  In this paper, we propose a novel fitting method that uses local image
features to fit a 3D Morphable Model to 2D images. To overcome the obstacle of
optimising a cost function that contains a non-differentiable feature
extraction operator, we use a learning-based cascaded regression method that
learns the gradient direction from data. The method allows to simultaneously
solve for shape and pose parameters. Our method is thoroughly evaluated on
Morphable Model generated data and first results on real data are presented.
Compared to traditional fitting methods, which use simple raw features like
pixel colour or edge maps, local features have been shown to be much more
robust against variations in imaging conditions. Our approach is unique in that
we are the first to use local features to fit a Morphable Model.
  Because of the speed of our method, it is applicable for realtime
applications. Our cascaded regression framework is available as an open source
library (https://github.com/patrikhuber).
