DentaltownUK May 2017 - 57

So why are we talking about Disney in a
dental magazine? Well, after years of
achieving, creating and inventing in the
media world, it has set its sights on something a little surprising: model-based tooth
reconstruction!
The basis of the project is to create an
algorithm that successfully allows Disney
to re-create an individual's teeth from basic
images or a short video. The main reasoning for this at the moment is to allow for
more realistic facial reconstruction in films
and video games.
"I try to build a full personality for each
of our cartoon characters -to make them
personalities." - Walt Disney
You could create the most accurate facial
construction of an actor, but if his teeth
aren't quite right it could alter the most
basic of facial expressions and would just
never look quite right.
The demands for realistic and accurate
anatomy on 21st-century animation for
certain films and games is evolving over
the years and building on its original concept of 'unnatural but seemingly natural'.
"Animation is different from other parts.
Its language is the language of caricature.
Our most difficult job was to develop
the cartoon's unnatural but seemingly
natural anatomy for humans and animals."
- Walt Disney
There already are successful reconstructive methods for other aspects of the face,
including eyes and hair, but oral reconstruction has yet to be widely explored.
So far, the majority of efforts to create
reconstructive software for the mouth have
come from the world of dentistry. Disney
has explored currently available oral scanners like the 3M True Definition Scanner,
the iTero Scanner and the 3Shape Trios

Scanner. While they yield high-quality
images, Disney found that there were limitations for requirements related to cost and
time, and that the devices would require
dental professionals to arrange a specific
appointment to take the scan the celebrity
or actor. Therefore, Disney endeavored to
come up with its own solution using
photographs.
"Of all of our inventions for
mass communication, pictures still speak
the most universally understood language."
- Walt Disney
Thabo Beeler, a research scientist at the
Disney Research Zurich lab, kindly agreed
to explain more to DentaltownUK and
answer some questions for us.
DentatownUK honorary editors Elaine
Halley (dentist and owner of Cherrybank
Dental Spa) and Andrew Tawse (dental
technician and owner of 4D Dental Laboratory) collaborated with DentaltownUK
before we spoke to Thabo, who heads the
Capture and Effects group. His primary
research focuses on capture, 3-D geometry
reconstruction and appearance acquisition.
Thabo was a member of the team that created the algorithm for Disney's modelbased teeth reconstruction; he stated that
the project is now targeted toward films
and video games but told us why his team
chose to pursue the re-creation of teeth.
"At the Capture & Effects group of Disney Research we are working creating more
realistic digital characters for films, video
games and other mediums," Thabo said.
"Over the past few years we have been
particularly focused on the face and have
produced systems that can capture the
geometry and deformation of skin, the
structure of facial hair and also the intricacies of eyes at very high fidelity. Working
on teeth has been a natural project following this tradition."

dentaltownuk.com \\ MAY 2017

http://www.dentaltownuk.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK May 2017