3D face was recently investigated for various applications, including biometrics and diagnosis. Describing facial surface, i.e. how it bends and which kinds of patches is composed by, is the aim of studies of Face Analysis, whose ultimate goal is to identify which features could be extracted from three-dimensional faces depending on the application. In this study, we propose 105 novel geometrical descriptors for Face Analysis. They are generated by composing primary geometrical descriptors such as mean, Gaussian, principal curvatures, shape index, curvedness, and the coefficients of the fundamental forms, and by applying standard functions such as sine, cosine, and logarithm to them. The new descriptors were mapped on 217 facial depth maps and analysed in terms of descriptiveness of facial shape and exploitability for localizing landmark points. Automatic landmark extraction stands as the final aim of this analysis. Results showed that some newly generated descriptors were sounder than the primary ones, meaning that their local behaviours in correspondence to a landmark position is thoroughly specific and can be registered with high similarity on every face of our dataset.

Purpose – Quality function deployment (QFD) is a worldwide-known, design for quality approach, which gathers several design quality methods. Among them, the House of Quality (HoQ) correlates the Voice of Customer and the Voice of Company thanks to L-shaped (2D) Matrix Diagrams (MDs). This paper theorizes, as logically possible, the extension from a bi-dimensional representation (a customer and a provider) to a higher N-dimensional representational freedom without altering the typical QFD’s customer-provider posture. The purpose of this paper is to present QFD 3D: the extension of the Relationship MD in the HoQ toward a third dimension (two customers and a provider or two providers and a customer). Design/methodology/approach – The proposed method is based on an existing well-known quality management tool such as MDs. The authors extend its representational capability by substituting the current L-shaped MDs (2D) with C-shaped ones (3D). The mathematical validity of this extension is described to demonstrate the correctness of the approach. Findings – The paper presents the logical validity and a case study concerning a three-dimensional extension of the Relationship MD in the HoQ, typical of the QFD approach. Research limitations/implications – The results are limited to a three-dimensional extension. Situations where more than three actors are simultaneously involved are theoretically possible, but they are out of the scope of the current research. The difficulty in manipulating 3D representations on traditional supporting tools will be completely reversed on new computer-supported tools. The proposed method is meant to be a useful and efficient instrument for correlating the needs and the services in multi-actors-based scenario, using a QFD design quality approach fueled by IT support tools. Practical implications – This paper can be used as guideline for further researches on N-dimensional extensions of HoQ. The proposed method can be used in a scenario based on the Triple Helix of Innovation. It gives a clear correlation between different needs and services, facilitating the decision-making process and the constitution of a more comprehensive view of the scenario under a quality management approach. Originality/value – Thousands of articles propose different QFD case studies all based on a bi-dimensional correlation between a customer and a provider. This paper proposes a method to extend the pertinence of QFD to scenarios where more than two actors are simultaneously correlated. Considering in particular three actors, the resulting three-dimensional Relationship MD in the HoQ is a totally new design quality tool for correlating customers’ needs and providers’ services. This can result in a significant gain of time and representational ability for quality managers who have to correlate multiple customers with a service provider and conversely a customer to multiple service providers. This approach open the doors for new QFD tools fueled by IT.

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is increasingly important for organizations acting in a dynamic and competitive markets since PLM can improve decision-making and reduce costs by taking advantage of the efficiencies and effectiveness coming from improved market intelligence and collaboration of partners. In the last years academics as well as practitioners and consultants have developed a wide range of maturity models for the purpose of measuring and describing certain aspects of PLM "maturity". The PLM maturity models permit to assess the relative position of companies on their road to complete PLM implementation. However, it is a tough job for the company to select the most appropriate PLM maturity model, as each maturity model has different attributes. Since, to our knowledge, no benchmarking for PLM maturity models exists to date, the rising number of maturity models implicates problems with respect to retrievability and reusability. With the aim to enhance the time consuming and exhausting search and selection process of appropriate assessment models, a benchmarking framework for PLM maturity models is presented in this paper.

The human eye, connected to the brain, gives people the possibility to immediately, automatically and exactly recognize one person from another.

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Morphometric measures and geometrical features are widely used to descript faces. Generally, they are extracted punctually from landmarks, namely anthropometric reference points. The aims are various, such as face recognition, facial expression recognition, face detection, study of changes in facial morphology due to growth, or dysmorphologies. Most of the time, landmarks were extracted with the help of an algorithm or manually located on the faces. Then, measures are computed or geometrical features are extracted to perform the scope of the study. This paper is intended as a survey collecting and explaining all these features, in order to provide a structured user database of the potential parameters and their charateristics. Firstly, facial soft-tissue landmarks are defined and contextualized; then the various morphometric measures are introduced and some results are given; lastly, the most important measures are compared to identify the best one for face recognition applications.

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This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each submission to which Evidence-Based Medicine rankings are applicable. This excludes Review Articles, Book Reviews, and manuscripts that concern Basic Science, Animal Studies, Cadaver Studies, and Experimental Studies. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors http://www.springer.com/00266 .