Generating animatable 3D cartoon faces from single portraits

Background With the development of virtual reality(VR)technology,there is a growing need for customized 3D avatars.However,traditional methods for 3D avatar modeling are either time-consuming or fail to retain the similarity to the person being modeled.This study presents a novel framework for generating animatable 3D cartoon faces from a single portrait image.Methods First,we transferred an input real-world portrait to a stylized cartoon image using StyleGAN.We then proposed a two-stage reconstruction method to recover a 3D cartoon face with detailed texture.Our two-stage strategy initially performs coarse estimation based on template models and subsequently refines the model by nonrigid deformation under landmark supervision.Finally,we proposed a semantic-preserving face-rigging method based on manually created templates and deformation transfer.Conclusions Compared with prior arts,the qualitative and quantitative results show that our method achieves better accuracy,aesthetics,and similarity criteria.Furthermore,we demonstrated the capability of the proposed 3D model for real-time facial animation.

基于SSD与FaceNet的人脸识别系统设计

人脸识别技术广泛应用于考勤管理、移动支付等智慧建设中。伴随着常态化的口罩干扰,传统人脸识别算法已无法满足实际应用需求,为此,本文利用深度学习模型SSD以及FaceNet模型对人脸识别系统展开设计。首先,为消除现有数据集中亚洲人脸占比小造成的类内间距变化差距不明显的问题,在CAS-IA Web Face公开数据集的基础上对亚洲人脸数据进行扩充;其次,为解决不同口罩样式对特征提取的干扰,使用SSD人脸检测模型与DLIB人脸关键点检测模型提取人脸关键点,并利用人脸关键点与口罩的空间位置关系,额外随机生成不同的口罩人脸,组成混合数据集;最后,在混合数据集上进行模型训练并将训练好的模型移植到人脸识别系统中,进行检测速度与识别精度验证。实验结果表明,系统的实时识别速度达20 fps以上,人脸识别模型准确率在构建的混合数据集中达到97.1%,在随机抽取的部分LFW数据集验证的准确率达99.7%,故而该系统可满足实际应用需求,在一定程度上提高人脸识别的鲁棒性与准确性。

基于YOLO5Face重分布的小尺度人脸检测方法

针对复杂场景下小尺度人脸检测精度较低的问题,提出了一种基于YOLO5Face重分布的小尺度人脸检测方法。方法以YOLO5Face为基础,在网络浅层引入改进的CBAM注意力并对模型计算重分布,提升复杂场景下小尺度人脸检测精度的同时降低模型参数量;采用融合mixup的数据增强方法,充分训练模型小尺度人脸检测分支;依据人脸检测特性,将softmax损失作为分类损失以最大化类间特征的差异。在WiderFace各个子集上的实验结果表明,与主流人脸检测方法相比,改进后的模型满足实时性的同时,小尺度人脸检测精度较高,其中Hard子集检测精度比YOLO5Face提升2个百分点。

VR/AR-AdaptFace:面向虚拟现实与增强现实的自适应多模态面部替换模型

随着VR/AR技术的迅猛发展,用户对于沉浸式体验的需求日益增长。同时,虚拟人脸技术亦趋成熟。基于此,本文探索将高度拟真的虚拟人脸融入VR/AR,以增强用户体验的自然度与沉浸感。然而,在虚拟数字人领域,图像生成及换脸技术在VR/AR环境下仍遇诸多挑战,尤其是唇形合成模型在动态场景及多语言环境下的性能需进一步优化。为解决上述问题,本文提出VR/AR-AdaptFace模型,一个面向虚拟现实与增强现实的自适应多模态面部替换方案。该模型由两大模块构成:“文颜绘真”模块,采用先进的文本至图像转换技术和特定类别先验保存策略,优化虚拟人脸生成,并通过注意力机制大幅提升图像质量;“语唇映生”模块,依托强大的生成器、唇形同步判别器及视觉质量判别器,实现语音与唇形的精准同步,为VR/AR场景中的动态交互带来更加逼真的体验。

Probabilistic analysis of tunnel face seismic stability in layered rock masses using Polynomial Chaos Kriging metamodel

Face stability is an essential issue in tunnel design and construction.Layered rock masses are typical and ubiquitous;uncertainties in rock properties always exist.In view of this,a comprehensive method,which combines the Upper bound Limit analysis of Tunnel face stability,the Polynomial Chaos Kriging,the Monte-Carlo Simulation and Analysis of Covariance method(ULT-PCK-MA),is proposed to investigate the seismic stability of tunnel faces.A two-dimensional analytical model of ULT is developed to evaluate the virtual support force based on the upper bound limit analysis.An efficient probabilistic analysis method PCK-MA based on the adaptive Polynomial Chaos Kriging metamodel is then implemented to investigate the parameter uncertainty effects.Ten input parameters,including geological strength indices,uniaxial compressive strengths and constants for three rock formations,and the horizontal seismic coefficients,are treated as random variables.The effects of these parameter uncertainties on the failure probability and sensitivity indices are discussed.In addition,the effects of weak layer position,the middle layer thickness and quality,the tunnel diameter,the parameters correlation,and the seismic loadings are investigated,respectively.The results show that the layer distributions significantly influence the tunnel face probabilistic stability,particularly when the weak rock is present in the bottom layer.The efficiency of the proposed ULT-PCK-MA is validated,which is expected to facilitate the engineering design and construction.

Influence of static cartoons combined with dynamic virtual environments on preoperative anxiety of preschool-aged children undergoing surgery

BACKGROUND Preschoolers become anxious when they are about to undergo anesthesia and surgery,warranting the development of more appropriate and effective interventions.AIM To explore the effect of static cartoons combined with dynamic virtual environments on preoperative anxiety and anesthesia induction compliance in preschool-aged children undergoing surgery.METHODS One hundred and sixteen preschool-aged children were selected and assigned to the drug(n=37),intervention(n=40),and control(n=39)groups.All the children received routine preoperative checkups and nursing before being transferred to the preoperative preparation room on the day of the operation.The drug group received 0.5 mg/kg midazolam and the intervention group treatment consisting of static cartoons combined with dynamic virtual environments.The control group received no intervention.The modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale was used to evaluate the children’s anxiety level on the day before surgery(T0),before leaving the preoperative preparation room(T1),when entering the operating room(T2),and at anesthesia induction(T3).Compliance during anesthesia induction(T3)was evaluated using the Induction Compliance Checklist(ICC).Changes in mean arterial pressure(MAP),heart rate(HR),and respiratory rate(RR)were also recorded at each time point.RESULTS The anxiety scores of the three groups increased variously at T1 and T2.At T3,both the drug and intervention groups had similar anxiety scores,both of which were lower than those in the control group.At T1 and T2,MAP,HR,and RR of the three groups increased.The drug and control groups had significantly higher MAP and RR than the intervention group at T2.At T3,the MAP,HR,and RR of the drug group decreased and were significantly lower than those in the control group but were comparable to those in the intervention group.Both the drug and intervention groups had similar ICC scores and duration of anesthesia induction(T3),both of which were higher than those of the control group.CONCLUSION Combining static cartoons with dynamic virtual environments as effective as medication,specifically midazolam,in reducing preoperative anxiety and fear in preschool-aged children.This approach also improve their compliance during anesthesia induction and helped maintain their stable vital signs.

Rock mass quality prediction on tunnel faces with incomplete multi-source dataset via tree-augmented naive Bayesian network

Rock mass quality serves as a vital index for predicting the stability and safety status of rock tunnel faces.In tunneling practice,the rock mass quality is often assessed via a combination of qualitative and quantitative parameters.However,due to the harsh on-site construction conditions,it is rather difficult to obtain some of the evaluation parameters which are essential for the rock mass quality prediction.In this study,a novel improved Swin Transformer is proposed to detect,segment,and quantify rock mass characteristic parameters such as water leakage,fractures,weak interlayers.The site experiment results demonstrate that the improved Swin Transformer achieves optimal segmentation results and achieving accuracies of 92%,81%,and 86%for water leakage,fractures,and weak interlayers,respectively.A multisource rock tunnel face characteristic(RTFC)dataset includes 11 parameters for predicting rock mass quality is established.Considering the limitations in predictive performance of incomplete evaluation parameters exist in this dataset,a novel tree-augmented naive Bayesian network(BN)is proposed to address the challenge of the incomplete dataset and achieved a prediction accuracy of 88%.In comparison with other commonly used Machine Learning models the proposed BN-based approach proved an improved performance on predicting the rock mass quality with the incomplete dataset.By utilizing the established BN,a further sensitivity analysis is conducted to quantitatively evaluate the importance of the various parameters,results indicate that the rock strength and fractures parameter exert the most significant influence on rock mass quality.

VanillaFaceNet:一种高精度快速推理的牛脸识别方法

快速精准确定牛只身份对于牛只活体贷款,改善牛只骗保等问题具有重要意义。针对不同牛只面部差异小,FaceNet网络层数深,推理速度较慢,模型分类精度不足等问题,该研究提出了基于FaceNet的牛脸识别方法-VanillaFaceNet。该方法首先将FaceNet的主干特征提取网络替换为极简网络VanillaNet-13并提出动态激活和增强型线性变换的激活函数两种方法提高网络的非线性;然后,提出一种新的DBCA(dual-branch coordinate attention)注意力模块,能够更好地反映不同牛只面部特征之间的差异,从而提高网络的识别精度;最后,针对triplet loss仅能减小牛只类间差异的问题,采用center-triplet loss联合监督来减少牛只类内差异,从而提高了相同牛只身份比对的准确性。基于自建的牛脸数据集对该模型进行训练和测试,试验结果表明,VanillaFaceNet对牛只识别的准确率达到88.21%,每秒传输帧数为26.23帧。与FaceNet、MobileFaceNet、CenterFace、CosFace和ArcFace算法相比,本文算法的识别准确率分别提高了2.99、9.58、6.26、3.85和4.49个百分点,推理速度分别提升了2.67、0.77、0.10、1.28和0.94帧/s。该模型对牛只有较为优秀的识别效果,适于在嵌入式设备上部署,实现了牛只面部识别精度和推理速度之间的平衡。

基于改进YOLOv5s-face的Face5系列人脸检测算法

针对人脸检测中小尺度人脸和遮挡人脸的漏检问题,提出了一种基于改进YOLOv5s-face(you only look once version 5 small-face)的Face5系列人脸检测算法Face5S(face5 small)和Face5M(face5 medium)。使用马赛克(mosaic)和图像混合(mixup)数据增强方法,提升算法在复杂场景下检测人脸的泛化性和稳定性;通过改进C3的网络结构和引入可变形卷积(DCNv2)降低算法的参数量,提高算法提取特征的灵活性;通过引入特征的内容感知重组上采样算子(CARAFE),提高多尺度人脸的检测性能;引入损失函数WIoUV3(wise intersection over union version 3),提升算法的小尺度人脸检测性能。实验结果表明,在WIDER FACE验证集上,相较于YOLOv5s-face算法,Face5S算法的平均mAP@0.5提升了1.03%;相较于先进的人脸检测算法ASFD-D3(automatic and scalable face detector-D3)和TinaFace,Face5M算法的平均mAP@0.5分别提升了1.07%和2.11%,提出的Face5系列算法能够有效提升算法对小尺度和部分遮挡人脸的检测性能,同时具有实时性。

Stability analysis of tunnel face reinforced with face bolts

Face bolting has been widely utilized to enhance the stability of tunnel face,particularly in soft soil tunnels.However,the influence of bolt reinforcement and its layout on tunnel face stability has not been systematically studied.Based on the theory of linear elastic mechanics,this study delved into the specific mechanisms of bolt reinforcement on the tunnel face in both horizontal and vertical dimensions.It also identified the primary failure types of bolts.Additionally,a design approach for tunnel face bolts that incorporates spatial layout was established using the limit equilibrium method to enhance the conventional wedge-prism model.The proposed model was subsequently validated through various means,and the specific influence of relevant bolt design parameters on tunnel face stability was analyzed.Furthermore,design principles for tunnel face bolts under different geological conditions were presented.The findings indicate that bolt failure can be categorized into three stages:tensile failure,pullout failure,and comprehensive failure.Increasing cohesion,internal friction angle,bolt density,and overlap length can effectively enhance tunnel face stability.Due to significant variations in stratum conditions,tailored design approaches based on specific failure stages are necessary for bolt design.

Sparse representation scheme with enhanced medium pixel intensity for face recognition

Sparse representation is an effective data classification algorithm that depends on the known training samples to categorise the test sample.It has been widely used in various image classification tasks.Sparseness in sparse representation means that only a few of instances selected from all training samples can effectively convey the essential class-specific information of the test sample,which is very important for classification.For deformable images such as human faces,pixels at the same location of different images of the same subject usually have different intensities.Therefore,extracting features and correctly classifying such deformable objects is very hard.Moreover,the lighting,attitude and occlusion cause more difficulty.Considering the problems and challenges listed above,a novel image representation and classification algorithm is proposed.First,the authors’algorithm generates virtual samples by a non-linear variation method.This method can effectively extract the low-frequency information of space-domain features of the original image,which is very useful for representing deformable objects.The combination of the original and virtual samples is more beneficial to improve the clas-sification performance and robustness of the algorithm.Thereby,the authors’algorithm calculates the expression coefficients of the original and virtual samples separately using the sparse representation principle and obtains the final score by a designed efficient score fusion scheme.The weighting coefficients in the score fusion scheme are set entirely automatically.Finally,the algorithm classifies the samples based on the final scores.The experimental results show that our method performs better classification than conventional sparse representation algorithms.

The Relation between Mental Workload and Face Temperature in Flight Simulation

In this research, we study the relationship between mental workload and facial temperature of aircraft participants during a simulated takeoff flight. We conducted experiments to comprehend the correlation between work and facial temperature within the flight simulator. The experiment involved a group of 10 participants who played the role of pilots in a simulated A-320 flight. Six different flying scenarios were designed to simulate normal and emergency situations on airplane takeoff that would occur in different levels of mental workload for the participants. The measurements were workload assessment, face temperatures, and heart rate monitoring. Throughout the experiments, we collected a total of 120 instances of takeoffs, together with over 10 hours of time-series data including heart rate, workload, and face thermal images and temperatures. Comparative analysis of EEG data and thermal image types, revealed intriguing findings. The results indicate a notable inverse relationship between workload and facial muscle temperatures, as well as facial landmark points. The results of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the physiological effects of workload, as well as practical implications for aviation safety and performance.

Learning to represent 2D human face with mathematical model

How to represent a human face pattern?While it is presented in a continuous way in human visual system,computers often store and process it in a discrete manner with 2D arrays of pixels.The authors attempt to learn a continuous surface representation for face image with explicit function.First,an explicit model(EmFace)for human face representation is pro-posed in the form of a finite sum of mathematical terms,where each term is an analytic function element.Further,to estimate the unknown parameters of EmFace,a novel neural network,EmNet,is designed with an encoder-decoder structure and trained from massive face images,where the encoder is defined by a deep convolutional neural network and the decoder is an explicit mathematical expression of EmFace.The authors demonstrate that our EmFace represents face image more accurate than the comparison method,with an average mean square error of 0.000888,0.000936,0.000953 on LFW,IARPA Janus Benchmark-B,and IJB-C datasets.Visualisation results show that,EmFace has a higher representation performance on faces with various expressions,postures,and other factors.Furthermore,EmFace achieves reasonable performance on several face image processing tasks,including face image restoration,denoising,and transformation.

Inverse reliability analysis and design for tunnel face stability considering soil spatial variability

The traditional deterministic analysis for tunnel face stability neglects the uncertainties of geotechnical parameters,while the simplified reliability analysis which models the potential uncertainties by means of random variables usually fails to account for soil spatial variability.To overcome these limitations,this study proposes an efficient framework for conducting reliability analysis and reliability-based design(RBD)of tunnel face stability in spatially variable soil strata.The three-dimensional(3D)rotational failure mechanism of the tunnel face is extended to account for the soil spatial variability,and a probabilistic framework is established by coupling the extended mechanism with the improved Hasofer-Lind-Rackwits-Fiessler recursive algorithm(iHLRF)as well as its inverse analysis formulation.The proposed framework allows for rapid and precise reliability analysis and RBD of tunnel face stability.To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed framework,an illustrative case of tunnelling in frictional soils is presented,where the soil's cohesion and friction angle are modelled as two anisotropic cross-correlated lognormal random fields.The results show that the proposed method can accurately estimate the failure probability(or reliability index)regarding the tunnel face stability and can efficiently determine the required supporting pressure for a target reliability index with soil spatial variability being taken into account.Furthermore,this study reveals the impact of various factors on the support pressure,including coefficient of variation,cross-correlation between cohesion and friction angle,as well as autocorrelation distance of spatially variable soil strata.The results also demonstrate the feasibility of using the forward and/or inverse first-order reliability method(FORM)in high-dimensional stochastic problems.It is hoped that this study may provide a practical and reliable framework for determining the stability of tunnels in complex soil strata.

Determinants of COVID-19 Face Mask Litter in Coastal Urban Parking Lots: Implications for Source Modelling of Potential Microplastic Pollution

Despite cities being recognized as being potential sources of microplastic pollution to the wider environment, most surveys of COVID-19 plastic-based litter have been undertaken through linear transects of marine beaches. For the far fewer number of studies conducted on inland and urban locations, the site-specific focus has primarily been surveys along the length of streets. The present study is the first to specifically assess the standing stock (i.e., moment-in-time) of littered face masks for the entire surface area of urban parking lots. The density of face masks in 50 parking lots in a Canadian coastal town (0.00054 m2 ± 0.00051 m2) was found to be significantly greater than the background level of littering of town streets. Face mask density was significantly related to visitation “usage” of parking lots as gauged by the areal size of the lots and of their onsite buildings, as well as the number of vehicles present. Neither parking lot typology nor estimates of inferred export (various measures of wind exposure) and entrapment (various metrics of obstruction) of face masks had a significant influence on the extent of whole-lot littering. In consequence, modelling of the potential input of mask-derived microplastics to the marine environment from coastal communities can use the areal density of face masks found here in association with the total surface area of lots for individual municipalities as determined through GIS analysis.

Face animation based on multiple sources and perspective alignment

Background Face image animation generates a synthetic human face video that harmoniously integrates the identity derived from the source image and facial motion obtained from the driving video.This technology could be beneficial in multiple medical fields,such as diagnosis and privacy protection.Previous studies on face animation often relied on a single source image to generate an output video.With a significant pose difference between the source image and the driving frame,the quality of the generated video is likely to be suboptimal because the source image may not provide sufficient features for the warped feature map.Methods In this study,we propose a novel face-animation scheme based on multiple sources and perspective alignment to address these issues.We first introduce a multiple-source sampling and selection module to screen the optimal source image set from the provided driving video.We then propose an inter-frame interpolation and alignment module to further eliminate the misalignment between the selected source image and the driving frame.Conclusions The proposed method exhibits superior performance in terms of objective metrics and visual quality in large-angle animation scenes compared to other state-of-the-art face animation methods.It indicates the effectiveness of the proposed method in addressing the distortion issues in large-angle animation.

Advancing Wound Filling Extraction on 3D Faces:An Auto-Segmentation and Wound Face Regeneration Approach

Facial wound segmentation plays a crucial role in preoperative planning and optimizing patient outcomes in various medical applications.In this paper,we propose an efficient approach for automating 3D facial wound segmentation using a two-stream graph convolutional network.Our method leverages the Cir3D-FaIR dataset and addresses the challenge of data imbalance through extensive experimentation with different loss functions.To achieve accurate segmentation,we conducted thorough experiments and selected a high-performing model from the trainedmodels.The selectedmodel demonstrates exceptional segmentation performance for complex 3D facial wounds.Furthermore,based on the segmentation model,we propose an improved approach for extracting 3D facial wound fillers and compare it to the results of the previous study.Our method achieved a remarkable accuracy of 0.9999993% on the test suite,surpassing the performance of the previous method.From this result,we use 3D printing technology to illustrate the shape of the wound filling.The outcomes of this study have significant implications for physicians involved in preoperative planning and intervention design.By automating facial wound segmentation and improving the accuracy ofwound-filling extraction,our approach can assist in carefully assessing and optimizing interventions,leading to enhanced patient outcomes.Additionally,it contributes to advancing facial reconstruction techniques by utilizing machine learning and 3D bioprinting for printing skin tissue implants.Our source code is available at https://github.com/SIMOGroup/WoundFilling3D.

Three-dimensional pseudo-dynamic reliability analysis of seismic shield tunnel faces combined with sparse polynomial chaos expansion

To address the seismic face stability challenges encountered in urban and subsea tunnel construction,an efficient probabilistic analysis framework for shield tunnel faces under seismic conditions is proposed.Based on the upper-bound theory of limit analysis,an improved three-dimensional discrete deterministic mechanism,accounting for the heterogeneous nature of soil media,is formulated to evaluate seismic face stability.The metamodel of failure probabilistic assessments for seismic tunnel faces is constructed by integrating the sparse polynomial chaos expansion method(SPCE)with the modified pseudo-dynamic approach(MPD).The improved deterministic model is validated by comparing with published literature and numerical simulations results,and the SPCE-MPD metamodel is examined with the traditional MCS method.Based on the SPCE-MPD metamodels,the seismic effects on face failure probability and reliability index are presented and the global sensitivity analysis(GSA)is involved to reflect the influence order of seismic action parameters.Finally,the proposed approach is tested to be effective by a engineering case of the Chengdu outer ring tunnel.The results show that higher uncertainty of seismic response on face stability should be noticed in areas with intense earthquakes and variation of seismic wave velocity has the most profound influence on tunnel face stability.

Photographs and Cartoons: Differences in Interpretation of the Visual Semiotics

This study looks at the interaction between the process of intersemiosis and resemiosis in multimodality. The importance of both phases is widely acknowledged as part of the meaning making process but many practical studies focus on the first rather than the second. In particular this study looks at two groups of images about gender relations in Saudi Arabia following the post-2017 reforms of the male guardianship laws. One group are mostly made up of photographs and the second group of cartoons and posters. One important finding is that the latter tend to be less ambiguous in their semiotic structure than the former. In particular, there are instances in the first group where a standard study of intersemiosis indicates low modality but the image may be seen as inherently plausible by many observers. This suggests that while resemiosis can be applied to a single image it may be more appropriate as a tool when applied to an overall news article or set of images. In the same way that not all individual semiotic modes are complementary in how they build meaning, then it is possible for different images to be supportive, contradictory or unclear when studied in isolation.

汉语“脸/面”和英语“face”的概念隐喻研究

该文基于概念隐喻理论,探讨汉英语中基本人体词“脸/面”(“face”)的概念隐喻。研究结果显示,汉英两种语言关于“脸/面”(“face”)的概念隐喻映射既存在共性,又各自具有特殊性。研究进一步印证了认知语言学中认知具有“体验性”特征的观点。汉语“脸/面”和英语“face”的概念隐喻用法在一定程度上反映了认知、文化和语言三者之间的关系:语言反映文化特征,不同文化背景的人在认知结构和范畴上存在差异。