Statistically Deformable Face Models for Cranio-Facial Reconstruction
|
| Title | Statistically Deformable Face Models for Cranio-Facial Reconstruction |
| Authors | |
| Abstract | Forensic facial reconstruction aims at estimating the facial outlook associated to an unknown skull specimen. Estimation is based on tabulated average values of soft tissue thicknesses measured at a sparse set of landmarks on the skull. Traditional ´plastic´ methods apply modeling clay or plasticine on a cast of the skull approximating the estimated tissue depths at the landmarks and interpolating in between. Current computerized techniques mimic this landmark interpolation procedure using a single facial surface template. However, the resulting reconstruction is biased by the specific choice of the template and no face specific regularization is present. We reduce the bias by using a flexible statistical model of a dense set of facial surface points combined with an associated sparse set of skull landmarks. The statistical model also provides a probability value, which can be used to regularize the reconstruction towards more plausible outlooks. The reconstruction is obtained by fitting the model skull landmarks to the corresponding landmarks indicated on a digital copy of the skull to be reconstructed. The fitting process alternates between changing the face-specific statistical model parameters and interpolating the remaining landmark fit error using a minimal bending Thin-Plate Spline (TPS) based deformation. Furthermore, estimated properties of the skull specimen (BMI, age and gender e.g.) can be incorporated as conditions on the reconstruction by removing property-related shape variation from the statistical model description before the fitting process. This iterative statistical model based reconstruction process is shown by experiment to converge to a realistic reconstruction of the face, independent of the initial template. |
| Publisher | University of Zagreb, University Computing Centre - SRCE |
| Date | 1970-01-01 |
| Source | Journal of Computing and Information Technology Vol 14, No 1 (2006): Special Issue on Computer-Assisted Craniofacial Reconstruction and Modeling |
| Rights | CIT. Journal of Computing and Information Technology is an open access journal.Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work´s authorship and initial publication in this journal.Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal´s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). |