Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Department of Software and Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 22;14(2):e0212618. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212618. eCollection 2019.
Modelling of the development of facial morphology during childhood and adolescence is highly useful in forensic and biomedical practice. However, most studies in this area fail to capture the essence of the face as a three-dimensional structure. The main aims of our present study were (1) to construct ageing trajectories for the female and male face between 7 and 17 years of age and (2) to propose a three-dimensional age progression (age -regression) system focused on real growth-related facial changes. Our approach was based on an assessment of a total of 522 three-dimensional (3D) facial scans of Czech children (39 boys, 48 girls) that were longitudinally studied between the ages of 7 to 12 and 12 to 17 years. Facial surface scans were obtained using a Vectra-3D scanner and evaluated using geometric morphometric methods (CPD-DCA, PCA, Hotelling's T2 tests). We observed very similar growth rates between 7 and 10 years in both sexes, followed by an increase in growth velocity in both sexes, with maxima between 11 and 12 years in girls and 11 to 13 years in boys, which are connected with the different timing of the onset of puberty. Based on these partly different ageing trajectories for girls and boys, we simulated the effects of age progression (age regression) on facial scans. In girls, the mean error was 1.81 mm at 12 years and 1.7 mm at 17 years. In boys, the prediction system was slightly less successful: 2.0 mm at 12 years and 1.94 mm at 17 years. The areas with the greatest deviations between predicted and real facial morphology were not important for facial recognition. Changes of body mass index percentiles in children throughout the observation period had no significant influence on the accuracy of the age progression models for both sexes.
在法医学和生物医学实践中，对儿童和青少年面部形态发育进行建模非常有用。然而，该领域的大多数研究都未能捕捉到面部作为三维结构的本质。我们目前研究的主要目的是：(1)构建女性和男性面部从 7 岁到 17 岁的年龄轨迹；(2)提出一个专注于真实生长相关面部变化的三维年龄增长（年龄回归）系统。我们的方法基于对总共 522 名捷克儿童（39 名男孩，48 名女孩）的三维（3D）面部扫描的评估，这些儿童在 7 至 12 岁和 12 至 17 岁之间进行了纵向研究。面部表面扫描使用 Vectra-3D 扫描仪获取，并使用几何形态测量方法（CPD-DCA、PCA、Hotelling's T2 检验）进行评估。我们观察到两性在 7 至 10 岁之间的生长速度非常相似，随后两性的生长速度都有所增加，最大值出现在女孩的 11 至 12 岁和男孩的 11 至 13 岁之间，这与青春期开始的不同时间有关。基于女孩和男孩这些部分不同的年龄轨迹，我们模拟了面部扫描的年龄增长（年龄回归）的影响。在女孩中，12 岁时的平均误差为 1.81 毫米，17 岁时为 1.7 毫米。在男孩中，预测系统的成功率略低：12 岁时为 2.0 毫米，17 岁时为 1.94 毫米。预测和真实面部形态之间差异最大的区域对面部识别并不重要。在整个观察期间，儿童的体重指数百分位数的变化对两性的年龄增长模型的准确性没有显著影响。
