abstract: A system to enable 3D hair reconstruction and rendering from a single reference image which performs a multi-stage process that utilizes both a 3D implicit representation and a 2D parametric embedding space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2022
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventors: Zeng Huang, Menglei Chai, Sergey Tulyakov, Kyle Olszewski, Hsin-Ying Lee
  • Publication number: 20230419599
    Abstract: A method for applying lighting conditions to a virtual object in an augmented reality (AR) device is described. In one aspect, the method includes generating, using a camera of a mobile device, an image, accessing a virtual object corresponding to an object in the image, identifying lighting parameters of the virtual object based on a machine learning model that is pre-trained with a paired dataset, the paired dataset includes synthetic source data and synthetic target data, the synthetic source data includes environment maps and 3D scans of items depicted in the environment map, the synthetic target data includes a synthetic sphere image rendered in the same environment map, applying the lighting parameters to the virtual object, and displaying, in a display of the mobile device, the shaded virtual object as a layer to the image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2022
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: Menglei Chai, Sergey Demyanov, Yunqing Hu, Istvan Marton, Daniil Ostashev, Aleksei Podkin
  • Publication number: 20230410376
    Abstract: System and methods for compressing image-to-image models. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have achieved success in generating high-fidelity images. An image compression system and method adds a novel variant to class-dependent parameters (CLADE), referred to as CLADE-Avg, which recovers the image quality without introducing extra computational cost. An extra layer of average smoothing is performed between the parameter and normalization layers. Compared to CLADE, this image compression system and method smooths abrupt boundaries, and introduces more possible values for the scaling and shift. In addition, the kernel size for the average smoothing can be selected as a hyperparameter, such as a 3×3 kernel size. This method does not introduce extra multiplications but only addition, and thus does not introduce much computational overhead, as the division can be absorbed into the parameters after training.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2023
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Jian Ren, Menglei Chai, Sergey Tulyakov, Qing Jin
  • Publication number: 20230394681
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a method for accessing a set of images depicting at least a portion of a face. A set of facial regions of the face is identified, each facial region of the set of facial regions intersecting another facial region with at least one common vertex that is a member of a set of facial vertices. For each facial region of the set of facial regions, a weight formed from a set of region coefficients is generated. Based on the set of facial regions and the weight of each facial region of the set of facial regions, the face is tracked across the set of images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2023
    Publication date: December 7, 2023
    Inventors: Chen Cao, Menglei Chai, Linjie Luo, Oliver Woodford
  • Patent number: 11836835
    Abstract: Systems and methods herein describe novel motion representations for animating articulated objects consisting of distinct parts. The described systems and method access source image data, identify driving image data to modify image feature data in the source image sequence data, generate, using an image transformation neural network, modified source image data comprising a plurality of modified source images depicting modified versions of the image feature data, the image transformation neural network being trained to identify, for each image in the source image data, a driving image from the driving image data, the identified driving image being implemented by the image transformation neural network to modify a corresponding source image in the source image data using motion estimation differences between the identified driving image and the corresponding source image, and stores the modified source image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Menglei Chai, Jian Ren, Aliaksandr Siarohin, Sergey Tulyakov, Oliver Woodford
  • Publication number: 20230386158
    Abstract: Systems, computer readable media, and methods herein describe an editing system where a three-dimensional (3D) object can be edited by editing a 2D sketch or 2D RGB views of the 3D object. The editing system uses multi-modal (MM) variational auto-decoders (VADs)(MM-VADs) that are trained with a shared latent space that enables editing 3D objects by editing 2D sketches of the 3D objects. The system determines a latent code that corresponds to an edited or sketched 2D sketch. The latent code is then used to generate a 3D object using the MM-VADs with the latent code as input. The latent space is divided into a latent space for shapes and a latent space for colors. The MM-VADs are trained with variational auto-encoders (VAE) and a ground truth.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2022
    Publication date: November 30, 2023
    Inventors: Menglei Chai, Sergey Tulyakov, Jian Ren, Hsin-Ying Lee, Kyle Olszewski, Zeng Huang, Zezhou Cheng
  • Publication number: 20230343033
    Abstract: A shape generation system can generate a three-dimensional (3D) model of an object from a two-dimensional (2D) image of the object by projecting vectors onto light cones created from the 2D image. The projected vectors can be used to more accurately create the 3D model of the object based on image element (e.g., pixel) values of the image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2023
    Publication date: October 26, 2023
    Inventors: Chen Cao, Menglei Chai, Linjie Luo, Soumyadip Sengupta
  • Patent number: 11798213
    Abstract: Systems and methods herein describe novel motion representations for animating articulated objects consisting of distinct parts. The described systems and method access source image data, identify driving image data to modify image feature data in the source image sequence data, generate, using an image transformation neural network, modified source image data comprising a plurality of modified source images depicting modified versions of the image feature data, the image transformation neural network being trained to identify, for each image in the source image data, a driving image from the driving image data, the identified driving image being implemented by the image transformation neural network to modify a corresponding source image in the source image data using motion estimation differences between the identified driving image and the corresponding source image, and stores the modified source image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Menglei Chai, Jian Ren, Aliaksandr Siarohin, Sergey Tulyakov, Oliver Woodford
  • Patent number: 11790565
    Abstract: System and methods for compressing image-to-image models. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have achieved success in generating high-fidelity images. An image compression system and method adds a novel variant to class-dependent parameters (CLADE), referred to as CLADE-Avg, which recovers the image quality without introducing extra computational cost. An extra layer of average smoothing is performed between the parameter and normalization layers. Compared to CLADE, this image compression system and method smooths abrupt boundaries, and introduces more possible values for the scaling and shift. In addition, the kernel size for the average smoothing can be selected as a hyperparameter, such as a 3×3 kernel size. This method does not introduce extra multiplications but only addition, and thus does not introduce much computational overhead, as the division can be absorbed into the parameters after training.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Jian Ren, Menglei Chai, Sergey Tulyakov, Qing Jin
  • Publication number: 20230316454
    Abstract: The 3D structure and appearance of objects extracted from 2D images are represented in a volumetric grid containing quantized feature vectors of values representing different aspects of the appearance and shape of an object, such as local features, structures, or colors that define the object. An encoder-decoder framework applies spatial transformations directly to a latent volumetric representation of the encoded image content. The volumetric representation is quantized to substantially reduce the space required to represent the image content. The volumetric representation is also spatially disentangled, such that each voxel acts as a primitive building block and supports various manipulations, including novel view synthesis and non-rigid creative manipulations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2022
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Kyle Olszewski, Sergey Tulyakov, Menglei Chai, Jian Ren, Zeng Huang
  • Publication number: 20230306675
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for performing operations for generating a 3D model of a scene. The operations include: receiving a set of two-dimensional (2D) images representing a first view of a real-world environment; applying a machine learning model comprising a neural light field network to the set of 2D images to predict pixel values of a target image representing a second view of the real-world environment, the machine learning model being trained to map a ray origin and direction directly to a given pixel value; and generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the real-world environment based on the set of 2D images and the predicted target image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Zeng Huang, Jian Ren, Sergey Tulyakov, Menglei Chai, Kyle Olszewski, Huan Wang
  • Patent number: 11769259
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a method for accessing a set of images depicting at least a portion of a face. A set of facial regions of the face is identified, each facial region of the set of facial regions intersecting another facial region with at least one common vertex that is a member of a set of facial vertices. For each facial region of the set of facial regions, a weight formed from a set of region coefficients is generated. Based on the set of facial regions and the weight of each facial region of the set of facial regions, the face is tracked across the set of images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Chen Cao, Menglei Chai, Linjie Luo, Oliver Woodford
  • Publication number: 20230252639
    Abstract: An image segmentation system to perform operations that include causing display of an image within a graphical user interface of a client device, receive a set of user inputs that identify portions of a background and foreground of the image, identify a boundary of an object depicted within the image based on the set of user inputs, crop the object from the image based on the boundary, and generate a media item based on the cropped object, wherein properties of the media object, such as a size and a shape, are based on the boundary of the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2023
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: Menglei Chai, David LeMieux, Shubham Vij, Ian Wehrman
  • Patent number: 11710275
    Abstract: A shape generation system can generate a three-dimensional (3D) model of an object from a two-dimensional (2D) image of the object by projecting vectors onto light cones created from the 2D image. The projected vectors can be used to more accurately create the 3D model of the object based on image element (e.g., pixel) values of the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Soumyadip Sengupta, Linjie Luo, Chen Cao, Menglei Chai
  • Publication number: 20230215085
    Abstract: Three-dimensional object representation and re-rendering systems and methods for producing a 3D representation of an object from 2D images including the object that enables object-centric rendering. A modular approach is used that optimizes a Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) model to estimate object geometry and refine camera parameters and, then, infer surface material properties and per-image lighting conditions that fit the 2D images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2022
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventors: Kyle Olszewski, Sergey Tulyakov, Zhengfei Kuang, Menglei Chai
  • Patent number: 11663723
    Abstract: An image segmentation system to perform operations that include causing display of an image within a graphical user interface of a client device, receive a set of user inputs that identify portions of a background and foreground of the image, identify a boundary of an object depicted within the image based on the set of user inputs, crop the object from the image based on the boundary, and generate a media item based on the cropped object, wherein properties of the media object, such as a size and a shape, are based on the boundary of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Shubham Vij, Menglei Chai, David LeMieux, Ian Wehrman
  • Publication number: 20230079136
    Abstract: A messaging system performs neural network hair rendering for images provided by users of the messaging system. A method of neural network hair rendering includes processing a three-dimensional (3D) model of fake hair and a first real hair image depicting a first person to generate a fake hair structure, and encoding, using a fake hair encoder neural subnetwork, the fake hair structure to generate a coded fake hair structure. The method further includes processing, using a cross-domain structure embedding neural subnetwork, the coded fake hair structure to generate a fake and real hair structure, and encoding, using an appearance encoder neural subnetwork, a second real hair image depicting a second person having a second head to generate an appearance map. The method further includes processing, using a real appearance renderer neural subnetwork, the appearance map and the fake and real hair structure to generate a synthesized real image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2022
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Inventors: Artem Bondich, Menglei Chai, Oleksandr Pyshchenko, Jian Ren, Sergey Tulyakov
  • Patent number: 11521362
    Abstract: A messaging system performs neural network hair rendering for images provided by users of the messaging system. A method of neural network hair rendering includes processing a three-dimensional (3D) model of fake hair and a first real hair image depicting a first person to generate a fake hair structure, and encoding, using a fake hair encoder neural subnetwork, the fake hair structure to generate a coded fake hair structure. The method further includes processing, using a cross-domain structure embedding neural subnetwork, the coded fake hair structure to generate a fake and real hair structure, and encoding, using an appearance encoder neural subnetwork, a second real hair image depicting a second person having a second head to generate an appearance map. The method further includes processing, using a real appearance renderer neural subnetwork, the appearance map and the fake and real hair structure to generate a synthesized real image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Artem Bondich, Menglei Chai, Oleksandr Pyshchenko, Jian Ren, Sergey Tulyakov
  • Patent number: 11468544
    Abstract: Systems, devices, media, and methods are presented for generating texture models for objects within a video stream. The systems and methods access a set of images as the set of images are being captured at a computing device. The systems and methods determine, within a portion of the set of images, an area of interest containing an eye and extract an iris area from the area of interest. The systems and methods segment a sclera area within the area of interest and generate a texture for the eye based on the iris area and the sclera area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Chen Cao, Wen Zhang, Menglei Chai, Linjie Luo