3D Modeling and Animation: Synthesis and Analysis Techniques for the Human Body

3D Modeling and Animation: Synthesis and Analysis Techniques for the Human Body covers the areas of modeling and animating 3D synthetic human models at a level that is useful to students, researchers, software developers and content generators. The reader will be presented with the latest, research-level, techniques for the analysis and synthesis of still and moving human bodies, with particular emphasis in facial and gesture characteristics.

Nikos Sarris received his Ph.D. from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in "3D modelling Techniques for the Human Face" and his Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He has worked as a research assistant in the Information Processing Laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for 4 years, where he participated in several national and international projects and coordinated a national research project funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology. He has worked as a Research Fellow for the Informatics and Telematics Institute for 3 years, where he participated in several national and international projects and coordinated a Thematic Network of Excellence within the European Commission Information Society Technologies 5th Framework Program. Dr. Sarris has fulfilled his military service in the Research & Informatics Corps of the Greek Army and has been a member of the Greek Technical Chamber as a Computer Systems and Informatics Engineer since 1996. His research interests include 3D model-based image and video processing, image coding, image analysis and sign language synthesis and recognition.

Michael G. Strintzis is the Director of Informatics and Telematics Institute (Centre of Research and Technology Hellas) and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received his diploma degree in electrical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece, in 1967, and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, in 1969 and 1970, respectively. He then joined the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA., where he served as Assistant Professor (1970–1976) and Associate Professor (1976–1980). Since 1980, he has been Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, and, since 1999, Director of the Informatics and Telematics Research Institute, Thessaloniki. His current research interests include 2-D and 3-D image coding, image processing, biomedical signal and image processing, and DVD and Internet data authentication and copy protection. Dr. Strintzis is currently a member of the management committee of the European program "Information Society Technologies" (IST) and of the Joint Communication Board of the European Space Agency.