A group of researchers has created the most advanced technique yet for building 3D facial models on the computer. The system could improve personalized avatars in video games, facial recognition for security, and—of course—Snapchat filters.
When computers process faces, they sometimes rely on a so-called 3D morphable model (3DMM). The model represents an average face, but also contains information on common patterns of deviation from that average.
There’s a catch, however. To account for all the ways faces can vary, a 3DMM needs to integrate information on many faces. Until now that has required scanning lots of people and then painstakingly labeling all of their features. Consequently, the current best models are based on only a couple hundred people—mostly white adults—and have limited ability to model people of different ages and races.
