Saturday 7 March 2015

Pre-release of free Portuguese e-book: Manual of Digital 3D Facial Reconstruction

3D Designer Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team/Ebrafol), and Forensic Dentist Paulo Miamoto (Ebrafol) are working on the final stages of their e-book, "Manual of Digital 3D Facial Reconstruction - Applications with free software and open source". Although working for some years researching open software applied to forensic and archaelogical contexts, the duo reached international notoriety last year, when they took part in the facial approximation of Saint Anthony. The facial reconstruction of Mary Magdalene is their latest project that has drawn the media's attention.

Nowadays, Moraes and Miamoto are the coordinators of a non-profit NGO, the Brazilian Team of Forensic Anthropology and Dentistry (Ebrafol, for its acronym in Portuguese - www.ebrafol.org). The main objective of Ebrafol is the promotion of Human Rights by the application of the aforementioned sciences. They highlight that the tools used in historical projects like Mary Magdalene's are the same that can be applied to help human identification, and possibly contribute to solve cases of disappeared individuals.



Moraes and Miamoto now expect to share their methodology of work using free software in their e-book. "Unlike what most people may think at first sight, we actually want as many people as possible to learn all about our techniques and apply them to their needs, which might actually help people around them. And that's why the e-book will be free", explains Cicero. In this work, the reader will be taught from square one all about facial reconstruction, since digitalizing a skull with photogrammetry, up to rendering the modeled face. It is intended for absolute beginners, as Dr. Miamoto explains "I didn't have a solid background on 3D Modeling during my regular studies, it was a slow but constant learning process. Therefore it is important for us that this book is easily comprehensible by professionals of backgrounds other than computer sciences, like dentists, anthropologists, pathologists, archaeologists and anyone with a will to learn."  Open software like Python Photogrammetry Toolbox with Graphic User Interface (PPT-GUI), MeshLab, MakeHuman and Blender are some of the applications that are explained in tutorials throughout the chapters.


To receive your copy of the book, please go to www.ciceromoraes.com.br, fill out the form and a copy will be sent soon, as the book is on its final reviewing phase. Although it is still in Portuguese, the authors expect to release translated versions to Spanish and English hereafter.

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