Analysis of Human Faces using a Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model

Abstract

We have measured 3D face geometry, skin reflectance, and subsurface scattering using custom-built devices for 149 subjects of varying age, gender, and race. We developed a novel skin reflectance model whose parameters can be estimated from measurements. The model decomposes the large amount of measured skin data into a spatially-varying analytic BRDF, a diffuse albedo map, and diffuse subsurface scattering. Our model is intuitive, physically plausible, and — since we do not use the original measured data — easy to edit as well. High-quality renderings come close to reproducing real photographs. The analysis of the model parameters for our sample population reveals variations according to subject age, gender, skin type, and external factors (e.g., sweat, cold, or makeup). Using our statistics, a user can edit the overall appearance of a face (e.g., changing skin type and age) or change small-scale features using texture synthesis (e.g., adding moles and freckles). We are making the collected statistics publicly available to the research community for applications in face synthesis and analysis.

Citation Style:    Display Alpha ACM SIGGRAPH IEEEtran Publication

Analysis of Human Faces using a Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model. Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Bernd Bickel, Craig Donner, Chien Tu, Janet McAndless, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, Markus Gross. ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), pp. 1013–1024, Boston, MA, July 2006.Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Bernd Bickel, Craig Donner, Chien Tu, Janet McAndless, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, and Markus Gross. Analysis of human faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model. ACM Trans. on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH 2006), 25(3):1013–1024, 2006.Weyrich, T., Matusik, W., Pfister, H., Bickel, B., Donner, C., Tu, C., McAndless, J., Lee, J., Ngan, A., Jensen, H. W., and Gross, M. 2006. Analysis of human faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model. ACM Trans. on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH 2006) 25, 3, 1013–1024.T. Weyrich, W. Matusik, H. Pfister, B. Bickel, C. Donner, C. Tu, J. McAndless, J. Lee, A. Ngan, H. W. Jensen, and M. Gross, “Analysis of human faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model,” ACM Trans. on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH 2006), vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 1013–1024, 2006. PDF Video MERL/ETH Skin Reflectance Database BibTeX DOI

Related Publications and Reports

	Implementation Sketch: Processing and Editing of Faces using a Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model. Bernd Bickel, Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Craig Donner, Chien Tu, Janet McAndless, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, Markus Gross. Sketch ACM SIGGRAPH 2006, Boston, USA, July 2006.Bernd Bickel, Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Craig Donner, Chien Tu, Janet McAndless, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, and Markus Gross. Processing and editing of faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model. In SIGGRAPH ’06: ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches, pages 168–168, New York, NY, USA, 2006. ACM.Bickel, B., Weyrich, T., Matusik, W., Pfister, H., Donner, C., Tu, C., McAndless, J., Lee, J., Ngan, A., Jensen, H. W., and Gross, M. 2006. Processing and editing of faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model. In SIGGRAPH ’06: ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 168–168.B. Bickel, T. Weyrich, W. Matusik, H. Pfister, C. Donner, C. Tu, J. McAndless, J. Lee, A. Ngan, H. W. Jensen, and M. Gross, “Processing and editing of faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model,” in SIGGRAPH ’06: ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2006, pp. 168–168. [PDF][BibTeX][DOI]
	Acquisition of Human Faces Using A Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model. Tim Weyrich. PhD thesis No. 16741, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, 2006.Tim Weyrich. Acquisition of Human Faces using a Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, 2006.Weyrich, T. 2006. Acquisition of Human Faces using a Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich.T. Weyrich, “Acquisition of human faces using a measurement-based skin reflectance model,” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, 2006. [Web Page][PDF (61 MB)][Low-res PDF (8.7 MB)][BibTeX]
	Measuring Skin Reflectance and Subsurface Scattering. Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Addy Ngan, Markus Gross. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) Technical Report, TR2005-046, December 2005.Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, and Markus Gross. Measuring skin reflectance and subsurface scattering. Technical Report TR2005-046, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, December 2005.Weyrich, T., Matusik, W., Pfister, H., and Gross, M. 2005. Measuring skin reflectance and subsurface scattering. Tech. Rep. TR2005-046, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Dec.T. Weyrich, W. Matusik, H. Pfister, and M. Gross, “Measuring skin reflectance and subsurface scattering,” Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Tech. Rep. TR2005-046, Dec. 2005. [PDF][BibTeX]
	A Measurement-Based Skin Reflectance Model for Face Rendering and Editing. Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, Markus Gross. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) Technical Report, TR2005-071, July 2005.Tim Weyrich, Wojciech Matusik, Hanspeter Pfister, Jinho Lee, Addy Ngan, Henrik Wann Jensen, and Markus Gross. A measurement-based skin reflectance model for face rendering and editing. Technical Report TR2005-071, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, July 2005.Weyrich, T., Matusik, W., Pfister, H., Lee, J., Ngan, A., Jensen, H. W., and Gross, M. 2005. A measurement-based skin reflectance model for face rendering and editing. Tech. Rep. TR2005-071, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, July.T. Weyrich, W. Matusik, H. Pfister, J. Lee, A. Ngan, H. W. Jensen, and M. Gross, “A measurement-based skin reflectance model for face rendering and editing,” Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Tech. Rep. TR2005-071, Jul. 2005. [PDF][BibTeX]

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Diego Nehab and Bruno Levy for making their geometry processing software available to us, Agata Lukasinska and Natalie Charton for processing some of the face data, and Jennifer Roderick Pfister for proofreading the paper. John Barnwell, William "Crash" Yerazunis, and Freddy Bürki helped with the construction of the measurement hardware, and Cliff Forlines produced the video. Many thanks also to Joe Marks for his continuing support of this project. Henrik Wann Jensen and Craig Donner were supported by a Sloan Fellowship and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0305399.