Influence of Connecting Two Standalone Mobile Three-Dimensional Scanners on Accuracy Comparing with a Standard Device in Facial Scanning

OBJECTIVES: In this study is investigated if bundling of two scanners leads to better accuracy in recording faces than a standard face-scanning device. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a group of 28 volunteers, two test specimens were attached to their faces: one on their forehead and one turned 90° on their cheek. Each volunteer was scanned by FaceScan3D(®) and two bundled Artec EVA(®) scanners. The scans were aligned to a three-dimensional model of the test specimen, and the mean error was recorded. Length, width and angles between the test specimen’s planes were compared. RESULTS: The mean deviation is significantly lower for the cheek test specimen in alignment (P < 0.001), length and width (P < 0.001) but not for the forehead test specimen in alignment and length and width (P > 0.05) using FaceScan3D(®). The aberration from the original angle between two sides of the test specimen is significantly lower measured with Artec EVA(®) for the angle between the front and the bottom plane of both test specimens (P < 0.01). Besides the angle between the right plane and the bottom plane as well as the top plane of the test specimen mounted to the cheek, the deviation of the angle between the other side planes to each other is significantly lower (P > 0.05) scanned with Artec EVA(®). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to FaceScan3D(®), two bundled Artec EVA(®) scanners provide different accuracies depending on the location of the measured parameters. The accuracy measured for both scanners is inside the range found in the literature.