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Accuracy Comparison of 3D Face Scans Obtained by Portable Stereophotogrammetry and Smartphone Applications

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Abstract

Purpose

To compare the accuracy of three-dimensional (3D) facial scans captured by smartphone applications with a clinically approved portable stereophotogrammetry device.

Methods

Morphometric markers were placed on 8 points on the face of 50 participants. Facial 3D scans were captured with a LiDAR camera on an iPad Pro using five smartphone applications (Heges 3D Scanner, Bellus FaceMaker, ScandyPro, Scaniverse and Trnio) and a stereophotogrammetric 3D Vectra H1 camera. The standard triangle language (stl.) format of the smartphone facial scans were automatically surface-based spatially aligned on the 3D Vectra H1 stl. of the corresponding participant. Linear and 3D measurements were performed in 3-Matic software.

Results

The largest linear differences were found between the morphometric points of the Heges 3D scanner (3.4 ± 1.5 mm) and ScanyPro (4.4 ± 2.1 mm), and Vectra H1, while the smallest deviations were seen for the Bellus FaceMaker (2.2 ± 1.2 mm) and Trnio (2.9 ± 1.5 mm). Identical findings were obtained for the 3D comparison. The smallest deviation was seen for the chin and forehead in all applications.

Conclusion

From the five tested smartphone applications, three showed sufficient accuracy for facial scanning purposes.

Graphical Abstract

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Data Availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported a grant from the Institute of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Education and Training (IOMFCOT), Leuven, Belgium. We would like to acknowledge Maximiliaan Smeets, Melisa Garip, Tomas-Marijn Croonenborghs and Thomas Aerden for their feedback on the study design. We thank Marel Simonik for providing us free access to Heges 3D scanner.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. OMFS-IMPATH Research Group, Department of Imaging & Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Lina Van Lint, Lynn Christiaens, Valerie Stroo, Michel Bila, Robin Willaert, Yi Sun & Jeroen Van Dessel

  2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospitals Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 7, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Lina Van Lint, Lynn Christiaens, Valerie Stroo, Michel Bila, Robin Willaert, Yi Sun & Jeroen Van Dessel

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  1. Lina Van Lint
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Contributions

Conceptualization: LVL, LC, MB and JVD; Methodology: LVL, YS and JVD; Software: LVL and JVD; Validation: LVL and VS; Formal Analysis: LVL, VS and JVD; Investigation: LVL, LC and JVD; Resources: MB, RW, YS and JVD; Data Curation: LVL; Writing—Original Draft Preparation: LVL and JVD; Writing—Review & Editing: LC, VS, MB, RW and YS; Visualization: LVL and JVD; Supervision: JVD; Project Administration: JVD.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lina Van Lint.

Ethics declarations

Competing interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of KU/UZ Leuven (07/04/2022, S66188).

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent to Publish

The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the images in the Graphical Abstract, Figs. 1a–c, 2 and Tables 1 and 2.

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Van Lint, L., Christiaens, L., Stroo, V. et al. Accuracy Comparison of 3D Face Scans Obtained by Portable Stereophotogrammetry and Smartphone Applications. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 43, 550–560 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-023-00817-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-023-00817-9

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