A New Parameterised Feature-Based Generic 3D Human Face Model for Emotional Bio-Robots

To represent various human facial expressions is an essential requirement for emotional bio-robots. The human expressions can convey certain emotions for communications of human beings with some muscles positions and their movements. To design and develop emotional robots, it is necessary to build a generic 3D human face model. While the geometrical features of human faces are freeform surfaces with complex properties, it is the fundamental requirement for the model to have the ability of representing both primitive and freeform surfaces. This requirement makes the Non-rational Uniform B-Spline (NURBS) are suitable for 3D human face modelling. In this paper, a new parameterised feature based generic 3D human face model is proposed and implemented. Based on observation of human face anatomy, the authors define thirty-four NURBS curve features and twenty-one NURBS surface features to represent the human facial components, such as eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth etc. These curve models and surface models can be used to simulate different facial expressions by manipulating the control points of those NURBS features. Unlike the existing individual based face modelling methods, this parameterised 3D face model also gives users the ability to use the model imitate any face appearances. In addition the potential applications of the new proposed 3D face model are also discussed. Besides emotional bio-robots, it is believed that the proposed model can also be applied in other fields such as aesthetic plastic surgery simulation, film and computer game characters creation, and criminal investigation and prevention.

[1]  Yongli Hu,et al.  An Automatic Non-rigid Point Matching Method for Dense 3D Face Scans , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications.

[2]  Y. Takahashi,et al.  Experiments on human facial expressions for improvement of simplified robot face , 2007, SICE Annual Conference 2007.

[3]  Henrique S. Malvar,et al.  Making Faces , 2019, Topoi.

[4]  Hong Qin,et al.  Surface reconstruction with triangular B-splines , 2004, Geometric Modeling and Processing, 2004. Proceedings.

[5]  Jörgen Ahlberg,et al.  CANDIDE-3 - An Updated Parameterised Face , 2001 .

[6]  Matthew Turk,et al.  A Morphable Model For The Synthesis Of 3D Faces , 1999, SIGGRAPH.

[7]  H. Kobayashi,et al.  Development of Face Robot for Emotional Communication between Human and Robot , 2006, 2006 International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation.

[8]  Kevin Hapeshi,et al.  3D Modelling of Biological Systems for Biomimetics , 2004 .

[9]  T. E. Smith.  Surgical anatomy of the face. , 1982, Otolaryngologic clinics of North America.

[10]  Elliott H. Rose,et al.  Aesthetic facial restoration , 1998 .

[11]  W. J. Welsh.  Model-based coding of videophone images , 1991 .

[12]  Carl Henrik Ek,et al.  Generating 3D Morphable Model Parameters for Facial Tracking - Factorising Identity and Expression , 2012, GRAPP/IVAPP.

[13]  Yoshihiko Takahashi,et al.  Compact robot face with simple mechanical components , 2010, ICCAS 2010.

[14]  Demetri Terzopoulos,et al.  Modelling and animating faces using scanned data , 1991, Comput. Animat. Virtual Worlds.

[15]  Bernd Radig,et al.  A real time system for model-based interpretation of the dynamics of facial expressions , 2008, 2008 8th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition.

[16]  Buu Long Au,et al.  An individualized system for face ageing and facial expressions modeling based on 3D practical faces data , 2012, ICCA 2012.

[17]  W. J. Gordon,et al.  B-SPLINE CURVES AND SURFACES , 1974 .

[18]  Buu Long Au,et al.  An individualized system for face ageing and facial expressions modeling based on 3D practical faces data , 2012, 2012 International Conference on Control, Automation and Information Sciences (ICCAIS).

[19]  Paul Z. Lorenc.  Aesthetic Facial Restoration , 2002 .

[20]  Kevin Hapeshi,et al.  A new method for face detection in colour images for emotional bio-robots , 2010 .

[21]  P. J. Hartley,et al.  Parametrization of Bézier-type B-spline curves and surfaces , 1978 .

[22]  Ningping Sun,et al.  Efficient Spline Interpolation Curve Modeling , 2007, Third International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing (IIH-MSP 2007).

[23]  P. Bézier.  Numerical control : mathematics and applications , 1972 .

[24]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  A morphable 3D-model of Korean faces , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC).

[25]  C. D. Boor,et al.  On Calculating B-splines , 1972 .

[26]  Cesare Svelto,et al.  A fast and reliable system for 3D surface acquisition and reconstruction , 2003, Image Vis. Comput..