Presented by: Professor Adrian Bowman - University of Glasgow
Methods for imaging the surfaces of three-dimensional objects are now widely available and surface data are routinely collected in many areas of science. This generates interesting questions about how to define and quantify shape in this context, how to estimate the key characteristics, and how to use shape models in the context of scientific studies. This talk will have a strong application focus, referring to data principally from medicine and biology. Examples include the need to quantify the effects of surgery, investigation of issues in human biological development, and the impact of environmental change on the shapes of organisms. The human face is a shape of particular interest. Models for shape change over time will be illustrated, at short scale in facial animation, medium scale in individual growth patterns, and very long scale in phylogenetic studies.
