Design and implementation of craniofacial geometric morphometrics database using open-GIS data structure

Abstract

The word craniofacial is derived from the word cranium, referring to the skull, and facial, referring to the face. Data of craniofacial is needed in many fields (Chong et.al., 2004). Measurement or anthropometric of the surface of the human head and face is necessary to design personal protective items (respirators, eyeglasses, and other head/face gear), identify missing persons in forensic, and help predict growth patterns and evaluate patients in craniomaxillofacial surgery. Anthropometric data of the ‘normal range’ group (Farkas, 1994) of the population are needed to plan craniofacial reconstruction of malformation patients because the normal data are often used as the correct dimension for surgery. The step to achieve this goal is to build a database containing sets of “normal” craniofacial data which allows for a comparison of the current shape of a patient with a typical "normal" shape which taking such factors as age and sex of the patient into consideration (Brief et.al., 1999). In addition, the normal data are required for the forensic applications.