The Application of 3D Morphable Model (3DMM) for Real-Time Visualization of Acupoints on a Smartphone

Acupuncture therapy is one of the main modalities of treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Based on different symptoms of the patient, needling or massaging is applied to the corresponding acupuncture points to relieve the symptoms. However, given the large number of acupuncture points and the complexity of their specifities, it is difficult for one to remember the location and function of each acupuncture point without extensive training. In this work, through the use of augmented reality (AR), the acupuncture points can be displayed directly on the image of human body. Compared to existing acupoint probe devices that work by measuring the skin conductivity, our solution does not require any additional hardware and is purely software-based. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for acupoint localization by leveraging the landmark points and 3D morphable model (3DMM). The localization error of our system is about 2.4mm which outperforms the existing work on acupoint localization by 170 A prototype system is implemented on the Android phone. In the case of mild symptoms (e.g. headache, sleep disorder), with the aid of our proposed system, the patient can quickly locate the corresponding acupuncture points for the application of massage to relieve his/her symptoms without the help from TCM physicians.