title: A three-dimensional measuring system for the human face using three-directional photography.
abstract: This study was intended to develop a three-dimensional measuring system of the human face for clinical use, to ensure a high precision and a simple input operation by means of a personal computer and to measure the degree of its accuracy. With this system, it is possible to measure automatically two-dimensional coordinates of hundreds of grid points on photographs of the human face with an image scanner as a reading device and to calculate their three-dimensional coordinates with a computer. An orthognathic surgical case illustrates this technique in which the patient's face is displayed before and after the surgery on a cathode-ray tube (CRT), with the three-dimensional coordinates obtained with this system. A cubic plaster cast with a certain degree of irregularity has been constructed to measure the precision of this system. Comparison was then made between the three-dimensional coordinates obtained with this system and the coordinates obtained with the contact three-dimensional measuring system. The mean of errors and the standard deviation were 0.04 +/- 0.24 mm for the X coordinate, 0.03 +/- 0.16 mm for the Y coordinate, and 0.08 +/- 0.23 mm for the Z coordinate. Thus the accuracy of this system is high enough for the measurement of the human face.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, Nihon University School of Dentistry, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Motoyoshi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Namura
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Arai
mesh_terms: D002508:Cephalometry / Q000379:methods*; D003199:Computer Systems; D003626:Data Display; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D010781:Photography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation