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The paper describes a procedure aimed at identification from two-dimensional (2D) images (video-surveillance tapes, for example) by comparison with a three-dimensional (3D) facial model of a suspect. The application is intended to provide a tool which can help in analyzing compatibility or incompatibility between a criminal and a suspect’s facial traits. The authors apply the concept of “geometrically compatible images”. The idea is to use a scanner to reconstruct a 3D facial model of a suspect and to compare it to a frame extracted from the video-surveillance sequence which shows the face of the perpetrator. Repositioning and reorientation of the 3D model according to subject’s face framed in the crime scene photo are manually accomplished, after automatic resizing. Repositioning and reorientation are performed in correspondence of anthropometric landmarks, distinctive for that person and detected both on the 2D face and on the 3D model. In this way, the superimposition between the original two-dimensional facial image and the three-dimensional one is obtained and a judgment is formulated by an expert on the basis of the fit between the anatomical facial districts of the two subjects. The procedure reduces the influence of face orientation and may be a useful tool in identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We felt there was a need for a new device with ”minimal invasive” tracking hardware, to be used in image-guided neurosurgery, and the system we designed to fill this need is now presented.It combines precision of movement, stability and self-positioning capabilities together with optically tracked registration and procedural control within the structure of a surgical microscope. The results are reduced setup time and minimal ”distraction” from the procedure itself, factors of special relevance in child neurosurgery. The system is composed of a six-axis industrial robot suitable for use in the operating room, carrying a surgical microscope. Three progressive scan-synchronized infrared cameras mounted around the lenses of the scope are used to register the patient’s position and track surgical instruments with reference to the registered space. Orientation of the microscope during surgery is obtained with a six-axis joystick used as a microscope handle.The system has been clinically used in 14 cases, and it has proven itself to be reliable, providing the expected performance advantages. The implementation of a tracked ultrasound or endoscope intraoperative imaging source is also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]