Morphable 3d Faces from 2d Images

Technology is moving forward at exponential rates. Recording real-world information via 3d meshes seems to be the obvious direction that our digital media devices are taking [sketchup, 3d XML using catia and google earth's importing software]. MPI for Biological Cybernetics seem to be doing just that. Well, maybe their approach is a bit more interesting than mapping the 3d environment. Interesting, but scary... Wasn't there a movie made in the 90's reminiscent of this?