The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for creating a
three-dimensional caricature, and more particularly, to an apparatus and
method for creating a three-dimensional caricature having a high degree
of similarity to user's face by precisely extracting feature point
information on facial features and modifying a three-dimensional polygon
face basic model based on the feature point information using an ASM
technique specialized for faces. The method comprises the steps of
detecting the positions of eyes from an input facial image and
normalizing the size of the facial image, detecting each initial position
for facial features from the normalized facial image, loading ASMs in the
normalized facial image so as to correspond to the detected initial
position and then extracting feature points for the facial features, and
creating a three-dimensional polygon face caricature by modifying the
three-dimensional polygon face basic model according to coordinate values
of the extracted feature points.