# FCR: Investigating Generative AI models for Forensic Craniofacial Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18031 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18031/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 28 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07004/) (2016)
- [Improved Techniques for Training GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.03498/) (2016)
- [Improved Baselines with Momentum Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.04297/) (2020)
- [StarGAN: Unified Generative Adversarial Networks for Multi-Domain Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09020/) (2017)
- [Multimodal Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04732/) (2018)
- [Learning Representations by Maximizing Mutual Information Across Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00910/) (2019)
- [Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15651/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.00848/) (2017)
- [DualGAN: Unsupervised Dual Learning for Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.02510/) (2017)
- [Rethinking FID: Towards a Better Evaluation Metric for Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09603/) (2023)
- [Toward Multimodal Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.11586/) (2017)
- [Diverse Image-to-Image Translation via Disentangled Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00948/) (2018)
- [Learning to Discover Cross-Domain Relations with Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.05192/) (2017)
- [A Note on the Inception Score](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01973/) (2018)
- [Few-Shot Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01723/) (2019)
- [Understanding SSIM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.13846/) (2020)
- [Augmented CycleGAN: Learning Many-to-Many Mappings from Unpaired Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.10151/) (2018)
- [TransGaGa: Geometry-Aware Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.09571/) (2019)
- [Attention-Guided Generative Adversarial Networks for Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.12296/) (2019)
- [Improving Shape Deformation in Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.04325/) (2018)
- [Harmonic Unpaired Image-to-image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.09727/) (2019)
- [Cross-Domain Identity Representation for Skull to Face Matching with Benchmark DataSet](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.08329/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Cranio-ID: Graph-Based Craniofacial Identification via Automatic Landmark Annotation in 2D Multi-View X-rays](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.14411/) (2025)
- [SPOT-Face: Forensic Face Identification using Attention Guided Optimal Transport](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09229/) (2026)
- [Cranio-Diff: Diffusion-based Cross-domain Craniofacial Reconstruction with 2D X-ray Skull Guidance and Structural Identity Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.09699/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Craniofacial reconstruction in forensics is one of the processes to identify victims of crime and natural disasters. Identifying an individual from their remains plays a crucial role when all other identification methods fail. Traditional methods for this task, such as clay-based craniofacial reconstruction, require expert domain knowledge and are a time-consuming process. At the same time, other probabilistic generative models like the statistical shape model or the Basel face model fail to capture the skull and face cross-domain attributes. Looking at these limitations, we propose a generic framework for craniofacial reconstruction from 2D X-ray images. Here, we used various generative models (i.e., CycleGANs, cGANs, etc) and fine-tune the generator and discriminator parts to generate more realistic images in two distinct domains, which are the skull and face of an individual. This is the first time where 2D X-rays are being used as a representation of the skull by generative models for craniofacial reconstruction. We have evaluated the quality of generated faces using FID, IS, and SSIM scores. Finally, we have proposed a retrieval framework where the query is the generated face image and the gallery is the database of real faces. By experimental results, we have found that these generative models can be used as an assisting tool for craniofacial identifications in forensic science.