WO2004057578A1

WO2004057578A1 - Telephone adapted to display animation corresponding to the audio of a telephone call

Info

Publication number: WO2004057578A1
Application number: PCT/IB2003/006077
Authority: WO
Inventors: Iwo-Martin Mergler
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2002-12-20
Filing date: 2003-12-09
Publication date: 2004-07-08
Also published as: AU2003286369A1; GB0229678D0

Abstract

A telephone with a display is disclosed which is adapted to display a telephone call a face with animation in a mouth region corresponding to the audio of the telephone call (2). The face is an image received by the telephone prior to or at the start of the telephone call, especially from a telephone of another party to the telephone call, and the animation is provided by either superimposing animation on the mouth region of the image or by manipulating the mouth region of the image. Also disclosed is a telephone adapted to transmit an image of a face to another telephone prior to or at the start of a telephone call for the purposes of enabling that other telephone to animate the image.

Description

004/057578

DESCRIPTION

TELEPHONE ADAPTED TO DISPLAY ANIMATION CORRESPONDING TO THE AUDIO OF A TELEPHONE CALL

The invention relates to a telephone with a display and adapted to display during a telephone call a face with animation in a mouth region corresponding to the audio of the telephone call

Article entitled "Speechreading-Phone for the Hearing Impaired" by

Jones and Dlay (Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT '99, IFIP TC. 13 International Conference on Human-computer interaction, Vol. 2, pp39 to 40) discloses a telephone which provides facial cues to aid telephone communication for users with hearing impairment. In particular, the article discloses a telephone which extracts the phonetic content of the transmitted speech soundtrack and recreates the facial articulation on a three dimensional model (a computer generated synthetic face).

It accordance with the present invention, a telephone adapted to display animation of the type described above is provided in which the face is an image received by the telephone prior to or at the start of the telephone call, especially from received from a telephone of another party to the telephone call, and in which the animation is provided by either superimposing animation on the mouth region of the image or by manipulating the mouth region of the image.

Such a telephone provides mouth animation on a perhaps recognisable or humorous image. For example, the image may be of the face of the person calling, a famous person or a non-human face.

Also, such a telephone may be further adapted to receive information prior to or at the start of the telephone call indicating the position and / or shape of the mouth region in the image and to provide animation in the mouth region indicated by that information. The animation of the mouth region may be provided by receiving it from a telephone of another party to the telephone call.

Further provided in accordance with the present invention is a telephone adapted to transmit an image of a face to another telephone prior to or at the start of a telephone call for the purposes of enabling that other telephone to animate the image.

Such a telephone may be further adapted to transmit information to that other telephone prior to or at the start of the telephone call corresponding to the position and / or shape of the mouth region in the image; and to generate and transmit animation of a mouth region to that other telephone during the telephone call for the purposes of enabling that other telephone to superimpose that animation on the image.

The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

Figure 1 shows, schematically, mobile cellular telephones MS1 and

MS2 communicating together via respective nearby cellular telephone network base station BS1 and BS2;

Figure 2 shows a display of telephone MS1 ; and Figure 3A and 3B show animation of a mouth region of a face displayed on the display of telephone MS1.

Figure 1 shows mobile cellular telephones MS1 and MS2 in the possession of respective users (not shown) and registered with respective nearby cellular telephone network base stations BS1 and BS2 facilitating voice and data communication with that base station and corresponding cellular telephone network (not shown). Mobile cellular telephones MS1 and MS2 operate in accordance with the present invention as illustrated in the following example scenarios: Example 1

Referring to figures 1 and 2, the user of mobile telephone MS2 wishes to make a telephone call to the user of mobile telephone MS1 and calls telephone MS1 accordingly. Upon connection, telephone MS1 first transmits to telephone MS2 a file of an image 20 containing a face together with information defining a rectangular mouth region 21.

The audio exchange commences as usual with the image being displayed on telephone MS1. A user readily view the display and hear audio at the same time by using a "hands free" kit or a loudspeaker.

Telephone MS1 generates animation for the mouth region of the image as shown in figures 3A and 3B in synchrony with the audio, for example, in a manner described in the aforementioned "Speechreading-Phone for the Hearing Impaired" article. Alternatively, animation may be more rudimentary including just displaying the mouth open and closed; or just displaying the mouth fully open, partially open and closed. This animation is then superimposed on the rectangular mouth region of the image. Example 2 As example 1 except that the animation may be generated by telephone

MS2 and streamed to telephone MS1. Example 3

As example 1 except that rather that superimposing animation over the image, one may manipulate the image by displaying distorted portions of the rectangular mouth region so as to simulate mouth movement.

From reading the present disclosure, other modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. Such modifications may involve other features which are already known in the design and use of telephones and component parts thereof and which may be used instead of or in addition to features already described herein. Although claims have been formulated in this application to particular combinations of features, it should be understood that the scope of the disclosure of the present application also includes any novel feature or any novel combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or implicitly or any generalisation of one or more of those features which would be obvious to persons skilled in the art, whether or not it relates to the same invention as presently claimed in any claim and whether or not it mitigates any or all of the same technical problems as does the present invention. The applicants hereby give notice that new claims may be formulated to such features and/or combinations of such features during the prosecution of the present application or of any further application derived therefrom.

Claims

1. A telephone with a display and adapted to display during a telephone call a face with animation in a mouth region corresponding to the audio of the telephone call characterised by the face being an image received by the telephone prior to or at the start of the telephone call and the animation being provided by either superimposing animation on the mouth region of the image or by manipulating the mouth region of the image.

2. A telephone according to claim 1 wherein the image is received from a telephone of another party to the telephone call.

3. A telephone according to claim 1 or claim 2 further adapted to receive information prior to or at the start of the telephone call indicating the position and / or shape of the mouth region in the image and to provide animation in the mouth region indicated by that information.

4. A telephone according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the animation of the mouth region is provided by receiving it from a telephone of another party to the telephone call.

5. A telephone according to claim 1 wherein the image is of a famous person.

6. A telephone according to claim 1 wherein the image is not human.

7. A telephone adapted to transmit an image of a face to another telephone prior to or at the start of a telephone call for the purposes of enabling that other telephone to animate the image.

8. A telephone according to claim 7 further adapted to transmit information corresponding to the position and / or shape of the mouth region in the image to the other telephone prior to or at the start of the telephone call.

9. A telephone according to claim 7 further adapted to generate and transmit animation of a mouth region to the another telephone during the telephone call for the purposes of enabling that other telephone to superimpose that animation on the image.

10. A telephone according to claim 7 wherein the image is of a famous person.

11. A telephone according to claim 7 wherein the image is not human.