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An introduction is presented that since the notion that robots could someday be able to match human intellect first emerged, artificial intelligence research and associated technologies have continued to advance.

This article presents an intuitive and easy-to-use system for interactively posing 3D facial expressions. The user can model and edit facial expressions by drawing freeform strokes, by specifying distances between facial points, by incrementally editing curves on the face, or by directly dragging facial points in 2D screen space. Designing such an interface tot 3D facial modeling and editing is challenging because many unnatural facial expressions might be consistent with the user's input. We formulate the problem in a maximum a posteriori framework by combining the user's input with priors embedded in a large set of facial expression data. Maximizing the posteriori allows us to generate an optimal and natural facial expression that achieves the goal specified by the user. We evaluate the performance of our system by conducting a thorough comparison of our method with alternative facial modeling, techniques. To demonstrate the usability of our system, we also perform a user study of our system and compare with state-of-the-art facial expression modeling software (Poser 7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe a new system for converting a user's free-hand sketch of a tree into a full 3D model that is both complex and realistic-looking. Our system does this by probabilistic optimization based on parameters obtained from a database of tree models. The best matching model is selected by comparing its 2D projections with the sketch. Branch interaction is modeled by a Markov random field, subject to the constraint of 3D projection to sketch. Our system then uses the notion of self-similarity to add new branches before finally populating all branches with leaves of the user's choice. We show a variety of natural-looking tree models generated from freehand sketches with only a few strokes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we introduce sketching reality, the process of converting a freehand sketch into a realistic-looking model. We apply this concept to architectural designs. As the sketch is being drawn, our system periodically interprets its 2.5D-geometry by identifying new junctions, edges, and faces, and then analyzing the extracted topology. The user can add detailed geometry and textures through sketches as welt. This is possible through the use of databases that match partial sketches to models of detailed geometry and textures. The final product is a realistic texture-mapped 2.5D-model of the building. We show a variety of buildings that have been created using this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonic colors are sets of colors that are aesthetically pleasing in terms of human visual perception. In this paper, we present a method that enhances the harmony among the colors of a given photograph or of a general image, while remaining faithful, as much as possible, to the original colors. Given a color image, our method finds the best harmonic scheme for the image colors. It then allows a graceful shifting of hue values so as to fit the harmonic scheme while considering spatial coherence among colors of neighboring pixels using an optimization technique. The results demonstrate that our method is capable of automatically enhancing the color "look-and-feel" of an ordinary image. In particular, we show the results of harmonizing the background image to accommodate the colors of a foreground image, or the foreground with respect to the background, in a cut-and-paste setting. Our color harmonization technique proves to be useful in adjusting the colors of an image composed of several parts taken from different sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]