Physical face cloning

We propose a complete process for designing, simulating, and fabricating synthetic skin for an animatronics character that mimics the face of a given subject and its expressions. The process starts with measuring the elastic properties of a material used to manufacture synthetic soft tissue. Given these measurements we use physicsbased simulation to predict the behavior of a face when it is driven by the underlying robotic actuation. Next, we capture 3D facial expressions for a given target subject. As the key component of our process, we present a novel optimization scheme that determines the shape of the synthetic skin as well as the actuation parameters that provide the best match to the target expressions. We demonstrate this computational skin design by physically cloning a real human face onto an animatronics figure.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: TOG
• Authors: Bernd Bickel, Peter Kaufmann, Mélina Skouras, Bernhard Thomaszewski, Derek Bradley, Thabo Beeler, Phil Jackson, Steve Marschner, Wojciech Matusik, Markus H. Gross
• Keywords: Communications, Optimization Scheme, Synthetic Skin, Target Subject, TOG 2012