FRONTAL-VIEW FACE DETECTION AND FACIAL FEATURE-EXTRACTION USING COLOR, SHAPE AND SYMMETRY BASED COST-FUNCTIONS

We describe an algorithm for detecting human faces and facial features , such as the location of the eyes, nose and mouth. First, a supervise d pixel-based color classifier is employed to mark all pixels that are within a prespecified distance of ''skin color'', which is computed f rom a training set of skin patches. This color-classification map is t hen smoothed by Gibbs random field model-based filters to define skin regions. An ellipse model is fit to each disjoint skin region. Finally , we introduce symmetry-based cost functions to search the center of t he eyes, tip of nose, and center of mouth within ellipses whose aspect ratio is similar to that of a face. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.