The spiral facets: A unified framework for the analysis and description of 3D facial mesh surface

In this paper, we describe an original topological framework for encoding 3D facial triangular mesh surface. We derive shape information from the triangular mesh surface by exploiting specific arrangements of facets in the model. We describe the foundations of the framework and show how it can be employed in several original applications including face landmark detection, frontal face extraction, face orientation and facial surface representation. We validate the framework through experimentation with raw 3D face mesh surfaces and demonstrate that the model allows simpler implementation, more compact representation and encompasses rich shape information that can be usefully deployed both locally and globally across the face in comparison to other standard representations.