Accurate 3D facial synthesis for plastic surgery simulation

Abstract

3D facial synthesis has been an intensive research topic in both image processing and computer graphics. So far common facial synthesizing methods were either statistic model based or laser range scanner (LRS) based. However, these methods could only provide approximate models. In this paper, we present a Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) based 3D facial synthesizing approach, which can build accurate virtual faces for plastic surgery. This approach provides an database free modeling process so that the precision will not be limited by the face database. During modeling, we combine Sobel filter with snake algorithm to extract the 3D facial surface from noised MRI and build Bezier facial model, which facilitates the local geometric control. Furthermore, the proposed photo mapping algorithm help add realistic texture to the model. It avoids the complex and time-consuming texture fitting process while achieves satisfying result. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.