Samsung patents method to animate avatars from photos and voice
Samsung describes a way to turn a single photo and a voice recording into a moving digital character. The system finds key points on the face in the photo and shifts them in real time to match the sounds of speech.
In the filing’s own words
A method includes receiving a user input image for a user and determining contour lines for the user input image using a first model performing edge detection. The method also includes determining facial features for the user input image using ellipse fitting to the contour lines and ellipse filtering to keep only specified ones of the facial features. The method further includes assigning landmark points for the user input image along ellipses remaining after the ellipse filtering. The method also includes receiving audio frames including speech data and, for each of the audio frames, using a second model to predict positions of the landmark points for the user input image based on audio features in the audio frame. In addition, the method includes generating an animated avatar by warping the landmark points for the user input image based on the predicted positions of the landmark points.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method comprising: receiving a user input image for a user; determining contour lines for the user input image using a first model performing edge detection; determining facial features for the user input image using ellipse fitting to the contour lines and ellipse filtering to keep only specified ones of the facial features; assigning landmark points for the user input image along ellipses remaining after the ellipse filtering; receiving audio frames comprising speech data; for each of the audio frames, using a second model to predict positions of the landmark points for the user input image based on audio features in the audio frame; and generating an animated avatar by warping the landmark points for the user input image based on the predicted positions of the landmark points.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- ON-DEVICE ABSTRACT AVATAR CREATION AND REAL-TIME ANIMATION FOR EXTENDED REALITY (XR) OR OTHER EXPERIENCES
- Publication number
- US20260289886A1
- Application number
- 19360811
- Filed
- Oct 16, 2025
- Published
- Sep 24, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06T 13/40 Physics & computingG06T 7/13 Physics & computingG06T 17/00 Physics & computingG06V 40/171 Physics & computingG06T 2207/30201 Physics & computingMore from Samsung in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.