The analysis of facial profiles using scale space techniques

Facial description has always been an interesting and intensive topic of research, receiving considerable attention over the past few years in areas such as psychology, bioestereometry, pattern recognition, forensic science, orthodontics and computer vision. Many quantifying techniques and methods of analysis have been proposed. The method developed by the authors has the aim of producing an objective way of identifying landmarks on the human profile leading to a useful segmentation and quantitative description of the contours and features of the face. The main purpose is that of assessing changes in the profile due to surgery or growth, but it could also be used on recognition. The method uses Scale Space techniques, extensively explored in the fields of digital image and signal processing. They make use of filtering the signal across a continuum of scales using Gaussian filters and then tracking the extremal points and their derivatives as they move with scale changes, yielding a useful general purpose qualitative description