Patent 9197862 was granted and assigned to Honda on November, 2015 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A position and a posture of a virtual face is searched so that a total cost E of a first cost E1 and a second cost E2 is approximated to a smallest value or a minimum value. A first cost E1(e1) corresponds to a sum of elastic energy with a first deviation e1(s) as a deformation amount, of a virtual spring group having a value of a first coefficient function w1(e1(s)) in a target region of a standard image as a spring coefficient. A second cost E2(e1, e2) corresponds to a sum of elastic energy with a second deviation e2 as a deformation amount, of a virtual spring group having a value of a second coefficient function w2(e2(s) of each pixel s included in the target region of the standard image as a spring coefficient.