Request for Access to BIWI 3D Face Database

[hrWong]

I'm currently working on a research project in 3D facial animation Your work seems to utilize the BIWI 3D Face DatabaseI've come across your influential work titled FaceDiffuser, where the BIWI 3D Audiovisual Corpus of Affective Communication (B3D(AC)^2) dataset was utilized. The properties of this dataset make it exceptionally relevant to my current studies.

I recently visited the official BIWI Vision Lab website https://data.vision.ee.ethz.ch/cvl/datasets/b3dac2.en.html to inquire about accessing this dataset. Unfortunately, the website clearly states: "The dataset "Biwi 3D Audiovisual Corpus of Affective Communication - B3D(AC)^2 is not available anymore."

This news is quite disheartening, as this specific dataset would have been incredibly valuable for validating and comparing methods in my project.

I understand that the official distribution has ceased. However, I was hoping to ask if you might be able to provide any insights or guidance on the following:

• Is there any alternative way to legally access this dataset for academic research purposes? For example, is there a defunct mirror, a specific archived version, or a different point of contact within the institution that might still handle requests?
• If not, are there any other highly comparable public datasets that you would recommend as a strong alternative for research similar to 3D facial animation.

I very much appreciate you taking the time to consider my query, especially given the dataset's unavailability. Any information or recommendations you could offer would be immensely helpful.

Thank you again for your time and expertise.

Best regards,