Statistics with a human face: surfaces, shapes and anatomy

Monday 6th October, 2014 16:00-17:00 Maths 326

Three-dimensional surface imaging, through laser-scanning or

stereo-photogrammetry, provides high-resolution data defining the

surface shape of objects. In an anatomical setting this can provide

invaluable quantitative information, for example on the success

of surgery. Two particular applications are in the success of

breast reconstruction and in facial surgery following conditions

such as cleft lip and palate. An initial challenge is to extract

suitable information from these images, to characterise the surface

shape in an informative manner. Landmarks are traditionally used

to good effect but these clearly do not adequately represent the

very much richer information present in each digitised images.

Curves with clear anatomical meaning provide a good compromise

between informative representations of shape and simplicity of

structure, as well as providing guiding information for full surface

representations. Some of the issues involved in analysing data of

this type will be discussed and illustrated. Modelling issues include

the measurement of asymmetry and longitudinal patterns of growth.

This is a talk which involves some very interesting problems and

statistical models. It also has geometry and topology at its heart.

The current methods there are undoubtedly (embarrassingly?) naive

but I’m hoping others will be able to advise on how to do this better!

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