A Computer Application for 3D Craniofacial Reconstruction and Automatic Skull-Photo Identification

Human identification from a skull is a critical process in legal and forensic medicine, especially when no other means are available. Traditional clay-based methods attempt to generate the human face, in order to identify the corresponding person. However, these reconstructions lack of objectivity, since they depend on the practitioner. On the other hand, superimposition of a skull with antemortem photographs is another popular method for suggesting individual identification; nevertheless, it is a costly process in terms of time if many photographs have to be analyzed. This paper presents two Human identification techniques. First one is an objective 3D craniofacial reconstruction method, without using any facial template. The only information required is the 3D image of the skull, age, gender and Body Mass Index of the individual. The second technique is an automated skull-photo superimposition method which calculates the matching degree of a large number of photos with a skull.