It's Friday and I like to check out movie trailers of what's playing and what's to come. I came across a cool looking movie that's coming out in 2013 called Prototype. The story follows a humanoid robot or a roboticized human from a government program that goes rogue. Today tech companies are advancing sensors for everything under the sun and are looking to the day when they could launch a friendly robot butler for your home that will create a 3D map of its environment so that it could walk around serving you hand and foot. The movie on the other hand is about the darker side of military robots. And to pull off high-end humanoid robotic features, they have to start with the creation of realistic eyes that can't be distinguished from Humans. This is where Samsung has stepped in to work with Hollywood to create the perfect eyeball system. Yet the technology behind this eye is so realistic that you have to wonder if the Hollywood angle isn't just the beginning of this venture for Samsung. Then again, who says that Samsung isn't working with the military already? Well, I'll leave that to your imagination.
In Samsung's introduction, they state that realistic human modeling and animation may refer to major technologies used for a movie production using computer graphics (CG), a game, a medical simulation, and the like. More realistic reproduction with respect to a face of a human being is becoming a major issue.
In particular, eyes of the face may maximally show first impression or feelings about the corresponding human being. Accordingly, how realistically eyes are reproduced may significantly affect a sensory reproduction with respect to the face. In general, the accuracy of geometry with respect to a face, a texture reproduction, and the like may be used for realistic facial modeling. When eyes are not realistically reproduced, the general sense of reality with respect to a face may also be deteriorated. Accordingly, there is a desire for a modeling and rendering method that may more realistically reproduce eyeballs.
Samsung's Apparatus for Reproducing the Human Eye
Samsung's invention is achieved by providing a method of realistically reproducing an eyeball, including: modeling, to a planar eyeball image, the eyeball including a cornea, a sclera, and an iris; identifying, from the eyeball image, portions corresponding to the cornea, the sclera, the iris, a pupil, a conjunctiva, and a tear film of the eyeball; and rendering each of the portions of the eyeball based on a material property and a deformation property with respect to each of the portions of the eyeball.
Samsung's patent FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of an eyeball used for example embodiments, and FIG. 2 illustrates an apparatus for realistically reproducing an eyeball according to example embodiments.
According to Samsung's filing "the eyeball may include various constituent portions, for example, an iris, a pupil, a cornea, a sclera, a conjunctiva, a tear film, and the like. Each of the constituent portions of the eyeball may have a different material property and a deformation property. Accordingly, for realistic eyeball rendering, an image of the eyeball may be modeled and then, a property with respect to of each of the constituent portions may be used for rendering."
Today it's about creating the perfect eyeball system to make gaming and medical simulation as realistic as possible. How long will it take for the software to cross over to the robotic side of this science? Only time will tell. For those wanting to explore this invention should check out Samsung's patent application which was filed in 2011 and published last month. In the meantime, check out the Prototype movie trailer that I told you about earlier. Enjoy it - as I'm off to see Total Recall. I hope that you'll enjoy your weekend too.
Notice
The Patent Bolt blog presents a detailed summary of patent applications with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application should be read in its entirety for full and accurate details. Revelations found in patent applications shouldn't be interpreted as rumor or fast-tracked according to rumor timetables. About Comments: Patent Bolt reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
