Computer-assisted three-dimensional surgical planning and simulation: 3D color facial model generation.

A scheme for texture mapping a 3D individualized color photo-realistic facial model from real color portraits and CT data is described. First, 3D CT images including both soft and hard tissues should be reconstructed from sequential CT slices, using a surface rendering technique. Facial features are extracted from 3D soft tissue. A generic mesh is individualized by correspondence matching and interpolation from those feature vertices. Three digitized color portraits with the "third" dimension from reconstructed soft tissue are blended and texture-mapped onto the 3D head model (mesh). A color simulated human head generated from frontal, right and left real color portraits can be viewed from an arbitrary angle in an inexpensive and user-friendly conventional personal computer. This scheme is the basic procedure in 3D computer-assisted simulation surgery.