Date: January 2016
Source: arXiv preprint, arXiv:1601.05593.
Research Summary: Researchers at the University of York and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital developed a fully automatic method for building 3D statistical models of head shape from the Headspace dataset, using automatic facial landmarking, symmetry-plane detection, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The team introduced a new pose-alignment technique they call Ellipse Centre Nasion (ECN), shown to produce more compact models than the standard method, Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA). The model was applied to 25 craniosynostosis patients treated with two surgical techniques, Barrel Staving (BS) and Total Calvarial Remodelling (TCR), comparing each patient’s head shape before and after surgery against a normal population range. The paper’s own text describes this as the first use of a statistical 3D model of the head in this kind of clinical outcome study.
3dMD’s Role: The Headspace dataset was captured on a real-world 3dMDhead system by Alder Hey Children’s Hospital’s Craniofacial Unit in Liverpool. This paper’s model was built from a subset of 100 adult male scans from that dataset.

Article: Automatic 3D Modelling of Craniofacial Form.
Authors: Nick Pears, Christian Duncan. University of York and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

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