Facial expression invariant 3D face reconstruction from a single image using Deformable Generic Elastic Models

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an efficient method to reconstructing the 3D models of a human face from a single 2D face image robustness under a variety facial expressions using the Deformable Generic Elastic Model (D-GEM). We extended the Generic Elastic Model (GEM) approach and combined it with statistical information of the human face and deformed generic depth models by computing the distance around face lips. Particularly, we demonstrate that D-GEM can approximate the 3D shape of the input face image more accurately, achieving a better and higher quality of 3D face modeling and reconstruction robustness under a variety of facial expressions compared to the original GEM and Gender and Ethnicity-GEM (GE-GEM) approach. It has been tested on an available 3D face database, demonstrating its accuracy and robustness compared to the GEM and GE-GEM approach under a variety of imaging conditions, including facial expressions, gender and ethnicity.