Methods and apparatus for capturing and rendering dynamic surface deformations in human motion

1. A method for a computer system including a memory and a processor comprising:

receiving global positional data associated with a set of markers from a plurality of markers associated with a surface of an object at a first time instance in the memory, wherein global positional data associated with a first marker from the plurality of markers is absent at the first time instance, and wherein distances between adjacent markers from the set of markers and the first marker associated with the surface of the object dynamically vary with object movement;

using local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers at the first time instance; and

determining a model of the object including non-linear deformations to the surface of the object with the processor in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers at the first time instance, the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance, and the dynamically varying distances;

wherein the non-linear deformations are generated in response to the dynamically varying distances.

2. The method of claim 1

further comprising positioning the plurality of markers on the surface of the object; and

wherein receiving global positional data comprises:

illuminating at least the set of markers on the surface of the object; and

optically capturing reflections from at least the set of markers.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein using local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance comprises:

determining local positions of the first marker with respect to the set of markers at a second time instance with the processor;

determining local positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the local positions of the first marker with respect to the set of markers at the second time instance; and

determining the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the local positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance.

4. The method of claim 1

wherein the first marker is associated with a plurality of neighborhood markers, and

wherein the set of markers is a subset of the plurality of neighborhood markers.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising

determining that two separate marker trajectories are associated with the first marker with the processor in response to the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the surface of the object is a skin on a human, or an animal or a plant, and wherein the non-linear deformations to the surface of the object correspond to bulging, or twisting or stretching of the surface of the object.

7. A method for a computer system including a memory and processor comprising:

receiving global positional data associated with a set of markers from a plurality of markers associated with a surface of an object at a plurality of time instances excluding a first time instance in the memory, wherein global positional data associated with a first marker from the plurality of markers is absent at the first time instance, and wherein distances between adjacent markers from the set of markers and the first marker associated with the surface of the object dynamically vary with object movement;

using local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers for the plurality of time instances; and

determining a model of the object including non-linear deformations to the surface of the object with the processor in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers and the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance, and the dynamically varying distances;

wherein the non-linear deformations are generated in response to the dynamically varying distances.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein using local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance comprises:

determining local positions of the first marker with respect to the set of markers for the plurality of time instances with the processor;

determining local positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the local positions of the first marker with respect to the set of markers for the plurality of time instances; and

determining the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance with the processor in response to the local positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance.

9. The method of claim 7

wherein the first marker is associated with a plurality of neighborhood markers, and

wherein the set of markers is a subset of the plurality of neighborhood markers.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the surface of the object is a skin on a human, or an animal or a plant, and wherein the non-linear deformations to the surface of the object correspond to bulging, or twisting or stretching of the surface of the object.

11. A computer program product comprises code resident on a non-transitory tangible media and executable on a computer system comprising a processor, the computer program product comprising:

code that instructs the processor to receive global positional data associated with a set of markers from a plurality of markers associated with a surface of an object at one or more time instances, wherein global positional data associated with a first marker from the plurality of markers is absent from a first time instance, and wherein distances between adjacent markers from the set of markers and the first marker associated with the surface of the object dynamically vary with object movement;

code that instructs the processor to use local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers at the one or more time instances; and

code that instructs the processor to determine a model of the object including non-linear deformations to the surface of the object in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers and the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance, and the dynamically varying distances;

wherein the non-linear deformations are generated in response to the dynamically varying distances.

12. A computer system comprising:

a memory configured to store global positional data associated with a set of markers from a plurality of markers associated with a surface of an object at one or more time instances, wherein global positional data associated with a first marker from the plurality of markers is absent from a first time instance, and wherein distances between adjacent markers from the set of markers and the first marker associated with the surface of the object dynamically vary with object movement; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to use local statistical methods to determine global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers at the one or more time instances, and wherein the processor is configured to determine a model of the object including non-linear deformations to the surface of the object in response to the global positional data associated with the set of markers and the global positional data associated with the first marker at the first time instance, and the dynamically varying distances;

wherein the non-linear deformations are generated in response to the dynamically varying distances.