Morphing Software Research Articles

Open-Source 3D Morphing Software for Facial Plastic Surgery and Facial Landmark Detection Research and Open Access Face Data Set Based on Deep Learning (Artificial Intelligence) Generated Synthetic 3D Models.

Background: The scarcity of 3D facial models presents a significant hurdle for researchers and educators. Gathering such data demands substantial resources. Objective: To introduce an open-source 3D morphing software to generate 3D facial data sets for research and to provide a large sample data set that is based on synthetically generated 3D models. Methods: Software is developed to morph 3D facial models in bulk by altering landmark locations. Twenty synthetic 3D facial models are generated utilizing deep learning tools and 28 landmarks located on each. The measurements of synthetic models are confirmed to be realistic by comparing them with facial statistics. Several facial deformities and types are simulated at various magnitudes on 3D models to generate a large data set. Results: An open-source software and an open-access data set of 980 3D facial models, each with 28 landmark locations, are provided. Since the data set is based on synthetically generated 3D models, no institutional review board approval is required. Conclusion: The 3D morphing software and the large 3D data set are expected to benefit researchers and educators in the field of facial surgery and facial landmark detection.

Effects of stimulus naturalness and contralateral interferers on lexical bias in consonant identification.

Lexical bias is the tendency to perceive an ambiguous speech sound as a phoneme completing a word; more ambiguity typically causes greater reliance on lexical knowledge. A speech sound ambiguous between /g/ and /k/ is more likely to be perceived as /g/ before /ɪft/ and as /k/ before /ɪs/. The magnitude of this difference-the Ganong shift-increases when high cognitive load limits available processing resources. The effects of stimulus naturalness and informational masking on Ganong shifts and reaction times were explored. Tokens between /gɪ/ and /kɪ/ were generated using morphing software, from which two continua were created ("giss"-"kiss" and "gift"-"kift"). In experiment 1, Ganong shifts were considerably larger for sine- than noise-vocoded versions of these continua, presumably because the spectral sparsity and unnatural timbre of the former increased cognitive load. In experiment 2, noise-vocoded stimuli were presented alone or accompanied by contralateral interferers with constant within-band amplitude envelope, or within-band envelope variation that was the same or different across bands. The latter, with its implied spectro-temporal variation, was predicted to cause the greatest cognitive load. Reaction-time measures matched this prediction; Ganong shifts showed some evidence of greater lexical bias for frequency-varying interferers, but were influenced by context effects and diminished over time.

Face templates for the Chicago Face Database.

Researchers often need to manipulate faces, such as developing a continuum between two faces or averaging a set of faces. In order to do so, researchers use morphing software, but they first need to fit a template to the idiosyncratic landmarks in each face. In this paper, we present a set of landmark templates for the Chicago Face Database (CFD; Ma, D. S., Correll, J., & Wittenbrink, B. (2015). The Chicago Face Database: A free stimulus set of faces and norming data. Behavior Research Methods, 47(4), 1122-1135). The CFD is a free online face database containing images of faces of people from various races and genders. We provide templates for each of 597 neutral (non-expressive) faces in version two of the CFD. Our templates are unique because the facial landmarks were hand placed by researchers. Hand placing facial landmarks allows for more accurate placement of landmarks than a computer-generated template. Historically, hand-placed templates were created by individual labs and not shared. In this paper, we describe how our templates were created, and some possible uses for the templates. We hope that our templates ease the burden for other researchers to manipulate faces.

Generation and Detection of Face Morphing Attacks

Failure of facial recognition and authentication system may lead to several unlawful activities. The current facial recognition systems are vulnerable to different biometric attacks. This research focuses on morphing attack detection. The research proposes a robust detection mechanism that can deal with variation in age, illumination, eye and head gears. A deep learning based feature extractor along with a classifier is adopted. Additionally, image enhancement and feature combination are proposed to augment the detection results. A versatile dataset is also developed that contains Morph-2 and Morph-3 images, created by sophisticated tools with manual intervention. Morph-3 images can give more realistic appearance and hence difficult to detect. Moreover, Morph-3 images are not considered in the literature before. Professional morphing software depicts more realistic morph attack scenario as compared to the morphs generated in the previous work from free programs and code scripts. Eight face databases are used for creation of morphs to encompass the variation. These databases are Celebrity2000, Extended Yale, FEI, FGNET, GT-DB, MULTI-PIE, FERET, FRLL. Results are investigated using multiple experimental setups and it is concluded that the proposed methodology gives promising results.

Attractiveness Evaluation and Identity of Self-face: The Effect of Sexual Dimorphism.

The present study aims to explore the influence of masculine/feminine changes on the attractiveness evaluation of one's own face, and examine the relationship of this attractiveness evaluation and the similarities between masculine/feminine faces and original faces. A picture was taken from each participant and considered as his or her original self-face, and a male or female face with an average attractiveness score was adopted as the original other face. Masculinized and feminized transformations of the original faces (self-face, male other face, and female other face) into 100% masculine and feminine faces were produced with morphing software stepping by 2%. Thirty female participants and 30 male participants were asked to complete three tasks, i.e., to “like” or “not like” the original face judgment of a given face compared to the original face, to choose the most attractive face from a morphed facial clip, and to subjectively evaluate the attractiveness and similarity of morphed faces. The results revealed that the acceptable range of masculine/feminine transformation for self-faces was narrower than that for other faces. Furthermore, the attractiveness ratings for masculinized or femininized self-faces were correlated with the similarity scores of the faces with the original self-faces. These findings suggested that attractiveness enhancement of self-face through masculinity/femininity must be within reasonable extent and take into account the similarity between the modified faces and the original self-face.

A robust method for measuring an individual\u2019s sensitivity to facial expressions

This paper describes a method to measure the sensitivity of an individual to different facial expressions. It shows that individual participants are more sensitive to happy than to fearful expressions and that the differences are statistically significant using the model-comparison approach. Sensitivity is measured by asking participants to discriminate between an emotional facial expression and a neutral expression of the same face. The expression was diluted to different degrees by combining it in different proportions with the neutral expression using morphing software. Sensitivity is defined as measurement of the proportion of neutral expression in a stimulus required for participants to discriminate the emotional expression on 75% of presentations. Individuals could reliably discriminate happy expressions diluted with a greater proportion of the neutral expression compared with that required for discrimination of fearful expressions. This tells us that individual participants are more sensitive to happy compared with fearful expressions. Sensitivity is equivalent when measured on two different testing sessions, and greater sensitivity to happy expressions is maintained with short stimulus durations and stimuli generated using different morphing software. Increased sensitivity to happy compared with fear expressions was affected at smaller image sizes for some participants. Application of the approach for use with clinical populations, as well as understanding the relative contribution of perceptual processing and affective processing in facial expression recognition, is discussed.

Cervix Pathology For Medical Students: Morphing‐Based Animation

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in US women, resulting in approximately 4,000 deaths per year. Preventative screening of women will be part of the future clinical practices of many of our medical students. Therefore, microscopic examination of cervical pathology is an important component of histopathology teaching laboratories. Traditionally, students examine the normal cervical structure, including the transformation zone within which most cervical squamous cell carcinomas arise. Presentation of these topics may be typically incongruous in that normal and abnormal are taught sequentially but as separate topics and in two‐dimensional formats (i.e., histopathology micrographs). It is all too often incumbent on the student to “connect the dots”, and conceptualize the progress from the normal exocervix to metaplasia, dysplasia and ultimately neoplasia, within the “transformation zone”. Visualization of this process is not always well‐understood by all students. We hypothesized that students will assimilate pathological processes more quickly and effectively when these are viewed in transition, that is, by “morphing” from one stage of development to the next.We utilized morphing software to animate a series of drawings of preadolescent to post‐adolescent cervix with eversion and development of the transformation zone (squamous metaplasia). The three‐dimensional animations continued through dysplastic and neoplastic development. The video included colposcopic images of the transformation zone, and demonstrated findings of ectropion, dysplasia and neoplasia in the cervical surface. Morphing sequences were created using software that calculated multiple transitions by the processes of warping and cross‐dissolving between corresponding frames and generated an output movie by using a single intermediate morph from each pair along the sequence. Images were processed as three‐dimensional signals with third‐dimension being time. The resultant animated and morphing video was disseminated as AVI movie format for Windows applications, as animated GIF and Flash animation for WEB pages and PowerPoint presentations or to QuickTime format for Mac computers. The video is currently an integral component of the curriculum for second year students at our university and has been very well‐received by these students in each of the last two years.Analysis of the effectiveness of the video in facilitating learning is ongoing over a two‐year period. We are currently comparing two study groups of students using a self‐paced, formative assessment quiz to evaluate the student’s understanding of the cervical transformation zone and its clinical significance. Participating students are also asked to complete a brief survey addressing the overall usefulness of the video and perceived effectiveness of the video in gaining understanding of cervical transformation zone and its clinical importance.

Optimisation of industrial parts by mesh morphing enabled automatic shape sculpting

Radial basis functions (RBF) mesh morphing is a well established approach to quickly update an existing finite element analysis (FEA) mesh so that new shapes can be adapted and related performances explored. The RBF in fact allow to adapt the volume mesh maintaining a good quality even for substantial changes of the shape. New shapes imposed at FEA domain borders can be controlled by direct parameters (mesh based or CAD based) or by deformation fields resulting from the physics. In this paper we explore how the last approach can be exploited according to two different strategies: the biological growth method (BGM), which consists in adding/removing material according to the local stress at surface, the adjoint method, which consists in moving inward outward the surface according to the surface sensitivities.The FEA solver ANSYS® MechanicalTM in combination with the mesh morphing software RBF MorphTM was adopted for this purpose. The BGM implementation is the one implemented in RBF Morph, the adjoint solver is the one implemented in the topological optimisation tool by ANSYS.Automatic shape sculpting applications are demonstrated on a simple geometry, a thick plate with simple load conditions, and on an industrial part.

Human Observers and Automated Assessment of Dynamic Emotional Facial Expressions: KDEF-dyn Database Validation.

Most experimental studies of facial expression processing have used static stimuli (photographs), yet facial expressions in daily life are generally dynamic. In its original photographic format, the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) has been frequently utilized. In the current study, we validate a dynamic version of this database, the KDEF-dyn. To this end, we applied animation between neutral and emotional expressions (happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, and surprised; 1,033-ms unfolding) to 40 KDEF models, with morphing software. Ninety-six human observers categorized the expressions of the resulting 240 video-clip stimuli, and automated face analysis assessed the evidence for 6 expressions and 20 facial action units (AUs) at 31 intensities. Low-level image properties (luminance, signal-to-noise ratio, etc.) and other purely perceptual factors (e.g., size, unfolding speed) were controlled. Human recognition performance (accuracy, efficiency, and confusions) patterns were consistent with prior research using static and other dynamic expressions. Automated assessment of expressions and AUs was sensitive to intensity manipulations. Significant correlations emerged between human observers’ categorization and automated classification. The KDEF-dyn database aims to provide a balance between experimental control and ecological validity for research on emotional facial expression processing. The stimuli and the validation data are available to the scientific community.

Analysis of Various NASA Satellite Images through the Techniques of Image Morphing

Image morphing is a technique that implements linear algebra (geometric and algebraic transformation techniques) to transform one point in a plane to the other. We analyze images through image morphing techniques to predict changes that had happened through time and also what might happen in the future. The purpose of this particular research is to observe the changes of different NASA satellite images, describe the observations, and hypothesize the possible causes of the phenomena observed in the morph. This is performed by using two satellite images. These images were taken at two different intervals of time, morph the images and observed the gradual changes of the objects. The selected pictures did not have additional documentation (for example, images between a selected interval of time) available to compare so morph was used to analyze the transition. How accurate are all these morphing techniques? The accuracy of the transformation is analyzed by taking pictures of a blooming flower and documents all the phases between the blooms. Then, the morphing technique is implemented towards the first and last picture to compare the changes previously observed in the morph. This experiment was conducted to predict the uncertainty of the transformation. Image morphing techniques are important because when satellites document images of an object at a certain time, it may take a while for another picture to be documented again. By then, many things could have changed and the purpose is to investigate how such changes occurred. The morph is an accurate approximation to the actual changes of the objects and a very useful tool to use when it is impossible to take consecutive pictures of a constantly changing place or object. Furthermore, this technique can help to discover patterns of the objects and enable scientists to hypothesize future changes. A morphing software named, Morph Age, was used to morph the pictures.

Ganong shifts for noise- and sine-vocoded speech continua in normal-hearing listeners

Speech perception involves interpreting incoming sensory information in the context of stored linguistic knowledge. Lexical bias is the tendency to perceive an ambiguous speech sound as a phoneme that completes a word rather than a non-word; the more ambiguous the auditory signal, the greater the reliance on lexical knowledge. For example, a speech sound ambiguous between [g] and [k] is more likely to be perceived as [g] when preceding [Ift] and as [k] when preceding [Is]. The magnitude of this between-context difference—the Ganong shift—also increases when the listener experiences high cognitive load, limiting the resources available to process acoustic-phonetic information. In this study, an eight-step series between monotonized natural tokens of [gI] and [kI] was created using morphing software. Two continua—“gift”-“kift” and “giss”-“kiss”—were derived by adding [ft] or [s] to each step. High-resolution noise- (16-band) and sine-vocoded (32-band) versions were derived from these continua. Ganong shifts were substantially larger for sine- than for noise-vocoded stimuli, despite the greater number of channels for the former and similar slopes for the identification functions, perhaps reflecting the higher cognitive load associated with the relative spectral sparsity and less natural timbre of the sine-vocoded stimuli. [Work supported by ESRC.]

Three-Dimensional Printed Facial Models in Rhinoplasty.

Digital patient photography and morphing software have become an important part of rhinoplasty over the past few decades. Presented is a novel technology incorporating 3D photography and printing to produce life-size models for use in patient evaluation and treatment. Surveys were conducted to assess patient response and were universally positive. Early surgeon experience also indicates benefit for intraoperative use. Three-dimensional printing and modeling is a new technology that has exciting applications for rhinoplasty and facial plastic surgery.

Conscious Perception of Facial Asymmetry in a Unilateral Cleft Lip Model.

Lip asymmetry after a unilateral cleft lip repair can be perceived as an unsatisfactory result. The objective of this study is to determine the degree of upper lip asymmetry and/or nasal alar hooding required for recognition of asymmetry in a simulated model of unilateral cleft lip. A model of unilateral cleft lip was created using digital morphing software to simulate asymmetries in vermilion height and nasal hooding in photographs of children. Volunteers were shown photographs for different time intervals and with varying degrees of asymmetry. Ability to detect facial asymmetry was recorded and analyzed. This study was conducted by surveying layperson volunteers in public community settings. 108 layperson volunteers were randomly surveyed. The primary outcome measure was a reported lip or nose asymmetry by the volunteers. Proportions and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were obtained to estimate the probability of reporting an asymmetry at 3- and 10-second intervals. After 3- and 10-second exposure, labial asymmetry was perceived by ≥50% of subjects at 2 mm (62%, P = .001) and 1 mm (89%, P < .0001), respectively. Nasal asymmetry was detected by <50% of subjects at 3 seconds, but ≥50% perceived a 3-mm alteration at 10 seconds (64%, P < .0001). Photographs with combined nasal and labial modification did not lower the threshold for asymmetry perception compared to either deformity alone. This study is the first to determine a predictable millimeter threshold for perceived asymmetry in cleft lip deformity using a digital model.

Face-based perception of emotions in dairy goats

Faces of conspecifics convey information about identity, but also gaze, and attentional or emotional state. As a cognitive process, face-based emotion recognition can be subject to judgement bias. In this study we investigated whether dairy goats (n=32) would show different responses to 2-D images of faces of familiar conspecifics displaying positive or negative emotional states. We also examined the possible use of images of faces as stimuli in cognitive bias studies. The faces of four subjects were photographed in a positive and a negative situation. Three types of images of ambiguous facial expressions were then created using morphing software (75% positive, 50% positive, and 25% positive). In a test-pen, each goat was exposed for 3s to each type of image, obtained from the same goat. All goats were shown non-morphed faces first, before being shown the three types of morphed faces, balanced for order. Finally, the first non-morphed face was shown again. Spontaneous behavioural reactions including ear postures (forward, backward and asymmetrical) and interactions with the screen (time spent looking or touching) were recorded during the 3s. Results were analysed using REML with repeated measurements. Goats spent more time with their ears forward when the negative was shown compared to the positive(F4,121.3=2.51, P=0.018), indicating greater interest in negative faces. Identity of the photographed goat influenced the time spent with the ears forward (F2,57.4=7.01, P=0.002). We conclude that goats react differently to images of faces displaying different emotional states and that they seem to perceive the emotional valence expressed in these images. Response to morphed faces was not necessarily intermediate to response to negative and positive faces, and not on a continuum. Further study is thus needed to clarify the potential use of faces in cognitive bias studies.

Suspect filler similarity in eyewitness lineups: a literature review and a novel methodology.

Eyewitness lineups typically contain a suspect (guilty or innocent) and fillers (known innocents). The degree to which fillers should resemble the suspect is a complex issue that has yet to be resolved. Previously, researchers have voiced concern that eyewitnesses would be unable to identify their target from a lineup containing highly similar fillers; however, our literature review suggests highly similar fillers have only rarely been shown to have this effect. To further examine the effect of highly similar fillers on lineup responses, we used morphing software to create fillers of moderately high and very high similarity to the suspect. When the culprit was in the lineup, a higher correct identification rate was observed in moderately high similarity lineups than in very high similarity lineups. When the culprit was absent, similarity did not yield a significant effect on innocent suspect misidentification rates. However, the correct rejection rate in the moderately high similarity lineup was 20% higher than in the very high similarity lineup. When choosing rates were controlled by calculating identification probabilities for only those who made a selection from the lineup, culprit identification rates as well as innocent suspect misidentification rates were significantly higher in the moderately high similarity lineup than in the very high similarity lineup. Thus, very high similarity fillers yielded costs and benefits. Although our research suggests that selecting the most similar fillers available may adversely affect correct identification rates, we recommend additional research using fillers obtained from police databases to corroborate our findings.

Race Categorization and Perceptual Discrimination of Morphing Faces Are Modulated by Perceptual Adaptation

The other-race effect(ORE) refers to the own-race discrimination advantage and the other-race categorization advantage. The perceptual expertise theory explains the ORE as a result of people's long-term perceptual exposure to own-race faces much more than the other-race faces. However, recent findings suggest that shortterm, social-cognitive factors, such as reduced motivation to individuate other-race faces, may also contribute to the ORE. To examine the effect of short-term factor on face perceptual processing, we manipulated perceptual adaptation in three experiments and investigated participants' face race perception and discrimination. In Experiment 1, 20 Asian participants were presented with 704 color Asian-Caucasian morphed face stimuli for a race categorization task. These stimuli were generated with morphing software(MorphTM), allowing the creation of 11 blended face stimuli(from 0:100 to 100:0 for Asian:Caucasian proportions, respectively) for each of 64 Asian-Caucasian continua. In each continuum, the face that was equally often categorized as Asian and as Caucasian was identified as the ambiguous-race face. Result showed that the 52 Asian-Caucasian ambiguous faces were extracted and used as face stimuli in experiment 2 and experiment 3. In Experiment 2, we examined the effects of perceptual adaptation on face race categorization performance by presenting the ambiguous-race faces after prolonged exposure(5 seconds) to a Caucasian or an Asian face. Results showed that prolonged exposure to Asian faces causes the identical ambiguous-race morphed faces to appear distinctly Caucasian, vice versa. Furthermore, the identical ambiguous-race morphed faces were categorized faster when the faces were perceived as Caucasian but slower when the faces were perceived as Asian. In experiment 3, we examined the effects of perceptual adaptation on face discrimination by presenting the ambiguous-race faces after prolonged exposure(5 seconds) to a Caucasian or an Asian face. Results showed that the identical ambiguous-race morphed faces were discriminated more accurate when the faces were perceived as Asian but less accurate when the faces were perceived as Caucasian. Collectively, these findings indicate that the short-term, perceptual adaptation may affect participants' face race categorization and perceptual discrimination, suggesting social-cognitive factors also play a role in the ORE.

OCT imaging of the anterior eye

OCT imaging of the anterior eye

Novel diagnostic methods for the assessment of the anterior eye

Novel diagnostic methods for the assessment of the anterior eye

Abstract 19128: Quantitative Spatial Cardiac Localization of PVCs Using the 12 Lead ECG

Introduction: The precise localization of the site of origin of a PVC or VT prior to ablation would facilitate the planning and execution of the electrophysiological procedure. Current electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI) techniques uses body surface mapping that is costly, complex, and requires as many as 256 leads to localize the PVC origin. We developed and tested a novel myocardial activation based ECGI technique utilizing the readily available 12 lead ECG to localize the PVC origin. Method: The myocardial activation based ECGI requires a patient specific model of the heart and thorax. For the PVC or VT origin localization, the fastest route algorithm is used on patient specific models created by newly developed morphing software. Result: Eight patients that underwent electrophysiological mapping and ablation of PVCs were studied. The PVCs origins were localized on the endocardium of the mid left lateral wall, the anterior RVOT, the LV superior septum, septal RVOT and mid wall of the RVOT. In one patient the PVC origin was located on the epicardial RVOT. PVC localization by the 12-lead ECGI was correlated to the site of successful ablation. All patients (8/8) had accurate prediction of the PVC origin. However, in two patients without patient specific models the localization was reversed between the RV free wall and septum of the RVOT. With patient specific models, these latter two cases would likely be localized correctly. Conclusion: This feasibility study of the modified myocardial activation based ECGI shows ability to localize the PVC origin based on only the standard 12 lead ECG. This ECGI method yields activation estimates of isochrones on both ventricles from which the PVC origin location is derived. This new ECGI technique can localize the PVC from any part of the ventricular endocardium, intra-myocardium or epicardium.

Quantitative localization of premature ventricular contractions using myocardial activation ECGI from the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram

BackgroundThe precise localization of the site of origin of a premature ventricular contractions (PVC) prior to ablation would facilitate the planning and execution of the electrophysiological procedure. Current electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI) techniques require body surface maps, a costly and complex procedure, that requires as many as 256 leads to localize the PVC origin. We developed and tested a novel myocardial activation based ECGI technique utilizing the readily available 12-lead ECG to localize the PVC origin. MethodsThe major components of the 12-lead ECGI method are: the source model, proximity effect and spatial orientation, volume conductor, and patient specific model of the heart, lungs, and thorax as derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). For the PVC origin localization, the fastest route algorithm is used on patient specific models created by newly developed morphing software. PVC localization by the 12-lead ECGI was correlated to the site of successful ablation. ResultsSeven patients that underwent electrophysiological mapping and ablation of PVCs were studied. All patients (7/7) had accurate prediction of the PVC origin. However in two patients, no specific MRI was used for localization that resulted in an incorrect switch between the RV free wall and septum of the RVOT. With patient-specific models, these latter two cases would likely be localized correctly. ConclusionsThis feasibility study of a novel myocardial activation-based ECGI using only the standard 12-lead ECG shows promise to localize the origin of PVC. This ECGI method yields activation estimates of isochrones on both ventricles from which the PVC origin location is derived. This method has the capability to localize the PVC from any part of the ventricular endocardium, intra-myocardium or epicardium.