published_or_final_version / Dental Surgery / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

This is a study of the factors that affect face shapes, and the techniques that can be used to measure variations in two dimensional representations of faces. The materials included thirty photographs of people in natural poses and thirty portraits that were based on the pose photographs. Visual assessors were asked to score the photographs and portraits in terms of pose (cant, turn and pitch) and also to compare the portraits to the photographs and score them in terms of likeness in the depiction of the face and its component features. Anthropometric indices were derived and used to score the images for the pose variables as well as for aspects of individual variation in external face shape and the spatial arrangement of the features. Geometric morphometric analysis was also used to determine the shape variation occurring in the photographs, the variation within the portraits, and to specifically discern where the portraits differ from the photographs in the depiction of head pose and individual differences in facial morphology. For the analysis of pose it was found that visual assessors were best at discerning the extent of head turning and poorest at discerning head pitch. These tendencies occurred in the visual assessments of both the photographs and the portrait drawings. For the analysis of the individual variation in face shapes it was found that external face shape varies according to upper face dimensions and the shape of the chin, and that vertical featural configurations are strongly linked to external face shape. When the portrait and photograph data were placed in the same geometric morphometric analysis the inaccuracies in the portrait drawings became evident. When these findings were compared to the visual assessments it transpired that, on average, visual assessment was generally congruent with the geometric morphometric analysis, but were possibly confounded by patterns of dysmorphology in the portraits that were contrary to what this study suggests are normal patterns of face shape variation. Overall this study has demonstrated that while anthropometric and visual assessments of facial differences are quite good, both were comparatively poor at assessing head pitch and tended to be confounded by the dysmorphologies arising in the portrait drawings. Geometric morphometric analysis was found to be very powerful in discerning complex shape variations associated with head pose and individual differences in facial morphology, both within and between the photographs and portraits.

Automated facial metrology is the science of objective and automatic measurement of the human face. There are many reasons for measuring the human face. Psychologists are interested in determining how humans perceive beauty, and how this is related to facial symmetry [158]. Biologists are interested in the relationship between symmetry and biological fitness [124]. Anthropologists, surgeons, forensic experts, and security professionals can also benefit from automated facial metrology [32, 101, 114]. This thesis investigates the concept of automated facial metrology, presenting original techniques for segmenting 3D range and colour images of the human head, measuring the bilateral symmetry of n-dimensional point data (with particular emphasis on measuring the human head), and extracting the 2D profile of the face from 3D data representing the head. Two facial profile analysis techniques are also presented that are incremental improvements over existing techniques. Extensive literature reviews of skin colour modelling, symmetry detection, symmetry measurement, and facial profile analysis are also included in this thesis. It was discovered during this research that bilateral symmetry detection using principal axes is not appropriate for detecting the mid-line of the human face. An original mid-line detection technique that does not use symmetry, and is superior to the symmetry-based technique, was developed as a direct result of this discovery. There is disagreement among researchers about the effect of ethnicity on skin colour. Some researchers claim that people from different ethnic groups have the same skin chromaticity (hue, saturation) [87, 129, 206], while other researchers claim that different ethnic groups have different skin colours [208, 209]. It is shown in this thesis that people from apparently different ethnic groups can have skin chromaticity that is within the same Gaussian distribution. The chromaticity-based skin colour model used in this thesis has been chosen from the many models previously used by other researchers, and its applicability to skin colour modelling has been justified. It is proven in this thesis that the Mahalanobis distance to the skin colour distribution is Gaussian in both the chromatic and normalised rg colour spaces. Most facial profile analysis techniques use either tangency or curvature to locate anthropometric features along the profile. Techniques based on both approaches have been implemented and compared. Neither approach is clearly superior to the other, but the results indicate that a hybrid technique, combining both approaches, could provide significant improvements. The areas of research most relevant to facial metrology are reviewed in this thesis and original contributions are made to the body of knowledge in each area. The techniques, results, literature reviews, and suggestions presented in this thesis provide a solid foundation for further research and hopefully bring the goal of automated facial metrology a little closer to being achieved.

Eyewitness recognition is acknowledged to be prone to error but there is less understanding of difficulty in discriminating unfamiliar faces. This thesis examined the effects of face perception on identification of facial composites, and on unfamiliar face image comparison. Facial composites depict face memories by reconstructing features and configurations to form a likeness. They are generally reconstructed from an unfamiliar face memory, and will be unavoidably flawed. Identification will require perception of any accurate features, by someone who is familiar with the suspect and performance is typically poor. In typical face perception, face images are processed efficiently as complete units of information. Chapter 2 explored the possibility that holistic processing of inaccurate composite configurations will impair identification of individual features. Composites were split below the eyes and misaligned to impair holistic analysis (cf. Young, Hellawell, & Jay, 1987); identification was significantly enhanced, indicating that perceptual expertise with inaccurate configurations exerts powerful effects that can be reduced by enabling featural analysis. Facial composite recognition is difficult, which means that perception and judgement will be influence by an affective recognition bias: smiles enhance perceived familiarity, while negative expressions produce the opposite effect. In applied use, facial composites are generally produced from unpleasant memories and will convey negative expression; affective bias will, therefore, be important for facial composite recognition. Chapter 3 explored the effect of positive expression on composite identification: composite expressions were enhanced, and positive affect significantly increased identification. Affective quality rather than expression strength mediated the effect, with subtle manipulations being very effective. Facial image comparison (FIC) involves discrimination of two or more face images. Accuracy in unfamiliar face matching is typically in the region of 70%, and as discrimination is difficult, may be influenced by affective bias. Chapter 4 explored the smiling face effect in unfamiliar face matching. When multiple items were compared, positive affect did not enhance performance and false positive identification increased. With a delayed matching procedure, identification was not enhanced but in contrast to face recognition and simultaneous matching, positive affect improved rejection of foil images. Distinctive faces are easier to discriminate. Chapter 5 evaluated a systematic caricature transformation as a means to increase distinctiveness and enhance discrimination of unfamiliar faces. Identification of matching face images did not improve, but successful rejection of non-matching items was significantly enhanced. Chapter 6 used face matching to explore the basis of own race bias in face perception. Other race faces were manipulated to show own race facial variation, and own race faces to show African American facial variation. When multiple face images were matched simultaneously, the transformation impaired performance for all of the images; but when images were individually matched, the transformation improved perception of other race faces and discrimination of own race faces declined. Transformation of Japanese faces to show own race dimensions produced the same pattern of effects but failed to reach significance. The results provide support for both perceptual expertise and featural processing theories of own race bias. Results are interpreted with reference to face perception theories; implications for application and future study are discussed.

Background: Historically, many reference lines and planes of the human skull have been used in an attempt to depict the head in a natural head position (NHP) which is a relaxed/balanced position when looking ahead at their eye level. Head position correction has been attempted in fields such as anatomy, art, anthropology, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, and forensics. In orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and plastic surgery, corrected head position (CHP) is particularly important for diagnosis of the normality/protrusion/retrusion of the patient’s facial skeleton. Usually a single plane, such as Frankfurt horizontal, is used to correct head position, but its angulation is variable between individuals, because each individual’s anatomy is unique. It has been found previously that the Neutral Horizontal Axis (NHA), Frankfurt horizontal (FH), Krogman-Walker plane (KW plane), and Palatal plane (P plane) demonstrated near parallelism, and these planes averaged -1 to -2 degrees from the true horizontal (HOR, which is a horizontal plane determined as being perpendicular to the earth’s gravitational force) with subjects in NHP. Methods: Craniofacial planes were measured in an Aboriginal Australian sample and in two contemporary samples obtained from Australian orthodontic practices, and the findings were compared with previous studies. Each sample consisted of 40 individuals (20 males and 20 females) with subjects in NHP. The Aboriginal Australian sample was longitudinal (T1, mean age 10 years; T2, mean age 14 years, and T3, mean age 18 years) enabling NHP to be assessed over approximately 8 years. A soft tissue Ear - nose plane (EN plane) was also investigated. Results: NHP reproducibility over 8 years demonstrated a mean of absolute difference of 2.9 degrees, with a range of differences from -7.9 to 8.2 degrees and a standard deviation of differences equal to 3.6 degrees. The Neutral Horizontal Axis (NHA), Frankfurt horizontal (FH), Krogman-Walker plane (KW plane), and Palatal plane (P plane) demonstrated near parallelism with each other, and averaged between 0 and -3 degrees from HOR. On average, EN plane was horizontal but was variable. Conclusions: NHP is not consistently reproducible at the individual level. For hard tissue images, the combined use of NHA, FH, KW plane, and P plane enables prediction of CHP. Additionally, the rectangular shape of the lower orbit - nasal airway region appears to be useful for correcting head position. In facial soft tissue images, EN plane in combination with other visual factors helps to correct head position. Simple geometry enables this head position correction to be performed from any view of the head where relevant landmarks are seen. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1346599 / Thesis (D.Clin.Dent.) - University of Adelaide, School of Dentistry, 2008

Background: Historically, many reference lines and planes of the human skull have been used in an attempt to depict the head in a natural head position (NHP) which is a relaxed/balanced position when looking ahead at their eye level. Head position correction has been attempted in fields such as anatomy, art, anthropology, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, and forensics. In orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and plastic surgery, corrected head position (CHP) is particularly important for diagnosis of the normality/protrusion/retrusion of the patient’s facial skeleton. Usually a single plane, such as Frankfurt horizontal, is used to correct head position, but its angulation is variable between individuals, because each individual’s anatomy is unique. It has been found previously that the Neutral Horizontal Axis (NHA), Frankfurt horizontal (FH), Krogman-Walker plane (KW plane), and Palatal plane (P plane) demonstrated near parallelism, and these planes averaged -1 to -2 degrees from the true horizontal (HOR, which is a horizontal plane determined as being perpendicular to the earth’s gravitational force) with subjects in NHP. Methods: Craniofacial planes were measured in an Aboriginal Australian sample and in two contemporary samples obtained from Australian orthodontic practices, and the findings were compared with previous studies. Each sample consisted of 40 individuals (20 males and 20 females) with subjects in NHP. The Aboriginal Australian sample was longitudinal (T1, mean age 10 years; T2, mean age 14 years, and T3, mean age 18 years) enabling NHP to be assessed over approximately 8 years. A soft tissue Ear - nose plane (EN plane) was also investigated. Results: NHP reproducibility over 8 years demonstrated a mean of absolute difference of 2.9 degrees, with a range of differences from -7.9 to 8.2 degrees and a standard deviation of differences equal to 3.6 degrees. The Neutral Horizontal Axis (NHA), Frankfurt horizontal (FH), Krogman-Walker plane (KW plane), and Palatal plane (P plane) demonstrated near parallelism with each other, and averaged between 0 and -3 degrees from HOR. On average, EN plane was horizontal but was variable. Conclusions: NHP is not consistently reproducible at the individual level. For hard tissue images, the combined use of NHA, FH, KW plane, and P plane enables prediction of CHP. Additionally, the rectangular shape of the lower orbit - nasal airway region appears to be useful for correcting head position. In facial soft tissue images, EN plane in combination with other visual factors helps to correct head position. Simple geometry enables this head position correction to be performed from any view of the head where relevant landmarks are seen. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1346599 / Thesis (D.Clin.Dent.) - University of Adelaide, School of Dentistry, 2008