The Active Appearance Model (AAM) algorithm has proved to be a successful method for matching statistical models of appearance to new images. Since the original algorithm was described there have been a variety of suggested modifications to the basic algorithm, each typically claiming to be in some way superior. We review these algorithms and report the results of experiments comparing their performance. We also investigate the effects of different methods of estimating the update matrix used in the algorithm. We find that careful choice of the latter has at least as much effect as the choice of updating technique.
Timothy F. Cootes, Panachit Kittipanya-ngam