Method and System for Implementing Three-Dimensional Facial Modeling and Visual Speech Synthesis

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing three-dimensional facial modeling and visual speech synthesis. In various embodiments, a computing system might determine an orientation, size, and location of a face in a received input image; retrieve a three-dimensional model template comprising a face and head; project the input image onto the model template to generate a three-dimensional model; define, on the model, a polygon mesh in a region of facial feature corresponding to feature in the input image; adjust parameters on the model; and display the model. The computing system might parse a text string into allophonic units; encode each allophonic unit into a point(s) in linguistic space corresponding to mouth movements; retrieve, from a codebook, indexed images/morphs corresponding to encoded points in the linguistic space; render the indexed images/morphs into an animation of the three-dimensional model; synchronize, for output, the animation with audio representations of the text string.