Illumination compensation and normalization for robust face recognition using discrete cosine transform in logarithm domain.

This paper presents a novel illumination normalization approach for face recognition under varying lighting conditions. In the proposed approach, a discrete cosine transform (DCT) is employed to compensate for illumination variations in the logarithm domain. Since illumination variations mainly lie in the low-frequency band, an appropriate number of DCT coefficients are truncated to minimize variations under different lighting conditions. Experimental results on the Yale B database and CMU PIE database show that the proposed approach improves the performance significantly for the face images with large illumination variations. Moreover, the advantage of our approach is that it does not require any modeling steps and can be easily implemented in a real-time face recognition system.     

Illumination invariant face recognition

The appearance of a face will vary drastically when the illumination changes. Variations in lighting conditions make face recognition an even more challenging and difficult task. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to handle the illumination problem. Our method can restore a face image captured under arbitrary lighting conditions to one with frontal illumination by using a ratio-image between the face image and a reference face image, both of which are blurred by a Gaussian filter. An iterative algorithm is then used to update the reference image, which is reconstructed from the restored image by means of principal component analysis (PCA), in order to obtain a visually better restored image. Image processing techniques are also used to improve the quality of the restored image. To evaluate the performance of our algorithm, restored images with frontal illumination are used for face recognition by means of PCA. Experimental results demonstrate that face recognition using our method can achieve a higher recognition rate based on the Yale B database and the Yale database. Our algorithm has several advantages over other previous algorithms: (1) it does not need to estimate the face surface normals and the light source directions, (2) it does not need many images captured under different lighting conditions for each person, nor a set of bootstrap images that includes many images with different illuminations, and (3) it does not need to detect accurate positions of some facial feature points or to warp the image for alignment, etc.     

Total variation models for variable lighting face recognition

In this paper, we present the logarithmic total variation (LTV) model for face recognition under varying illumination, including natural lighting conditions, where we rarely know the strength, direction, or number of light sources. The proposed LTV model has the ability to factorize a single face image and obtain the illumination invariant facial structure, which is then used for face recognition. Our model is inspired by the SQI model but has better edge-preserving ability and simpler parameter selection. The merit of this model is that neither does it require any lighting assumption nor does it need any training. The LTV model reaches very high recognition rates in the tests using both Yale and CMU PIE face databases as well as a face database containing 765 subjects under outdoor lighting conditions.     

Elastic shape-texture matching for human face recognition

In this paper, a novel, elastic, shape-texture matching method, namely ESTM, for human face recognition is proposed. In our approach, both the shape and the texture information are used to compare two faces without establishing any precise pixel-wise correspondence. The edge map is used to represent the shape of an image, while the texture information is characterized by both the Gabor representations and the gradient direction of each pixel. Combining these features, a shape-texture Hausdorff distance is devised to compute the similarity of two face images. The elastic matching is robust to small, local distortions of the feature points such as those caused by facial expression variations. In addition, the use of the edge map, Gabor representations and the direction of the image gradient can all alleviate the effect of illumination to a certain extent.With different databases, experimental results show that our algorithm can always achieve a better performance than other face recognition algorithms under different conditions, except when an image is under poor and uneven illumination. Experiments based on the Yale database, AR database, ORL database and YaleB database show that our proposed method can achieve recognition rates of 88.7%, 97.7%, 78.3% and 89.5%, respectively.     

基于球面谐波基图像的任意光照下的人脸识别

提出了一种基于球面谐波基图像的光照补偿算法,用以在任意光照条件下进行人脸识别.算法分两步进行：光照估计和光照补偿.基于人脸形状大致相同和每个人脸的反射率基本相等的假设,首先估计了输入人脸图像光照的9个低频谐波系数.根据光照估计的结果,提出了两种光照补偿方法：纹理图像和差图像.纹理图像为输入图像与其光照辐照图之商,与输入图像的光照条件无关.差图像为输入图像与平均人脸在相同光照下的图像之差,通过减去平均人脸在相同光照下的图像,减弱了光照的影响.在CMU-PIE人脸库和Yale B人脸库上的实验表明,通过光照补偿,不同光照下人脸图像识别率有了很大提高.     

基于多特征融合的复杂光照人脸识别

提取人脸图像光照不变量是提高不完备训练样本人脸识别光照鲁棒性的一个有效途径。以往算法分别从不同角度提取人脸图像的高频特征作为光照不变量不能提取完整的人脸本征,具有一定的局限性。从特征级和决策级融合的角度提出了一种基于多特征融合的复杂光照人脸识别方法。所提算法能发挥不同光照不变量的自身优势,明显提高复杂光照人脸识别的光照鲁棒性。Yale B+和非控光照人脸库的实验结果表明所提算法的有效性。     

An adaptively weighted sub-pattern locality preserving projection for face recognition

In this paper, an adaptively weighted sub-pattern locality preserving projection (Aw-SpLPP) algorithm is proposed for face recognition. Unlike the traditional LPP algorithm which operates directly on the whole face image patterns and obtains a global face features that best detects the essential face manifold structure, the proposed Aw-SpLPP method operates on sub-patterns partitioned from an original whole face image and separately extracts corresponding local sub-features from them. Furthermore, the contribution of each sub-pattern can be adaptively computed by Aw-SpLPP in order to enhance the robustness to facial pose, expression and illumination variations. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by extensive experiments on three standard face databases (Yale, YaleB and PIE). Experimental results show that Aw-SpLPP outperforms other holistic and sub-pattern based methods.     

一种人脸标准光照图像的线性重构方法

基于相同光照下不同人脸图像与其标准光照图像之间的稳定关系,文中提出一种人脸标准光照图像重构方法。首先,为消除人脸结构影响,引入人脸三维变形,实现图像像素级对齐。其次,根据图像明暗变化,给出一种基于图像分块的光照分类方法。最后,对于形状对齐后的不同光照类别样本,训练出基于子空间的线性重构模型。该方法有效避免传统预处理方法带来的重构图像纹理丢失和子空间方法引起的图像失真。Extended Yale B数据库上实验表明,该方法对图像真实度与人脸识别率的提升,也验证文中人脸对齐和光照分类方法的有效性。     

Homomorphic filtering based illumination normalization method for face recognition

The appearance of a face image is severely affected by illumination conditions that will hinder the automatic face recognition process. To recognize faces under varying lighting conditions, a homomorphic filtering-based illumination normalization method is proposed in this paper. In this work, the effect of illumination is effectively reduced by a modified implementation of homomorphic filtering whose key component is a Difference of Gaussian (DoG) filter, and the contrast is enhanced by histogram equalization. The resulted face image is not only reduced illumination effect but also preserved edges and details that will facilitate the further face recognition task. Among others, our method has the following advantages: (1) neither does it need any prior information of 3D shape or light sources, nor many training samples thus can be directly applied to single training image per person condition; and (2) it is simple and computationally fast because there are mature and fast algorithms for the Fourier transform used in homomorphic filter. The Eigenfaces method is chosen to recognize the normalized face images. Experimental results on the Yale face database B and the CMU PIE face database demonstrate the significant performance improvement of the proposed method in the face recognition system for the face images with large illumination variations.     

An effective method for detecting facial features and face in human-robot interaction

In this paper, an effective method of facial features detection is proposed for human-robot interaction (HRI). Considering the mobility of mobile robot, it is inevitable that any vision system for a mobile robot is bound to be faced with various imaging conditions such as pose variations, illumination changes, and cluttered backgrounds. To detecting face correctly under such difficult conditions, we focus on the local intensity pattern of the facial features. The characteristics of relatively dark and directionally different pattern can provide robust clues for detecting facial features. Based on this observation, we suggest a new directional template for detecting the major facial features, namely the two eyes and the mouth. By applying this template to a facial image, we can make a new convolved image, which we refer to as the edge-like blob map. One distinctive characteristic of this map image is that it provides the local and directional convolution values for each image pixel, which makes it easier to construct the candidate blobs of the major facial features without the information of facial boundary. Then, these candidates are filtered using the conditions associated with the spatial relationship of the two eyes and the mouth, and the face detection process is completed by applying appearance-based facial templates to the refined facial features. The overall detection results obtained with various color images and gray-level face database images demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method in HRI applications.     

Multiscale facial structure representation for face recognition under varying illumination

Facial structure of face image under lighting lies in multiscale space. In order to detect and eliminate illumination effect, a wavelet-based face recognition method is proposed in this paper. In this work, the effect of illuminations is effectively reduced by wavelet-based denoising techniques, and meanwhile the multiscale facial structure is generated. Among others, the proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it can be directly applied to single face image, without any prior information of 3D shape or light sources, nor many training samples; (2) due to the multiscale nature of wavelet transform, it has better edge-preserving ability in low frequency illumination fields; and (3) the parameter selection process is computationally feasible and fast. Experiments are carried out upon the Yale B and CMU PIE face databases, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves satisfactory recognition rates under varying illumination conditions.     

基于有效光照估计的复杂光照人脸识别

基于光照估计的光照不变量提取是提高复杂光照人脸识别性能的一种有效方法。以往算法仅考虑光照缓慢变化特性从人脸图像中估计光照,无法获取准确的光照和光照不变量。综合考虑图像的成像原理、光照缓慢变化特性和复杂照明环境,结合图像融合和平滑滤波,提出一种有效的人脸图像光照估计、光照不变量提取方法。所提算法能较好地处理阴影边缘问题,提取含有丰富面部细节特征、更接近于人脸本征的光照不变量。复杂光照Yale B+和CAS-PEAL-R1人脸库上的实验结果表明所提算法具有高效性。     

基于小波变换和去噪模型的光照不变人脸识别

针对正面光照人脸识别的难点,提出了一种应用小波变换和去噪模型的光照不变人脸识别算法。利用对图像的高频小波系数进行处理并运用去噪模型,提取光照人脸图像中的光照不变量,同时增强图像边缘特征,这有利于提取的光照不变量保持更多的人脸识别信息。在Yale B和CMU PIE人脸库上的实验结果表明,所提算法可以显著提高光照人脸图像的识别率。     

Illumination invariant extraction for face recognition using neighboring wavelet coefficients

The features of a face can change drastically as the illumination changes. In contrast to pose position and expression, illumination changes present a much greater challenge to face recognition. In this paper, we propose a novel wavelet based approach that considers the correlation of neighboring wavelet coefficients to extract an illumination invariant. This invariant represents the key facial structure needed for face recognition. Our method has better edge preserving ability in low frequency illumination fields and better useful information saving ability in high frequency fields using wavelet based NeighShrink denoise techniques. This method proposes different process approaches for training images and testing images since these images always have different illuminations. More importantly, by having different processes, a simple processing algorithm with low time complexity can be applied to the testing image. This leads to an easy application to real face recognition systems. Experimental results on Yale face database B and CMU PIE Face Database show that excellent recognition rates can be achieved by the proposed method.     

Face recognition under arbitrary illumination using illuminated exemplars

Recently, the importance of face recognition has been increasingly emphasized since popular CCD cameras are distributed to various applications. However, facial images are dramatically changed by lighting variations, so that facial appearance changes caused serious performance degradation in face recognition. Many researchers have tried to overcome these illumination problems using diverse approaches, which have required a multiple registered images per person or the prior knowledge of lighting conditions. In this paper, we propose a new method for face recognition under arbitrary lighting conditions, given only a single registered image and training data under unknown illuminations. Our proposed method is based on the illuminated exemplars which are synthesized from photometric stereo images of training data. The linear combination of illuminated exemplars can represent the new face and the weighted coefficients of those illuminated exemplars are used as identity signature. We make experiments for verifying our approach and compare it with two traditional approaches. As a result, higher recognition rates are reported in these experiments using the illumination subset of Max-Planck Institute face database and Korean face database.     

Local contrast enhancement and adaptive feature extraction for illumination-invariant face recognition

Recognizing human faces in various lighting conditions is quite a difficult problem. The problem becomes more difficult when face images are taken in extremely high dynamic range scenes. Most of the automatic face recognition systems assume that images are taken under well-controlled illumination. The face segmentation as well as recognition becomes much simpler under such a constrained condition. However, illumination control is not feasible when a surveillance system is installed in any location at will. Without compensating for uneven illumination, it is impossible to get a satisfactory recognition rate. In this paper, we propose an integrated system that first compensates uneven illumination through local contrast enhancement. Then the enhanced images are fed into a robust face recognition system which adaptively selects the most important features among all candidate features and performs classification by support vector machines (SVMs). The dimension of feature space as well as the selected types of features is customized for each hyperplane. Three face image databases, namely Yale, Yale Group B, and Extended Yale Group B, are used to evaluate performance. The experimental result shows that the proposed recognition system give superior results compared to recently published literatures.     

光照变化条件下的人脸识别技术研究

为了提高光照变化条件下的人脸识别率,针对Retinex算法处理人脸光照图像时易产生“光晕”难题,提出了一种基于Mean-Shift滤波的Retinex算法,并应用于人脸识别中的光照预处理。对人脸图像进行非线性增强;利用Mean-Shift滤波代替高斯滤波对光照估计,解决传统Retinex算法中存在的“光晕”难题。采用Yale B人脸库对算法性能进行测试,结果表明,该算法能够很好地抑制“光晕”现象的发生,具有光照鲁棒性,提高了人脸的识别率。     

改进的自商图算法

针对人脸识别中的光照变化问题,提出一种改进的自商图算法。对光照图像进行伽玛变换,使用非下采样轮廓波变换对图像进行多尺度多方向分析,对各方向子带进行Wiener滤波,利用自商图模型提取人脸图像的光照不变特性。Yale B与CMU PIE人脸库上的实验结果表明,与传统算法相比,该算法的平均识别率更高。     

Robust face recognition using generalized neural reflectance model

A generalized neural reflectance (GNR) model for enhancing face recognition under variations in illumination and posture is presented in this paper. Our work is based on training a number of synthesis images of each face taken at single lighting direction with frontal/posture view. This way of synthesizing images can be used to build training cases for each face under different known illumination conditions from which face recognition can be significantly improved. However, reconstructing face shape may not easily be achieved and the human face images usually form by highly complex structure which suffers from strong specular and unknown reflective conditions. In this paper, these limitations are addressed by Cho and Chow (IEEE Trans Neural Netw 12(5):1204–1214, 2002). Face surfaces are recovered by this GNR model and face images in different poses are synthesized to create a database for training. Our training algorithm assigns to recognize the face identity by similarity measure on face features extracting first by the principle component analysis (PCA) method and then further processing by the Fisher’s discrimination analysis (FDA) to acquire lower dimensional patterns. Experimental results conducted on the Yale Face Database B show that lower error rates of classification and recognition are achieved under different variations in lighting and pose and the performance significantly outperforms the recognition without using the proposed GNR model.     

Gabor相位特征的人脸光照不变量提取

为了消除光照变化对人脸识别的影响,提出一种基于Gabor相位特征的光照不变量提取算法。该算法首先对图像进行光照归一化,一定程度上减弱了不同光照条件的影响;然后利用一组不同方向的2维实Gabor小波对图像进行变换,在兼顾频谱与相位信息的情况下组合变换后的Gabor系数,提取其相位特征,得到光照不变量。在Yale B和CMU PIE人脸库上的实验结果表明,该算法能够有效消除光照变化对人脸识别的影响,提取的光照不变量具有一定的鲁棒性。