Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460

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Forensic Imaging
journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/forensic-imaging

A dense approach for computation of facial soft tissue thickness data

Diana Toneva a, *, Silviya Nikolova a, Stanislav Harizanov b, Dora Zlatareva c, Vassil Hadjidekov c
a
Department of Anthropology and Anatomy, Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113
Sofia, Bulgaria
b
Department of Scientific Computations with Laboratory on 3D Digitization and Microstructure Analysis, Institute of Information and Communication Technologies,
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
c
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Medical University of Sofia, 1431 Sofia, Bulgaria

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Objective: The present study aims to propose a dense approach for computation of facial soft tissue thickness
Facial soft tissue thicknesses (FSTT) data. For this purpose, three-dimensional surface models of the skull and skin were generated from
CloudCompare computed tomography (CT) data and all possible skull-to-face distances were calculated for each skull-skin pair.
M3C2 plugin
Material and methods: The CT images were obtained using a Toshiba Aquilion64 CT system. Based on the scan
Surface models
CT
data for each individual, surface models of the skull and skin were created in InVesalius. The produced models
Facial approximation represented orientable irregular dense triangulated meshes with properly oriented outward-pointing normals.
The model postprocessing was performed in MeshLab and as a result only the face region from the models was
kept. The skull-to-face distances were computed in CloudCompare using the M3C2 plugin.
Results: The M3C2 plugin provides measurements perpendicular to the skull surface along the direction of the
outward-pointing normal vectors of the triangulated mesh. The measurements originate only from the front skull
surface since the distance calculations were restricted to the positive half-space relatively to the normal. The
number of calculated distances amounts to over 70,000 per skull-skin pair.
Conclusion: The M3C2 plugin enables computation and visualization of dense data of FSTTs.

Introduction interpolated. Moreover, previous studies providing FSTT databases have

Facial soft tissue thickness (FSTT) data have been used in the process
of creation of forensic facial approximation (FA). FA is a method for
rebuilding a deceased person’s face based on the skull. It is used to
support the identification of unknown skeletal remains when conven­
tional identification methods (DNA, fingerprints, etc.) have not
succeeded.
The methods for FSTT data acquisition have changed over the years
from needle puncturing on cadavers’ heads to the use of current imaging
technologies, which enable measurements to be acquired in vivo. Among
the utilized techniques are radiography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance
imaging, and computed tomography (CT). Altogether, previous studies
on FSTT data have shown that the amount of soft tissue at different
points on the face varies depending on factors such as sex, age, ethnicity,
and nourishing status [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Traditional FA techniques rely on FSTTs measured at particular
landmarks. Thus, the areas between these points need to be subjectively
included diverse number and set of landmarks. In this regard, dense
FSTT data would provide abundant information to study the skull/skin
relationship and to support the building of an authentic FA. Methods for
simultaneous calculation of numerous FSTT distances over the face and
thus producing densely calculated FSTT databases have been currently
proposed [6, 7]. Besides, Gietzen et al. [8] introduced an automated
method for forensic FA based on statistics of dense FSTTs. The three
mentioned studies used different measuring approaches for calculation
of the FSTTs. Shui et al. [6] measured the xy-projected Euclidean dis­
tance from each skull vertex to the corresponding intersecting point on
the skin with the same z-coordinate. Simmons-Ehrhardt et al. [7] and
Gietzen et al. [8] calculated the FSTTs based on the Hausdorff metric i.e.
the shortest Euclidean distance from a vertex of the one surface (skull or
skin) to the other surface. However, they exploited the Hausdorff dis­
tances in opposite directions: from each skin vertex to the skull surface
in the first study [7] and from each skull vertex to the skin surface in the
second study [8]. Thus, the FSTT measurements in these studies were

* Address for correspondence: Diana Toneva, PhD Department of Anthropology and Anatomy, Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology
with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Acad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 25, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
E-mail address: ditoneva@abv.bg (D. Toneva).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fri.2021.200460
Received 29 November 2020; Received in revised form 20 April 2021; Accepted 19 May 2021
Available online 24 May 2021
2666-2256/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Toneva et al.
Fig. 1. Generation of the surface models in InVesalius: a) skull; b) skin.
calculated non-perpendicular to the local surface of the skull.
The present study aims to propose a dense approach for computation
of FSTTs measured perpendicularly to the skull surface. For this purpose,
three-dimensional surface models of the skull and skin were generated
from CT image data and the skull-to-skin distances were calculated using
the Multiscale Model to Model Cloud Comparison (M3C2) plugin in the
free software CloudCompare.
Material and methods
Sample
The head CT scans of ten Bulgarian adults were used in the study. The
CT image data were obtained using a Toshiba Aquilion64 CT system.
2
Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460
The following scanning protocol was applied: 32 x 0.5 mm detector
configuration, tube current ranging from 165 to 500 mA, tube voltage of
120 kV, and exposure time of 0.5 s. The images were reconstructed at 0.5
mm slice thickness and 0.3 mm reconstruction interval with the FC63
convolution kernel.
Surface models generation
Based on the DICOM series of each individual, surface models of the
skull and skin were generated in InVesalius 3.0 (CTI, Brazil). The surface
models of the skull and face were segmented based on the predefined
thresholds for Bone (226–3071 HU) and Skin Tissue /Adults/ (-718 –
-177 HU) (Fig. 1) and exported in .stl format.
D. Toneva et al. Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460

Fig. 2. Postprocessing of the surface models: a) translation and rotation of the models into standardized orientation and coordinate system; b) disconnection and
removal of internal parts and isolated pieces to produce “shell” surfaces; c) cropping the facial region.

Postprocessing of the surface models
The postprocessing of the surface models was performed in MeshLab
v2016.12 [9] following the guides of Simmons-Ehrhardt et al. [10, 11].
It included model reorientation, cleaning of artifacts, removing
disconnected pieces, hollowing the face model and producing “face
shell” consisting of the external surface only, cropping the face from
pronasale to the line passing anterior to the external auditory meatus,
etc (Fig. 2). In addition, we cropped the skull from nasospinale as well.
Thus, only the face region from the models was kept for calculation of

3
D. Toneva et al.
Fig. 3. Visualization of the FSTTs calculated at different cylinder diameter: a) d = 0.5 mm; b) d = 1.0 mm; c) d = 2.0 mm; d) d = 3.0 mm.
the FSTTs. The rotation and translation of the models to a standardized
orientation and coordinate system were based on the coordinates of 4
landmarks: nasion, left orbitale, left and right porion [10].
The surface models represented dense triangulated meshes since no
triangle reduction was applied. The meshes were irregular with larger
triangles in the flat regions and smaller triangles in the regions of higher
curvature. The number of vertices of the skull models varied from
339,081 to 484,214 including vertices of the external surface, internal
mandibular surface, palate, etc. The skin models i.e. the “face shells”
contained from 208,132 to 338,701 vertices.
FSTTs computation (M3C2 distances)
The skull-to-skin distances were computed in CloudCompare, v 2.9.1
[GPL software] using the M3C2 plugin [12]. This plugin enabled us to
perform FSTT measurements perpendicular to the skull surface using the
direction of the outward-pointing normal vectors of the triangulated
mesh. Since the surface is orientable and the skull is always beneath the
face, we could search only for points in the positive half-space towards
the normal vectors ignoring the unnecessary calculation of distances
directed inwards (e.g. originating from the internal surface of the
mandible).
Before the application of the M3C2 plugin, we computed the
outward-pointing normals to the skull mesh. The normals were
computed per-vertex i.e. the weighted mean normal of all the normals of
the triangles adjacent to a vertex was assigned to this vertex. Afterwards,
we selected the “vertices” of the two meshes in the “DB Tree” panel and
yielded “M3C2 Distance” from the Plugins menu. In the pop-up window,
we selected the skull mesh as “Cloud #1” and the skin mesh as “Cloud
#2”. In Scales, we chose “use cloud #1 normals”, and thus, each normal
of the cloud #1 (skull mesh) was used to orient a cylinder within which
equivalent points in the other cloud (i.e. vertices of the skin mesh) were
searched for. The other scales characteristics were the “projection
4
Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460
scale”, which is the diameter of the abovementioned cylinder, and the
“max depth”, a parameter which corresponds to the cylinder height. The
experiments in our study were carried out at different diameters of the
cylinder (d = 0.5 mm, d = 1.0 mm, d = 2.0 mm, d = 3.0 mm). The bigger
diameter minimizes the influence of the local surface roughness, but also
means that more points will be ’averaged’ to build the plane corre­
sponding to the base of the cylinder. Besides, the max depth in all
computation sessions was set to 45 mm. This aimed to avoid the
calculation of any unnecessary measurements and thus to shorten the
computation time. Since computations are done on particular points (the
so called core points), we set to use the “whole cloud #1” in the “Core
points” section. All vertices of the skull mesh were assigned as core
points. In the “Advance” tab, we checked “Only search points in the
positive half-space (relatively to the normal)” to ignore calculation of
distances directed to irrelevant directions. In the “Output” tab, we chose
to Project core point on “Keep original positions” and ticked off “use
original cloud”. Besides, we selected to “Export point density at pro­
jection scale”. After setting of all these parameters, we run the plugin.
When the processing ended, the calculated distances were stored at the
vertices of the skull mesh. The models with stored M3C2 distances were
saved in .ply format. The ASCII format allowed us to open the model
data in *.txt, .xlsx or another format, where the following data could be
checked and analyzed: the x, y and z coordinates of the vertices; the nx,
ny and nz coordinates of the normal; the number of scalar points of
Cloud #1 and Cloud #2; the scalar significant change; the M3C2 un­
certainty; and the M3C2 distances. The M3C2 distances which failed to
be computed were designated with #QNAN.
All steps and settings to generate and visualize dense FSTTs data
using CloudCompare are illustrated in Supplementary file 1.
Visualization of the FSTTs
The measured M3C2 distances were visualized by selecting the Skull
D. Toneva et al. Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460

Table 1 the latter parameter have influence on the FSTT values from different
Percentage of the FSTTs by ranges ranges. For this purpose, Kruskal-Wallis One Way ANOVA on Ranks with
Cylinder Range /in mm/ Tukey post-hoc test for multiple comparisons was applied.
diameter 0.00- 10.00- 20.00- 30.00- 40.00-
9.99 19.99 29.99 39.99 45.00 Results
0.5 mm 37.85% 34.17% 17.46% 8.31% 2.20%
(23.59%)# The number of calculated distances varied from 70,000-100,000 per
1.0 mm 39.27% 34.72% 16.24% 7.60% 2.17% skull-skin pair at a cylinder diameter of 0.5 mm to 160,000-210,000 at a
(38.14%)
2.0 mm 39.89% 33.21% 15.59% 8.17% 3.15%
diameter of 3.0 mm (Fig. 3). The measurements originated only from the
(49.65%) front skull surface since the distance calculations were restricted to the
3.0 mm 39.85% 32.22% 15.47% 8.63% 3.83% positive half-space relatively to the vertices normals.
(51.36%) The percentage distribution of the FSTTs by ranges is present in
#
Average percentage of the calculated M3C2 distances after excluding the Table 1. The largest part of M3C2 distances fell in the range 0.00 – 9.99
NaN distances mm, followed by the measurements in the range 10.00 – 19.99 mm. The
FSTTs greater than 40 mm took the smallest proportion of all calculated
distances.
Table 2 The average FSTT values for all ranges are given in Table 2. The
Average values of the FSTTs by ranges thinnest FSTTs were observed in the region of forehead, orbits and nasal
Cylinder Range /in mm/ bridge, while the thickest soft tissues were detected in the cheek region.
diameter 0.00- 10.00- 20.00- 30.00- 40.00- The results from the comparison of the FSTTs obtained at different
9.99 19.99 29.99 39.99 45.00
cylinder diameters are shown in Table 3. The main differences were
0.5 mm 6.01 14.37 24.22 34.37 42.32 observed concerning the values in the range 40.00 – 45.00 mm, which
1.0 mm 5.99 14.30 24.15 34.41 42.42 differed between most calculations at different cylinder diameter. The
2.0 mm 5.96 14.26 24.15 34.58 42.60
3.0 mm 5.93 14.24 24.16 34.67 42.64
exceptions were the comparisons between d = 0.5 and d = 1.0 mm as
well as between d = 2.0 and d = 3.0 mm, where the measurements in
this range were not significantly different. Concerning the other ranges,
mesh and opening the Properties menu. In this menu, the following the FSTTs in the range 30.00 – 39.99 mm showed significant differences
parameters were selected: CC Object -> Colors -> Scalar field; Scale when measured with a cylinder diameter of 0.5 mm and 3.0 mm.
Fields -> Active -> M3C2 distances; Color scale -> Current ->
Yellow>Green>Blue>Red (a self-created scale with the following Discussion
custom labels: 0.0 mm –> yellow; 15.0 mm –> green; 30.0 mm –> blue;
45.0 mm –> red), Steps -> 256, Visible -> Tick. Thus, the skull mesh was Our study proposes a new approach for dense computation of FSTT
colorized according to the size of M3C2 distances stored at its vertices. data and shows that the M3C2 plugin could be used to produce data­
Points without calculated M3C2 distances stayed in ’gray’ and were bases of densely computed FSTTs. This algorithm allows the detection of
associated to NaN (not a number) distances. If the models with calcu­ very small differences between two surfaces [12]. The proposed
lated distances are exported as CloudCompare enteties (.bin) files, they approach allows skull-to-skin distances to be calculated perpendicular to
can be reopened later in CloudCompare for additional observations. To the local bone surface, unlike previous methods based on the Hausdorff
open the skull model colorized by the M3C2 distance values in other metric. As a whole, Hausdorff distances represent the distance from a
software, the scalar field should be converted to RGB and the model point of the one mesh to the closest point from the other mesh and are
saved as a binary ply-file (Suppl. File 1). commonly used for comparison of two meshes. Thus, they are computed
via spheric expansions, centered at the former point, which is concep­
Statistical analysis tually different than the cyllindrical approach considered here. These
distances could be appropriate to trace small changes in objects with
To study the distribution of the FSTT data, the FSTT measurements similar surface, but their use does not seem satisfactory in case of
were assigned to five ranges (0.00 – 9.99 mm; 10.00 – 19.99 mm; 20.00 – measuring distances between surfaces with different shapes. When
29.99 mm; 30.00 – 39.99 mm; 40.00 – 45.00 mm) based on the M3C2 Hausdorff distances are used for calculation of FSTTs, there are areas of
value of each vertex. For each skull, the average FSTT of a definite range the target model that are not reached, since the algorithm detects closer
and the percentage of distances (from the overall number of calculated points in the vicinity of these areas. Thus, some thicker zones remain
distances) falling in this range were calculated. The average FSTTs ob­ unmeasured (e.g. lips, cheeks) and there is no distance information
tained by using different cylinder diameters were compared to assess if

Table 3
Significant differences in the FSTT ranges between the experiments with different cylinder diameters
Range ANOVA Comparisons (Tukey post hoc test)
d=0.5/d=1.0 d=0.5/d=2.0 d=0.5/d=3.0 d=1.0/d=2.0 d=1.0/d=3.0 d=2.0/d=3.0

0.00-9.99 H = 3.259 ns ns ns ns ns ns
P = 0.353
10.00-19.99 H = 3.075 ns ns ns ns ns ns
P = 0.380
20.00-29.99 H = 0.303 ns ns ns ns ns ns
P = 0.959
30.00-39.99 H = 12.246 ns ns q = 4.328* ns ns ns
P = 0.007
40.00-45.00 H = 30.721 ns q = 5.978* q = 6.708* q = 3.949* q = 4.680* ns
P = <0.001

ns, not significant

*significant at P< 0.05

5
D. Toneva et al.
Fig. 4. M3C2 distances from the internal mandibular surface based on calculations set to a) the positive half-space only (NaN value); b) the positive and negative
half-space (negative value).
about them. The M3C2 method calculates signed distances between two
point clouds (the mesh vertices are assigned as cloud points) along
vectors orthogonal to the local surface [13]. This algorithm is mainly
used for surface change detection, referred to as ‘surface change in the
normal direction’ [12], but we applied it to measure distances between
two different surfaces. We used CT images to generate surface models of
both skull and face and to calculate as many distances as possible be­
tween them. The use of dense meshes yields more precise and detailed
characterization of the facial soft tissues. To reduce the distance
computing time, both skull and skin models were cropped as only the
facial part was preserved. Moreover, we restricted the distance calcu­
lations only to the positive half-space relatively to the outward-pointing
normal vectors and thus the measurements originate only from the front
skull surface. Otherwise, unnecessary measurements that are not related
to the FA would be computed. If this option is not selected, the M3C2
distances stored on the vertices which are not turn towards the face have
negative values (Fig. 4).
In our study, we experimented with the diameter of the cylinder
constructed for calculation of the M3C2 distances. Тhe enlargement of
the cylinder diameter leads to the calculation of more M3C2 distances,
since in our case the percentage of vertices with calculated M3C2 dis­
tances have increased approximately twice (from 23.6% for d = 0.5 mm
to 51.4% for d = 3.0 mm). This could be due to the discrete nature of
6
Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460
both the surfaces, the lack of one-to-one correspondence between skull
vertices and face vertices, and the independent construction of the two
triangular meshes, which does not force the agreement between them
and allows for possible rotational displacements. Therefore, by
enlarging the diameter the probability of the cylinder to encounter skin
points increases. The FSTT measurements in the ranges up to 30 mm
(0.00 – 9.99 mm, 10.00 – 19.99 mm and 20.00 – 29.99 mm) do not show
any significant differences between the calculations at different cylinder
diameters, although the larger diameters correspond to more calculated
measurements and more points constructing the bases’ planes of the
cylinders. The ranges greater than 30 mm (30.00 – 39.99 mm and 40.00
– 45.00 mm), where significant differences between experiments with
different cylinder diameters were detected, refer to a small number of
measurements (10-12% of all calculated distances), since most FSTTs
have lower values. The observed differences could be due to the higher
number of measurements calculated with the larger cylinder diameters,
which reflected on the average values in these ranges. However, most
distances between 40 and 45 mm measured in the present study are of
little concern about the FA. Nevertheless, we have set the cylinder height
to 45 mm, since in case of overweighed individuals higher distance
values could be obtained in the thicker zones.
An advantage of the dense approach for calculation of the FSTTs is
that measurements are not restricted to a definite set of landmarks,
D. Toneva et al.
Fig. 5. FSTTs recorded at definite landmarks by the “Point picking” tool in CloudCompare: a) lateral orbit; b) rhinion; c) gonion.
which makes it more useful source of data for generation of a virtual FA.
Besides, the dense FSTT measuring provides a more accurate database,
unlike error-prone manual measurements [8]. The methods for dense
FSTT computation enable more thorough analysis of the correspondence
between skull and skin and the use of collected databases in the devel­
opment of automated computer systems for FA. Such systems would
provide more rapid FA building process and minimization of the inac­
curacies and subjectivity introduced by the researchers who build FA.
Furthermore, the face of an individual can change with age or weight
[14]. The use of dense FSTT information could support the generation of
plausible automated FA with the option for building multiple approxi­
mations in a short time by manipulation of the data about body
composition, age, etc [15]. Thus, the computer aided methods for FA
could generate different variants of the face of an individual and facil­
itate recognition [16]. Moreover, the color mapping could support the
FA by illustrating the distances all over the face and showing the FSTTs
in regions which are out of the traditional landmark locations. The
calculated M3C2 distances could be stored on the skull vertices (as in our
case) or projected on the skin surface. Thus, a researcher could pick a
point on the skull or skin mesh to check a specific FSTT (Fig. 5). The
projection of the skull-to-skin measurements onto the skin mesh pro­
duces a separate point cloud, which, however, does not provide a proper
visualization (Suppl. file 2).
It should be noticed the presence of NaN distances among the
computed M3C2 distances. These gray points in the colorized mesh
could occur because of the lack of an equivalent in the other mesh (e.g.
holes) or not long enough cylinder height. This is due to the fact that the
M3C2 algorithm does not compute a distance in the absence of an
intersection with the surface of the compared model along the normal
direction [12]. However, in our study we observe such grey spots on
some unexpected parts of the skull, although we have ensured that the
max depth is enough (based on previous observations we used a higher
threshold for this parameter) and there are no missing parts from the
skin mesh. This implies that maybe the point density was not enough to
ensure the presence of points from the other cloud within the cylinder at
the definite diameter. There is also a possibility that some
outward-pointing normals have been miscalculated and replaced by
their inward-pointing counterparts, i.e. they were directed towards the
negative half-space, but this was not established in our study. To avoid
NaN values, the FSTTs distances could be computed without restricting
the calculations only to the positive half-space. This would be appro­
priate in cases when FSTTs at definite landmarks are measured and these
points fall in the grey (NaN) areas. However, if the obtained datasets of
dense FSTTs would be used in further analysis then the negative values
should be excluded before the data processing. Thus, inappropriately
originated distances would be ignored.
This study presents initial results for generation of dense FSTT data
7
Forensic Imaging 25 (2021) 200460
using the free software CloudCompare. Additional experiments testing
the cylinder parameters as well as following comparisons with other
approaches for FSTT measuring should be further carried out to estab­
lish the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. A limitation of
the suggested method is the presence of small areas without computed
M3C2 distances in cases when only the distances in the positive half-
space are calculated. Another issue is the visualization of the colorized
model in other software. The converting of the scalar field to RGB gives
the possibility for visualization of the mapped FSTTs in other software,
but does not provide information about the assigned M3C2 distances.
However, this study aims not only to present the FSTTs as color maps but
also to allow extraction of dense FSTT data orthogonal to the local skull
surface. Thus, collected huge amount of data could be handled with
more sophisticated methods e.g. machine learning algorithms, in order
to support generation of automated FA based on the skull-skin re­
lationships learned by computer systems and not on the subjective
artistic skills of a particular researcher.
Conclusion
Our study presents an approach to derive densely calculated FSTT
data using CloudCompare, free software for 3D point cloud and mesh
processing. Thus, the proposed approach joins the other methods for
automated calculations of the FSTTs and expands the research in this
field. The denser FSTT measurements would provide more detailed in­
formation about the skull-skin correspondence and face morphology.
The demonstrated method could be used to build FSTT databases for
further analyses. Hence, the data collected from a large sample of images
could subsequently support and prompt automated methods for virtual
FA.
Suppl. file 1. Guide for calculation of dense FSTTs using
CloudCompare.
Suppl. File 2. Visualization of the FSTTs projected on the skin
(calculated at d = 2 mm): a) front view, b) lateral view.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund
[grant numbers DN01/15-20.12.2016 and DN11/9-15.12.2017].
D. Toneva et al.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.fri.2021.200460.
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