METHOD AND AN APPARATUS FOR THE ANIMATION, DRIVEN BY AN AUDIO SIGNAL, OF A SYNTHESISED MODEL OF HUMAN FACE

A method and an apparatus for the animation, driven by an audio signal, of a synthesised human face model are described, that allow the animation of any model complying with the ISO/IEC standard 14496 (“MPEG-4 standard”). The concerned phonemes are derived from the audio signal, and the corresponding visemes are identified within a set comprising both visemes defined by the standard and visemes typical of the language. Visemes are split into macroparameters that define shape and positions of the mouth and jaw of the model and that are associated to values indicating a difference from a neutral position. Such macroparameters are then transformed into face animaton parameters complying with the standard, the values of which define the deformation to be applied to the model in order to achieve animation.