Facial geometry estimation using photometric stereo and profile views

Atkinson, Gary; Smith, Melvyn; Smith, Lyndon; Farooq, Abdul

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for estimating the three-dimensional shape of faces, facilitating the possibility of enhanced face recognition. The method involves a combined use of photometric stereo and profile view information. It can be divided into three principal stages: (1) An initial estimate of the face is obtained using four-source high-speed photometric stereo. (2) The profile is determined from a side-view camera. (3) The facial shape estimation is iteratively refined using the profile until an energy functional is minimised. This final stage, which is the most important contribution of the paper, works by continually deforming the shape estimate so that its profile is exact. An energy is then calculated based on the difference between the raw images and synthetic images generated using the new shape estimate. The surface normals are then adjusted according to energy until convergence. Several real face reconstructions are presented and compared to ground truth. The results clearly demonstrate a significant improvement in accuracy compared to standard photometric stereo. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: International Conference on Biometrics
• Start Date: Jun 1, 2009
• End Date: Jun 1, 2009
• Publication Date: Sep 14, 2009
• Journal: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
• Print ISSN: 0302-9743
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5558 LNCS
• Pages: 1-11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_1
• Keywords: facial geometry estimation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/995254
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_1