A structure-preserved local matching approach for face recognition

In this paper, a novel local matching method called structure-preserved projections (SPP) is proposed for face recognition. Unlike most existing local matching methods which neglect the interactions of different sub-pattern sets during feature extraction, i.e., they assume different sub-pattern sets are independent; SPP takes the holistic context of the face into account and can preserve the configural structure of each face image in subspace. Moreover, the intrinsic manifold structure of the sub-pattern sets can also be preserved in our method. With SPP, all sub-patterns partitioned from the original face images are trained to obtain a unified subspace, in which recognition can be performed. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by extensive experiments on three standard face databases (Yale, Extended YaleB and PIE). Experimental results show that SPP outperforms other holistic and local matching methods.     

A robust approach based on local feature extraction for age invariant face recognition

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Age variation is a major problem in the area of face recognition under uncontrolled environment such as pose, illumination, expression. Most of the works of this...     

An efficient 3D face recognition approach using local geometrical signatures

This paper presents a computationally efficient 3D face recognition system based on a novel facial signature called Angular Radial Signature (ARS) which is extracted from the semi-rigid region of the face. Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) is then used to extract the mid-level features from the extracted ARSs to improve the discriminative power. The mid-level features are then concatenated into a single feature vector and fed into a Support Vector Machine (SVM) to perform face recognition. The proposed approach addresses the expression variation problem by using facial scans with various expressions of different individuals for training. We conducted a number of experiments on the Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC v2.0) and the 3D track of Shape Retrieval Contest (SHREC 2008) datasets, and a superior recognition performance has been achieved. Our experimental results show that the proposed system achieves very high Verification Rates (VRs) of 97.8% and 88.5% at a 0.1% False Acceptance Rate (FAR) for the “neutral vs. nonneutral” experiments on the FRGC v2.0 and the SHREC 2008 datasets respectively, and 96.7% for the ROC III experiment of the FRGC v2.0 dataset. Our experiments also demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed approach.     

A local experts organization model with application to face emotion recognition

This paper presents a novel approach for recognizing human facial emotion in order to further detect human suspicious behaviors. Instead of relying on relative poor representation of facial features in a flat vector form, the approach utilizes a format of tree structures with Gabor feature representations to present a facial emotional state. The novel local experts organization (LEO) model is proposed for the processing of this tree structure representation. The motivation for the LEO model is to deal with the inconsistent length of features in case there are some features failed to be detected. The proposed LEO model is inspired by the natural hierarchical model presented in natural organization, where workers (local experts) reports to their supervisor (fusion classifier), whom in turn reports to upper management (global fusion classifier). Moreover, an Asian emotion database is created. The database contains high-resolution images of 153 Asian subjects in six basic pseudo-emotions (excluding neutral expression) in three different poses for evaluating our proposed system. Empirical studies were conducted to benchmark our approach with other well-known classifiers applying to the system, and the results showed that our approach is the most robust, and less affected by noise from feature locators for the face emotion recognition system.     

Maximal local interclass embedding with application to face recognition

Dimensionality reduction of high dimensional data is involved in many problems in information processing. A new dimensionality reduction approach called maximal local interclass embedding (MLIE) is developed in this paper. MLIE can be viewed as a linear approach of a multimanifolds-based learning framework, in which the information of neighborhood is integrated with the local interclass relationships. In MLIE, the local interclass graph and the intrinsic graph are constructed to find a set of projections that maximize the local interclass scatter and the local intraclass compactness simultaneously. This characteristic makes MLIE more powerful than marginal Fisher analysis (MFA). MLIE maintains all the advantages of MFA. Moreover, the computational complexity of MLIE is less than that of MFA. The proposed algorithm is applied to face recognition. Experiments have been performed on the Yale, AR and ORL face image databases. The experimental results show that owing to the locally discriminating property, MLIE consistently outperforms up-to-date MFA, Smooth MFA, neighborhood preserving embedding and locality preserving projection in face recognition.     

Orthogonal local spline discriminant projection with application to face recognition

In this paper, an efficient feature extraction algorithm called orthogonal local spline discriminant projection (O-LSDP) is proposed for face recognition. Derived from local spline embedding (LSE), O-LSDP not only inherits the advantages of LSE which uses local tangent space as a representation of the local geometry so as to preserve the local structure, but also makes full use of class information and orthogonal subspace to improve discriminant power. Extensive experiments on several standard face databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A complete fuzzy discriminant analysis approach for face recognition

In this paper, some studies have been made on the essence of fuzzy linear discriminant analysis (F-LDA) algorithm and fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) classifier, respectively. As a kernel-based learning machine, FSVM is represented with the fuzzy membership function while realizing the same classification results with that of the conventional pair-wise classification. It outperforms other learning machines especially when unclassifiable regions still remain in those conventional classifiers. However, a serious drawback of FSVM is that the computation requirement increases rapidly with the increase of the number of classes and training sample size. To address this problem, an improved FSVM method that combines the advantages of FSVM and decision tree, called DT-FSVM, is proposed firstly. Furthermore, in the process of feature extraction, a reformative F-LDA algorithm based on the fuzzy k-nearest neighbors (FKNN) is implemented to achieve the distribution information of each original sample represented with fuzzy membership grade, which is incorporated into the redefinition of the scatter matrices. In particular, considering the fact that the outlier samples in the patterns may have some adverse influence on the classification result, we developed a novel F-LDA algorithm using a relaxed normalized condition in the definition of fuzzy membership function. Thus, the classification limitation from the outlier samples is effectively alleviated. Finally, by making full use of the fuzzy set theory, a complete F-LDA (CF-LDA) framework is developed by combining the reformative F-LDA (RF-LDA) feature extraction method and DT-FSVM classifier. This hybrid fuzzy algorithm is applied to the face recognition problem, extensive experimental studies conducted on the ORL and NUST603 face images databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

A composite spatio-temporal modeling approach for age invariant face recognition

In this research we propose a novel method of face recognition based on texture and shape information. Age invariant face recognition enables matching of an image obtained at a given point in time against an image of the same individual obtained at an earlier point in time and thus has important applications, notably in law enforcement. We investigate various types of models built on different levels of data granularity. At the global level a model is built on training data that encompasses the entire set of available individuals, whereas at the local level, data from homogeneous sub-populations is used and finally at the individual level a personalized model is built for each individual. We narrow down the search space by dividing the whole database into subspaces for improving recognition time. We use a two-phased process for age invariant face recognition. In the first phase we identify the correct subspace by using a probabilistic method, and in the second phase we find the probe image within that subspace. Finally, we use a decision tree approach to combine models built from shape and texture features. Our empirical results show that the local and personalized models perform best when rated on both Rank-1 accuracy and recognition time.     

Local uncorrelated local discriminant embedding for face recognition

The feature extraction algorithm plays an important role in face recognition. However, the extracted features also have overlapping discriminant information. A property of the statistical uncorrelated criterion is that it eliminates the redundancy among the extracted discriminant features, while many algorithms generally ignore this property. In this paper, we introduce a novel feature extraction method called local uncorrelated local discriminant embedding (LULDE). The proposed approach can be seen as an extension of a local discriminant embedding (LDE) framework in three ways. First, a new local statistical uncorrelated criterion is proposed, which effectively captures the local information of interclass and intraclass. Second, we reconstruct the affinity matrices of an intrinsic graph and a penalty graph, which are mentioned in LDE to enhance the discriminant property. Finally, it overcomes the small-sample-size problem without using principal component analysis to preprocess the original data, which avoids losing some discriminant information. Experimental results on Yale, ORL, Extended Yale B, and FERET databases demonstrate that LULDE outperforms LDE and other representative uncorrelated feature extraction methods.     

A probabilistic model of face mapping with local transformations and its application to person recognition

This paper proposes a new measure of "distance" between faces. This measure involves the estimation of the set of possible transformations between face images of the same person. The global transformation, which is assumed to be too complex for direct modeling, is approximated by a patchwork of local transformations, under a constraint imposing consistency between neighboring local transformations. The proposed system of local transformations and neighboring constraints is embedded within the probabilistic framework of a two-dimensional hidden Markov model. More specifically, we model two types of intraclass variabilities involving variations in facial expressions and illumination, respectively. The performance of the resulting method is assessed on a large data set consisting of four face databases. In particular, it is shown to outperform a leading approach to face recognition, namely, the Bayesian intra/extrapersonal classifier.     

A spectral independent approach for physiological and geometric based face recognition in the visible,middle-wave and long-wave infrared bands

The difficulty of face recognition (FR) systems to operate efficiently in diverse operational environments, e.g. day and night time, is aided by employing sensors covering different spectral bands (i.e. visible and infrared). Biometric practitioners have identified a framework of band-specific algorithms, which can contribute to both assessment and intervention. While these motions are proven to achieve improvement of identification performance, they traditionally result in solutions that typically fail to work efficiently across multiple spectrums. In this work, we designed and developed an efficient, fully automated, direct matching-based FR approach, that is designed to operate efficiently when face data is captured using either visible or passive infrared (IR) sensors. Thus, it can be applied in both daytime and nighttime environments. First, input face images are geometrically normalized using our pre-processing pipeline prior to feature-extraction. Then, face-based features including wrinkles, veins, as well as edges of facial characteristics, are detected and extracted for each operational band (visible, MWIR, and LWIR). Finally, global and local face-based matching is applied, before fusion is performed at the score level. Our approach achieves a rank-1 identification rate of at least 99.43%, regardless of the spectrum of operation. This suggests that our approach results in better performance than other tested standard commercial and academic face-based matchers, on all spectral bands used.     

A singular value decomposition representation based approach for robust face recognition

In the field of face recognition, sparse representation based classification (SRC) and collaborative representation based classification (CRC) have been widely used. Although both SRC and CRC have shown good classification results, it is still controversial whether it is sparse representation or collaborative representation that helps face recognition. In this paper, a new singular value decomposition based classification (SVDC) is proposed for face recognition. The proposed approach performs SVD on the training data of each class, and then determines the class of a test sample by comparing in which class of singular vectors it can be better represented. Experimental results on Yale B, PIE and UMIST datasets show that the proposed method achieves better recognition performance compared with several existing representation based classification algorithms. In addition, by adding Gaussian noise and Salt pepper noise to these datasets, it is proved that SVDC has better robustness. At the same time, the experimental results show that the recognition accuracy of the method acting on the training samples constructed by each class is higher than that of the method acting on the training sets constructed by all classes.

     

Online learning from local features for video-based face recognition

This paper presents an online learning approach to video-based face recognition that does not make any assumptions about the pose, expressions or prior localization of facial landmarks. Learning is performed online while the subject is imaged and gives near realtime feedback on the learning status. Face images are automatically clustered based on the similarity of their local features. The learning process continues until the clusters have a required minimum number of faces and the distance of the farthest face from its cluster mean is below a threshold. A voting algorithm is employed to pick the representative features of each cluster. Local features are extracted from arbitrary keypoints on faces as opposed to pre-defined landmarks and the algorithm is inherently robust to large scale pose variations and occlusions. During recognition, video frames of a probe are sequentially matched to the clusters of all individuals in the gallery and its identity is decided on the basis of best temporally cohesive cluster matches. Online experiments (using live video) were performed on a database of 50 enrolled subjects and another 22 unseen impostors. The proposed algorithm achieved a recognition rate of 97.8% and a verification rate of 100% at a false accept rate of 0.0014. For comparison, experiments were also performed using the Honda/UCSD database and 99.5% recognition rate was achieved.     

Enhanced semi-supervised local Fisher discriminant analysis for face recognition

An improved manifold learning method, called enhanced semi-supervised local Fisher discriminant analysis (ESELF), for face recognition is proposed. Motivated by the fact that statistically uncorrelated and parameter-free are two desirable and promising characteristics for dimension reduction, a new difference-based optimization objective function with unlabeled samples has been designed. The proposed method preserves the manifold structure of labeled and unlabeled samples in addition to separating labeled samples in different classes from each other. The semi-supervised method has an analytic form of the globally optimal solution and it can be computed based on eigen decomposition. Experiments on synthetic data and AT&T, Yale and CMU PIE face databases are performed to test and evaluate the proposed algorithm. The experimental results and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.