Asymboost-based fisher linear classifier for face recognition

When using AdaBoost to select discriminant features from some feature space (e.g. Gabor feature space) for face recognition, cascade structure is usually adopted to leverage the asymmetry in the distribution of positive and negative samples. Each node in the cascade structure is a classifier trained by AdaBoost with an asymmetric learning goal of high recognition rate but only moderate low false positive rate. One limitation of AdaBoost arises in the context of skewed example distribution and cascade classifiers: AdaBoost minimizes the classification error, which is not guaranteed to achieve the asymmetric node learning goal. In this paper, we propose to use the asymmetric AdaBoost (Asym-Boost) as a mechanism to address the asymmetric node learning goal. Moreover, the two parts of the selecting features and forming ensemble classifiers are decoupled, both of which occur simultaneously in AsymBoost and AdaBoost. Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLDA) is used on the selected features to learn a linear discriminant function that maximizes the separability of data among the different classes, which we think can improve the recognition performance. The proposed algorithm is dem onstrated with face recognition using a Gabor based representation on the FERET database. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm yields better recognition performance than AdaBoost itself.