Dense point-to-point correspondences between 3D faces with large variations for constructing 3D morphable models

In this contribution a novel method to compute dense point-to-point correspondences between 3D faces is presented. The faces are aligned in 3D space with a Generalized Procrustes Analysis and subsequently mapped into 2D space. To compute a correspondence flow between two faces an energy function is minimized which is based on the following assumptions: smoothness of the flow, mapping of landmarks on their counterparts, and texture and depth consistency. Based on these correspondences, the 3D faces are resampled, so that each face is represented by the same amount of 3D points and for any point there is a corresponding point in all other faces. The accuracy of the point-to-point correspondences is demonstrated on the basis of two applications, namely facial texture mapping and the construction of 3D Morphable Models.