Images containing faces are essential to intelligent vision-based human computer interaction, and research efforts in face processing include face recognition, face tracking, pose estimation, and expression recognition. However, many reported methods assume that the faces in an image or an image sequence have been identified and localized. To build fully automated systems that analyze the information contained in face images, robust and efficient face detection algorithms are required. Given a single image, the goal of face detection is to identify all image regions which contain a face regardless of its three-dimensional position, orientation, and the lighting conditions. Such a problem is challenging because faces are nonrigid and have a high degree of variability in size, shape, color, and texture. Numerous techniques have been developed to detect faces in a single image, and the purpose of this paper is to categorize and evaluate these algorithms. We also discuss relevant issues such as data collection, evaluation metrics, and benchmarking. After analyzing these algorithms and identifying their limitations, we conclude with several promising directions for future research.

Abstract — We consider the problem of automatically recognizing human faces from frontal views with varying expression and illumination, as well as occlusion and disguise. We cast the recognition problem as one of classifying among multiple linear regression models, and argue that new theory from sparse signal representation offers the key to addressing this problem. Based on a sparse representation computed by ℓ 1-minimization, we propose a general classification algorithm for (image-based) object recognition. This new framework provides new insights into two crucial issues in face recognition: feature extraction and robustness to occlusion. For feature extraction, we show that if sparsity in the recognition problem is properly harnessed, the choice of features is no longer critical. What is critical, however, is whether the number of features is sufficiently large and whether the sparse representation is correctly computed. Unconventional features such as downsampled images and random projections perform just as well as conventional features such as Eigenfaces and Laplacianfaces, as long as the dimension of the feature space surpasses certain threshold, predicted by the theory of sparse representation. This framework can handle errors due to occlusion and corruption uniformly, by exploiting the fact that these errors are often sparse w.r.t. to the standard (pixel) basis. The theory of sparse representation helps predict how much occlusion the recognition algorithm can handle and how to choose the training images to maximize robustness to occlusion. We conduct extensive experiments on publicly available databases to verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm, and corroborate the above claims.

The classical way of attempting to solve the face (or object) recognition problem is by using large and representative datasets. In many applications though, only one sample per class is available to the system. In this contribution, we describe a probabilistic approach that is able to compensate for imprecisely localized, partially occluded and expression variant faces even when only one single training sample per class is available to the system. To solve the localization problem, we find the subspace (within the feature space, e.g. eigenspace) that represents this error for each of the training images. To resolve the occlusion problem, each face is divided into k local regions which are analyzed in isolation. In contrast with other approaches, where a simple voting space is used, we present a probabilistic method that analyzes how "good" a local match is. To make the recognition system less sensitive to the differences between the facial expression displayed on the training and the testing images, we weight the results obtained on each local area on the bases of how much of this local area is affected by the expression displayed on the current test image.

Abstract — Face recognition has benefitted greatly from the many databases that have been produced to study it. Most of these databases have been created under controlled conditions to facilitate the study of specific parameters on the face recognition problem. These parameters include such variables as position, pose, lighting, expression, background, camera quality, occlusion, age, and gender. While there are many applications for face recognition technology in which one can control the parameters of image acquisition, there are also many applications in which the practitioner has little or no control over such parameters. This database is provided as an aid in studying the latter, unconstrained, face recognition problem. The database represents an initial attempt to provide a set of labeled face photographs spanning the range of conditions typically encountered by people in their everyday lives. The database exhibits “natural ” variability in pose, lighting, focus, resolution, facial expression, age, gender, race, accessories, make-up, occlusions, background, and photographic quality. Despite this variability, the images in the database are presented in a simple and consistent format for maximum ease of use. In addition to describing the details of the database and its acquisition, we provide specific experimental paradigms for which the database is suitable. This is done in an effort to make research performed with the database as consistent and comparable as possible. I.

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This paper addresses the problem of detecting and segmenting

Within the past decade, major advances have occurred in face recognition. Many systems have emerged that are capable of achieving recognition rates in excess of 90% accuracy under controlled conditions. In field settings, face images are subject to a wide range of variation that includes viewing, illumination, occlusion, facial expression, time delay between acquisition of gallery and probe images, and individual differences. The scalability of face recognition systems to such factors is not well understood. We quantified the influence of these factors, individually and in combination, on face recognition algorithms that included Eigenfaces, Fisherfaces, and FaceIt. Image data consisted of over 37,000 images from 3 publicly available databases that systematically vary in multiple factors individually and in combination: CMU PIE, CohnKanade, and AR databases. Our main findings are: 1) pose variations beyond 30° head rotation substantially depressed recognition rate, 2) time delay: pictures taken on different days but under the same pose and lighting condition produced a consistent reduction in recognition rate, 3) with some notable exceptions, algorithms were robust to variation in facial expression, but not to occlusion. We also found small but significant differences related to gender, which suggests that greater attention be paid to individual differences in future research. Algorithm performance across a range of conditions was higher for women than for men.

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Abstract 12 In this paper we study the problem of shape analysis and its application in locating facial feature points on frontal faces. We propose a Bayesian inference solution based on tangent shape approximation called Bayesian Tangent Shape Model (BTSM). Similarity transform coefficients and the shape parameters in BTSM are determined through MAP estimation. Tangent shape vector is treated as the hidden state of the model, and accordingly, an EM based searching algorithm is proposed to implement the MAP procedure. The major results of our algorithm are: 1) tangent shape is updated by a weighted average of two shape vectors, the projection of the observed shape onto tangent space, and the reconstruction of shape parameters. 2) Shape parameters are regularized by multiplying a ratio of the noise variations, which is a continuous function instead of a truncated function. We discussed the advantages conveyed by these results, and demonstrate the accuracy and the stability of the algorithm by extensive experiments. 1.