Predicting Forward & Backward Facial Depth Maps from a Single RGB Image for Mobile 3d AR Application

Cheap and fast 3D asset creation to enable AR/VR applications is a fast growing domain. This paper addresses a significant problem of reconstructing complete 3D information of a face in near real-time speed on a mobile phone. We propose a novel deep learning based solution to predict robust depth maps of a face, one forward facing and the other backward facing, from a single image from the wild. A critical contribution is that the proposed network is capable of learning the depths of the occluded part of the face too. This is achieved by training a fully convolutional neural network to learn the dual (forward and backward) depth maps, with a common encoder and two separate decoders. The 300W-LP, a cloud point dataset, is used to compute the required dual depth maps from the training data. The code and results will be made available at project page.