title: Inverse rendering of faces with a 3D morphable model.
abstract: In this paper, we present a complete framework to inverse render faces with a 3D Morphable Model (3DMM). By decomposing the image formation process into geometric and photometric parts, we are able to state the problem as a multilinear system which can be solved accurately and efficiently. As we treat each contribution as independent, the objective function is convex in the parameters and a global solution is guaranteed. We start by recovering 3D shape using a novel algorithm which incorporates generalization error of the model obtained from empirical measurements. We then describe two methods to recover facial texture, diffuse lighting, specular reflectance, and camera properties from a single image. The methods make increasingly weak assumptions and can be solved in a linear fashion. We evaluate our findings on a publicly available database, where we are able to outperform an existing state-of-the-art algorithm. We demonstrate the usability of the recovered parameters in a recognition experiment conducted on the CMU-PIE database.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, United Kingdom. oa525@york.ac.uk
authors.forename: Oswald
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Aldrian
authors.forename: William A P
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*