[comp.ai] Generating facial caricatures

dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) (01/09/89)

Several years ago I read about some image processing techniques for
generating facial caricatures from facial photos. The researchers
responsible expressed the geometry of a face with a few tens of
variables. They then measured these variables for several hundred
photographs of different faces, from which they developed composite
male and female faces. Then for any given face, they computed how each
of its variables differed from the corresponding value for the
composite face. They multiplied each difference by some constant, and
used the exaggerated valued to generate a caricature.

An interesting result of the work occurred when they generated
caricatures of famous faces. They found that test subjects could
recognize the caricature faster than they could the original. Thus
they concluded that our brain remembers a face by a process similar
to computing how it differs from the average face. This may also
be at the root of a common observation between two dissimilar
ethnic groups that meet for the first time: each group thinks the
members of the other group all look very similar. Perhaps some time
must pass before the members of one group can generate a composite
face for the other group.

Are any comp.ai readers familiar with this work? If so, I would
appreciate the original reference.

Cheers,

Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu

demers@beowulf.ucsd.edu (David E Demers) (01/10/89)

In article <564@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
>Several years ago I read about some image processing techniques for
>generating facial caricatures from facial photos. The researchers
[...]
>
>Are any comp.ai readers familiar with this work? If so, I would
>appreciate the original reference.
>
>Dan Mocsny

If anyone does have this reference, please post.  It sounds fascinating,
and I'd like to read some more about it...

Dave DeMers

keller@ficc.uu.net (Curtis Keller) (01/10/89)

In article <5730@sdcsvax.UUCP>, demers@beowulf.ucsd.edu (David E Demers) writes:
> In article <564@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
> >Several years ago I read about some image processing techniques for
> >generating facial caricatures from facial photos. The researchers
> [...]
> >Are any comp.ai readers familiar with this work? If so, I would
> >appreciate the original reference.
> >
> >Dan Mocsny
> 
> If anyone does have this reference, please post.  It sounds fascinating,
> and I'd like to read some more about it...
> 
> Dave DeMers

I saved a copy of a Scientific American "Computer Recreations"
article from ~ 3 years ago ( I did not write the issue date on the
copy :-( ) by A.K. Dewdney.   In the article, he describes the
master's thesis of Susan Brennan at MIT.   Susan (at the date of
the article was a staff scientist at HP Labs in Palo Alto) developed 
a program to experiment with "her interest in the cognitive processes 
underlying face recognition."

Curtis Keller
Software Development Leader
Ferranti International Controls Corporation 
12808 W. Airport Blvd.   Sugar Land, Tx   77478
UUCP: uunet!ficc!keller OR keller@ficc.uu.net     Phone: (713) 274-5089

hwh@edai.ed.ac.uk (Howard Hughes) (01/10/89)

From article <564@uceng.UC.EDU>, by dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny):
> Several years ago I read about some image processing techniques for
> generating facial caricatures from facial photos...........

[More deleted]

I'd like this reference too if anyone out there has it.

				A.

chuck@virgil.UUCP (Chuck Cartledge) (01/11/89)

In article <564@uceng.UC.EDU>, dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
> Several years ago I read about some image processing techniques for
> generating facial caricatures from facial photos.
> ...  [Stuff deleted] ...
> Are any comp.ai readers familiar with this work? If so, I would
> appreciate the original reference.
> 
While I don't have a copy of the original articles, I have run across a
writeup that may have the information that you are after.

A. K. Dewdney (Scientific American) has collected many of his articles into
a very easily read and fun book called "The Armchair Universe, An
Exploration of Computer Worlds" (published by Freeman). In the book he
discusses a program called FACEBENDER.  The article has the (X,Y)
coordinates of major facial characteristics, and talks about how the data
can be manipulated to generate various caricatures.  

He in turn references the following:
	Brennan, Susan E."Caricature Generator: The Dynamic Exaggeration of
Faces by Computer." Leonardo 18, no. 3 (1985): 170-178.
	McDermott. Jeanne. "Face to Face: It's the Expression that Bears the
Message." Simthsonian, March, 1986, 112-123.

Hope these help.
-- 
Chuck Cartledge (804)498-1012                     chuck@virgil.UUCP
EDO Coporation  (804)424-1004
Government Systems Division             
814 Greenbrier Circle, Chesapeake Va.  23320

holmer@rigel (Bruce K. Holmer) (01/12/89)

[]
The exact reference is Scientific American, October 1986, p. 20.

shah@ucf-cs.ucf.edu (01/15/89)

There was an article in Scientific American in 1986 (or 1987) regarding this 
kind of work, which was based on a master thesis done at MIT.  They 
actually gave a list of coordinates of a default face.  I think it was not 
a regular article, but appeared in "Computer Recreation" sort of section.  

Mubarak Shah
UCF, Orlando

bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) (01/19/89)

In article <22200002@ucf-cs.ucf.edu> shah@ucf-cs.ucf.edu writes:
>
>There was an article in Scientific American in 1986 (or 1987) regarding this 
>kind of work, which was based on a master thesis done at MIT.  They 
>actually gave a list of coordinates of a default face.

I like that.

"You have a face like the default."

				--Blair
				  "Kind of catchy..."