Face Detection Using Template Matching

Abstract of "Face Detection Using Template Matching" Project

Face detection is concerned with finding whether or not there are any faces in a given
image (usually in gray scale) and, if present, return the image location and content of
each face. This is the first step of any fully automatic system that analyzes the
information contained in faces (e.g., identity, gender, expression, age, race and pose).
While earlier work dealt mainly with upright frontal faces, several systems have been
developed that are able to detect faces fairly accurately with in-plane or out-of-plane
rotations in real time. Although a face detection module is typically designed to deal with
single images, its performance can be further improved if video stream is available.
Face detection is the first stage of an automatic face recognition system, since a face has
to be located in the input image before it is recognized. A definition of face detection
could be: given an image, detect all faces in it (if any) and locate their exact positions and
size. Usually, face detection is a twostep procedure: first the whole image is examined to
find regions that are identified as face. After the rough position and size of a face are
estimated, a localization procedure follows which provides a more accurate estimation of
the exact position and scale of the face. So while face detection is most concerned with
roughly finding all the faces in large, complex images, which include many faces and
much clutter, localization emphasizes spatial accuracy, usually achieved by accurate
detection of facial features.
Face-detection algorithms focus on the detection of frontal human faces, whereas newer
algorithms attempt to solve the more general and difficult problem of multi-view face
detection. That is, the detection of faces that are either rotated along the axis from the
face to the observer (in-plane rotation), or rotated along the vertical or left-right axis (outof-plane rotation), or both. The newer algorithms take into account variations in the
image or video by factors such as face appearance, lighting, and pose.
Techniques
Many algorithms implement the face-detection task as a binary pattern-classification task.
That is, the content of a given part of an image is transformed into features, after which a
classifier trained on example faces decides whether that particular region of the image is
a face, or not. Often, a window-sliding technique is employed. That is, the classifier is
used to classify the (usually square or rectangular) portions of an image, at all locations
and scales, as either faces or non-faces (background pattern). Images with a plain or a
static background are easy to process. Remove the background and only the faces will be
left, assuming the image only contains a frontal face. Using skin color to find face
segments is a vulnerable technique. The database may not contain all the skin colors
possible.
Lighting can also affect the results. Non-animate objects with the same color as skin can
be picked up since the technique uses color segmentation. The advantages are the lack of
restriction to orientation or size of faces and a good algorithm can handle complex
backgrounds. Faces are usually moving in real-time videos. Calculating the moving area
will get the face segment. However, other objects in the video can also be moving and
would affect the results. A specific type of motion on faces is blinking. Detecting a
blinking pattern in an image sequence can detect the presence of a face. Eyes usually

blink together and symmetrically positioned, which eliminates similar motions in the
video. Each image is subtracted from the previous image.
The difference image will show boundaries of moved pixels. If the eyes happen to be
blinking, there will be a small boundary within the face. A face model can contain the
appearance, shape, and motion of faces. There are several shapes of faces. Some common
ones are oval, rectangle, round, square, heart, and triangle. Motions include, but not
limited to, blinking, raised eyebrows, flared nostrils, wrinkled forehead, and opened
mouth. The face models will not be able to represent any person making any expression,
but the technique does result in an acceptable degree of accuracy. The models are passed
over the image to find faces, however this technique works better with face tracking.
Once the face is detected, the model is laid over the face and the system is able to track
face movements. A method for human face detection from color videos or images is to
combine various methods of detecting color, shape, and texture. First, use a skin color
model to single out objects of that color. Next, use face models to eliminate false
detections from the color models and to extract facial features such as eyes, nose, and
mouth.
Applications
Face detection is used in biometrics, often as a part of (or together with) a facial
recognition system. It is also used in video surveillance, human computer interface and
image database management. Some recent digital cameras use face detection for
autofocus. Face detection is also useful for selecting regions of interest in photo
slideshows that use a pan-and-scale Ken Burns effect. Face detection is gaining the
interest of marketers. A webcam can be integrated into a television and detect any face
that walks by. The system then calculates the race, gender, and age range of the face.
Once the information is collected, a series of advertisements can be played that is specific
toward the detected race/gender/age. Face detection is also being researched in the area of
energy conservation. Televisions and computers can save energy by reducing the
brightness. People tend to watch TV while doing other tasks and not focused 100% on the
screen. The TV brightness stays the same level unless the user lowers it manually. The
system can recognize the face direction of the TV user. When the user is not looking at
the screen, the TV brightness is lowered. When the face returns to the screen, the
brightness is increased.
Template Matching
Here, we present an original template based on edge direction. It has been noticed that the
contour of a human head can be approximated by an ellipse. This accords with our visual
perception and has been verified by numerous experiments. The existing methods have
not sufficiently used the global information of face images in which edge direction is a
crucial part, so we present a deformable template based on the edge information to match
the face contour.
The face contour is of course not a perfect ellipse. To achieve good performance, the
template must tolerate some deviations.
In this paper, an elliptical ring is used as the template as illustrated in Fig. Fig. 2.1.5(a) is
a normal upright face; 2.1.5(b) is the binary image after edge linking. In 2.1.5(b), we can
note that the external contour cannot be represented by a single ellipse no matter how the
parameters are adjusted. However, if we use an elliptical ring representing the contour as
shown in Fig. 2.1.5(c), almost all the edge points on the contour can be included. The

other important advantage of this template is that we can choose a relatively big step in
matching so as to reduce the computational cost.

Proposed Method for Face Detection

We follow a few steps for achieving our goal. First of all we take an input image which
contains a single face in it. On the given input image we apply the sobel operator for
detecting the edge in the image. Then we apply a threshold value to the image to binarize
the image. The edge which we get after applying the sobel operator is thick. We apply a
thinning algorithm to thin the edge which is discussed later. After thinning We try to
eliminate the noise present in the image. We apply edge linking to the nearest points.
Lastly we apply template matching to get the face from the image which is of the
elliptical shape. The steps are discussed in detail below.
Step 1 :
We take as input a image file which is of the pgm format. Then we allocate memory
dynamically for a two dimensional array in a file. Copy pixel by pixel from the original
image to the file created.
Step 2 :
Application of Sobel operator for detecting the edge in the image. The Sobel operator is
used in image processing, particularly within edge detection algorithms. Technically, it is
a discrete differentiation operator, computing an approximation of the opposite of the
gradient of the image intensity function. At each point in the image, the result of the
Sobel operator is either the corresponding opposite of the gradient vector or the norm of
this vector. The Sobel operator is based on convolving the image with a small, separable,
and integer valued filter in horizontal and vertical direction and is therefore relatively
inexpensive in terms of computations. On the other hand, the opposite of the gradient
approximation that it produces is relatively crude, in particular for high frequency
variations in the image.
In simple terms, the operator calculates the opposite of the gradient of the image intensity
at each point, giving the direction of the largest possible change from light to dark and the
rate of change in that direction. The result therefore shows how "abruptly" or "smoothly"
the image changes at that point, and therefore how likely it is that that part of the image
represents an edge, as well as how that edge is likely to be oriented. In practice, the
magnitude (likelihood of an edge) calculation is more reliable and easier to interpret than
the direction calculation. Mathematically, the gradient of a two-variable function (here

the image intensity function) is at each image point a 2D vector with the components
given by the derivatives in the horizontal and vertical directions. At each image point, the
gradient vector points in the direction of largest possible intensity increase, and the length
of the gradient vector corresponds to the rate of change in that direction. This implies that
the result of the Sobel operator at an image point which is in a region of constant image
intensity is a zero vector and at a point on an edge is a vector which points across the
edge, from brighter to darker values.
Thresholding
Thresholding is the simplest method of image segmentation. From a grayscale image,
thresholding can be used to create binary images. During the thresholding process,
individual pixels in an image are marked as "object" pixels if their value is greater than
some threshold value (assuming an object to be brighter than the background) and as
"background" pixels otherwise. This convention is known as threshold above. Variants
include threshold below, which is opposite of threshold above; threshold inside, where a
pixel is labeled "object" if its value is between two thresholds; and threshold outside,
which is the opposite of threshold inside. Typically, an object pixel is given a value of
1 while a background pixel is given a value of 0. Finally, a binary image is created
by coloring each pixel white or black, depending on a pixel's labels. We have taken the
threshold value as 55. Above this value, we make all pixels 255 and below the threshold
value we make all pixels values 0.
Highlights of the Project
We have demonstrated the effectiveness of a new face detection algorithm in the images
with simple. The algorithm is able to correctly detect all faces in the images with simple
backgrounds. We are planning to test the method over a larger set of images; also over
images, that don't contain faces. Such tests should help to detect weak points of the
algorithm and consequently give directions for algorithm upgrade. We intend to extend
the algorithm for multiface detection. First, the number of faces should be known before
the detection. Second, we assume that faces do not overlap each other in images.
System Specification
The hardware and software requirements for the development phase of our project are:
Software Requirements :
OPERATING SYSTEM : Windows 07/ XP Professional
FRONT END : Visual Studio 2010
BACK END : SQL SERVER 2005
Hardware Requirements :
PROCESSOR : PENTIUM IV 2.6 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo.
RAM : 512 MB DD RAM
HARD DISK : 40 GB
KEYBOARD : STANDARD 102 KEY
MONITOR : 15 COLOUR
CD DRIVE : LG 52x