New approaches to human facial morphology using automatic quantification of the relative positions of the orbital and nasal apertures.

The purpose of this study was to define and quantify the relative positions of the orbital and nasal apertures in the human face. The material consisted of 44 skulls (32 males, 12 females). For each skull, an image of the projection of the face was captured perpendicular to the palatal plane, using a CCD camera. The orbital and nasal apertures were segmented and characterized using classical image analysis procedures. New quantitative parameters were automatically determined from the centres of area of the facial apertures, and from horizontal and vertical lines of reference. Sexual differences were only significant for orbital height, nasal height, and orbitonasal height. A medio-lateral orbitonasal overlap, as well as a vertical orbitonasal overlap, existed in all individuals; the vertical overlap was always much more marked than the medio-lateral overlap. Significant proportions of the human face were also demonstrated: on average, the interorbital breadth corresponded to a fifth of the biorbital breadth, and thus to half of the mean orbital breadth; the nasal breadth corresponded to one fourth of the biorbital breadth, and the vertical orbitonasal overlap to one fourth of the orbitonasal height. Some instructive significant correlations were observed between these new parameters. The applications of the present methodology seem of great potential interest in anthropology and clinical biometry.