The development and testing of Thai facial soft tissue thickness data in three-dimensional computerized forensic facial reconstruction

Abstract

Forensic facial reconstruction is a useful tool to assist the public in recognizing human remains, leading to positive forensic investigation outcomes. To reproduce a virtual face, facial soft tissue thickness is one of the major guidelines to reach the accuracy and reliability for three-dimensional computerized facial reconstruction, a method that is making a significant contribution to improving forensic investigation and identification. This study aimed to develop a facial soft tissue thickness dataset for a Thai population, and test its reliability in the context of facial reconstruction. Three-dimensional facial reconstruction was conducted on four skulls (2 males and 2 females, with ages ranging between 51 to 60 years). Two main tools of three-dimensional computer animation and modeling software—Blender and Autodesk Maya—were used to rebuild the three-dimensional virtual face. The three-dimensional coordinate (x, y, z) cutaneous landmarks on the mesh templates were aligned homologous to the facial soft tissue thickness markers on the three-dimensional skull model. The final three-dimensional virtual face was compared to the target frontal photograph using face pool comparison. Four three-dimensional virtual faces were matched at low to moderate levels, ranging from 30% to 70% accuracy. These results demonstrate that the facial soft tissue thickness database of a Thai population applied in this study could be useful for three-dimensional computerized facial reconstruction purposes.