Method of forming curved surfaces and the apparatus

Claim 3

The method of generating data representing a curved surface as set forth in claim 1, wherein the position vector representative of a deformation quantity of the curved surface is obtained by mul- tiptying the deformation vector V i * by the vector field function F i ; and the position vector P i * representative of a deformed curved surface is obtained by adding the position vector P i-1 * representative of the non-deformed surface to the position vector representative of a deformation quantity of the curved surface, as expressed by a following recurrence formula:

Claim 4

P i * = P i-1 * + V i * *F i (P i-1 *, CP i *) where CP i * denotes a position vector at the action point.

Claim 5

P i * = P i-1 * + V i * *F i (P i-1 *, CP i *) where CP i * denotes a position vector at the action point.

Claim 6

The method of electronically generating data representing a curved surface as set forth in claim 2, further comprising the steps of: (a) repeatedly electronically calculating the recurrence formula step by step to generate electronic data representative of a deformed curved surface; (b) electronically storing data representative of deformation parameters set in calculating the recurrence formula at each deformation step and data representative of the deformation vector and the vector field function in a command list memory; (c) electronically storing data representative of the position vector P i * representative of the deformed curved surface is stored in a curved surface data memory; and (d) selectively electronically reproducing data representative of any given deformed curved surface obtained at each of the deformation steps on the basis of the deformation parameters stored in the command list memory and the position vector P i * stored in the curved surface data memory, when they are read from the memories in a first predetermined sequence.

Claim 7

The method of electronically generating data representing a curved surface as set forth in claim 3, wherein the deformation calculation is executed in accordance with the following steps of: (a) the vector field function F; at each of the deformation steps is set on first coordinates; and (b) both the deformation parameters set at each of the deformation steps and stored in the command list memory and the position vectors P i * stored in the curved surface data memory are read for deformation calculations in a second predetermined sequence.

Claim 10

A montage image forming apparatus which comprises: (a) face data storing means (106) for electronically storing a plurality of face data each composed of a plane face image data representative of a face image on a two-dimensional plane and a solid face curved surface data representative of three-dimensional face curved surfaces corresponding to the two-dimenional face image; (b) face data selecting means (120) for reading one of the face data from said face data storing means; (c) deformation control parameter setting means (108, 109, 110) for setting deformation control parameters to deform a curved surface; (d) curved surface calculating means (102), for electronically calculating the selected solid face curved surface data on the basis of the set deformation control parameters to obtain a deformed face curved surface data representative of a deformed face curved surface, and for generating a montage signal obtained by mapping the plane face image onto the deformed face curved surface on the basis of the selected plane face image data and the deformed face curved surface data, and (e) display means (103) for displaying the montage signal generated by the curved surface calculating means, whereby an operator can input the deformation control paramenters to obtain a desired montage image while observing the montage image displayed on said display means.

Claim 11

A montage image forming apparatus which comprises: (a) face data storing means (106) for electronically storing a plurality of face data each composed of a plane face image data representative of a face image on a two-dimensional plane and a solid face curved surface data representative of three-dimensional face curved surfaces corresponding to the two-dimenional face image; (b) face data selecting means (120) for reading one of the face data from said face data storing means; (c) deformation control parameter setting means (108, 109, 110) for setting deformation control parameters to deform a curved surface; (d) curved surface calculating means (102), for electronically calculating the selected solid face curved surface data on the basis of the set deformation control parameters to obtain a deformed face curved surface data representative of a deformed face curved surface, and for generating a montage signal obtained by mapping the plane face image onto the deformed face curved surface on the basis of the selected plane face image data and the deformed face curved surface data, and (e) display means (103) for displaying the montage signal generated by the curved surface calculating means, whereby an operator can input the deformation control paramenters to obtain a desired montage image while observing the montage image displayed on said display means.

Claim 12

The montage image forming apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein said deformation control parameter setting means (108, 109, 110) includes means for inputting data representative of settings of a given deformation area including an action point, a vector field function parameter for setting a vector field function F i representative of each relative deformation rate at each point within the deformation area, and a deformation vector V ; * representative of a deformation quantity and a deformation direction at the action point within the deformation area on the selected face curved surface; and said curved surface calculating means - (102) calculates deformation data representative of a deformation quantity of a face curved surface at each point within the deformation area on the basis of multiplication of the deformation vector V i * and the vector field function F; , and calculates deformed face curved surface data representative of a deformed face curved surface on the basis of the solid face curved surface data representative of the three-dimensional face curved surface and the deformation data.

Claim 15

The method of electronically forming facial expression image data as set forth in claim 8, which comprises the following steps of electronically: (a) interpolation-calculating a plurality of the facial expression deformation vectors corresponding to each of a plurality of the formed facial expression curved surfaces to obtain a new facial expression deformation vector; (b) adding the newly obtained facial expression deformation vector to a position vector representative of the first facial expression curved surface to generate data representative of a newly interpolated facial expression curved surface; and (c) calculating interpolated facial expression image by mapping the face image data onto the interpolated facial expression curved surface.

Claim 16

A decision information displaying apparatus which comprises: (a) facial expression curved surface data storing means (202) for storing facial expression curved surface data representative of a plurality of primitive facial expression curved surfaces: (b) interpolation coefficient storing means - (221) for storing a plurality of interpolation coefficients; (c) face image data controlling means (218, 219, 220) for forming new interpolated facial expression curved surface data by executing interpolation calculations on the basis of at least two facial expression curved surface data and at least one interpolation coefficient; (d) computer means (203) for generating an information processed result as decision information; and (e) curved surface processing display means (204) responsive to the decision information generated from said computer means, for displaying for an operator a facial expression representative of the decision information by mapping a selected two-dimension facial expression image data onto any one of the facial expression curved surface data read out of said facial expression curved surface data storing means and the interpolated facial expression curved surface data formed by said face image data controller means.

Claim 17

A decision information displaying apparatus which comprises: (a) facial expression curved surface data storing means (202) for storing facial expression curved surface data representative of a plurality of primitive facial expression curved surfaces: (b) interpolation coefficient storing means - (221) for storing a plurality of interpolation coefficients; (c) face image data controlling means (218, 219, 220) for forming new interpolated facial expression curved surface data by executing interpolation calculations on the basis of at least two facial expression curved surface data and at least one interpolation coefficient; (d) computer means (203) for generating an information processed result as decision information; and (e) curved surface processing display means (204) responsive to the decision information generated from said computer means, for displaying for an operator a facial expression representative of the decision information by mapping a selected two-dimension facial expression image data onto any one of the facial expression curved surface data read out of said facial expression curved surface data storing means and the interpolated facial expression curved surface data formed by said face image data controller means.

Claim 18

The decision information displaying apparatus as set forth in claim 10, wherein the facial expression generated by curved surface processing display means using the facial expression curved surface data can continuously be modified by modifying the interpolated facial expression curved surface data in such a way that a numerical value of interpolation coefficient used by the face image data controlling means (218, 219, 220) during interpolation calculation is varied according to the time elapsed, whereby the decision information can be displayed for an operator as an animated change in facial expression.

Claim 19

A dress design forming apparatus, which comprises: (a) pattern data forming means (20) for forming plane pattern data representative of a cloth pattern on a two-dimensional plane; (b) body form data forming means (30) for- forming body form data representative of a three-dimensional shape of a dress when tailored; (c) image transforming means (41) for mapping the cloth pattern represented by the plane pattern data on a two-dimensional plane onto a curved surface represented by the body form data; and (d) display means (42) for displaying a dress design on the basis of a video signal generated from said image transforming means.

Claim 20

A dress design forming apparatus, which comprises: (a) pattern data forming means (20) for forming plane pattern data representative of a cloth pattern on a two-dimensional plane; (b) body form data forming means (30) for- forming body form data representative of a three-dimensional shape of a dress when tailored; (c) image transforming means (41) for mapping the cloth pattern represented by the plane pattern data on a two-dimensional plane onto a curved surface represented by the body form data; and (d) display means (42) for displaying a dress design on the basis of a video signal generated from said image transforming means.