Hair image generating algorithm using fractional hair model

In the field of multimedia communication and very low bit-rate communication, it is necessary to generate natural and synthetic images by computer. CG technology plays an important part in realizing the communication. Using a realistic human model by CG technology, we can construct a new man-machine interface which is easy to use. Moreover, using a CG image can reduce the quantity of communication data compared with a video image data. The reduction of communication data enables very low bit-rate communication and real-time communication. Recently, many kinds of objects have become realistically generated using CG technology because CG technology has rapidly improved. However, human hair remains to be one of the most difficult objects to generate easily because the number of hair is enormous and the hair size has very thin figure. Furthermore, the style is very different individually and easily changeable by external force. In this paper, a new hair model named 'fractional hair model' is proposed to reduce the total quantity of the hair data and many human hair CG images generated by this model are also presented. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.