Extended minimum-squared error algorithm for robust face recognition via auxiliary mirror samples

The changes of face images with poses and polarized illuminations increase data uncertainty in face recognition. In fact, synthesized mirror samples can be recognized as representations of the left–right deflection of poses or illuminations of the face. Symmetrical face images generated from the original face images also provide more observations of the face which is useful for improving the accuracy of face recognition. In this paper, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the well-known minimum squared error classification (MSEC) algorithm is used to perform face recognition on an extended face database using synthesized mirror training samples, which is titled as extended minimum squared error classification (EMSEC). By modifying the MSE classification rule, we append the mirror samples to the training set for gaining better classification performance. First, we merge original training samples and mirror samples synthesized from original training samples per subject as mixed training samples. Second, EMSEC algorithm exploits mixed training samples to obtain the projection matrix that can best transform the mixed training samples into predefined class labels. Third, the projection matrix is exploited to simultaneously obtain transform results of the test sample and its nearest neighbor from the mixed training sample set. Finally, we ultimately classify the test sample by combining the transform results of the test sample and the nearest neighbor. As an extension of MSEC, EMSEC reduces the uncertainty of the face observation by auxiliary mirror samples, so that it has better robustness classification performance than traditional MSEC. Experimental results on the ORL, GT, and FERET databases show that EMSEC has better generalization ability than traditional MSEC.