Cite as:
Simmons D R, Tawde S, Ayoub A, 2011, "Characterizing facial scars using consensus coding" Perception 40 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 155

Characterizing facial scars using consensus coding

D R Simmons, S Tawde, A Ayoub

The surgical correction of cleft lip in infancy leaves a distinctive pattern of scarring on the upper lip. We have argued that the name “scarriness” summarises a distinctive combination of colour, texture and shape information and is detectable by an algorithm which searches for regions of high chromatic entropy (Simmons et al, 2009 Perception ECVP Supplement, 47). To test this algorithm we asked 28 lay observers to draw around the region of scarring in 91 images of affected children displayed on a touch-sensitive screen. The shape and size of the scar on the image was defined by building a contour plot of the agreement between observers’ outlines and thresholding at the point above which 50% of the observers agreed: a consensus coding scheme. It was found that the median agreement between consensus and algorithm scars based on responses from the 28 assessors was between 21% and 31%, with the best scores close to 60% and the worst with no overlap at all. Based on these results, it is clear that the chromatic entropy measure does not completely capture the putative appearance descriptor “scarriness”. A simultaneous analysis of qualitative descriptions of the scarring revealed that boundary as well as surface features might be important.

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