PARALLEL FACE DETECTION AND TRACKING SYSTEM

• US 20140140572A1
• Filed: 11/21/2012
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Ranjan, Abhishek, Colson, William J., Malik, Shahzad A., Hubert, Phillipp J., Patel, Umeshbhai, Javer, Faizal N., Mirza, Haroon F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,292,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/96 Management of image or video recognition tasks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/167 using comparisons between temporally consecutive images

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a parallel face detection and tracking system. In general, embodiments consistent with the present disclosure may be configured to distribute the processing load associated with the detection and tracking of different faces in an image between multiple data processors. If needed, processing load balancing and/or protective features may be implemented to prevent the data processors from becoming overwhelmed. In one embodiment, a device may comprise, for example, a communication module and at least one processing module. The communication module may be configured to receive at least image information that may be processed by a plurality of data processors in the data processing module. For example, each of the data processors may be configured to detect faces in the image information and/or track detected faces in the image information based on at least one criterion.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a communication module configured to receive at least image information; and

at least one processing module including a plurality of data processors, each of the plurality of data processors being configured to at least one of detect faces in the image information or track detected faces in the image information based on at least one criterion.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the image information is a frame of video received from an image capture device.

3. The device of claim 2, further comprising a memory configured to store results information generated by each of the plurality of data processors, the results information including at least detected face size and the location of each detected face within the frame.

4. The device of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of data processors is further configured to delay detecting faces to a later received frame if further face detection in a received frame would cause a processing load of a data processor to exceed a certain threshold.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises a face detection and tracking allocation module configured to balance a face detection and tracking workload between the plurality of data processors based on the criteria.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one criterion is based on a detected face size scale.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the at least one criterion includes a range of detected face size scales.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing module is a microprocessor and the plurality of data processors are processing cores within the microprocessor.

9. A method, comprising:

determining how to allocate at least one of detecting faces in image information or tracking detected faces in the image information between a plurality of data processors based on at least one criterion; and

assigning at least one of detecting faces or tracking of detected faces between the plurality of data processors based on the determination of how to allocate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determination of how to allocate comprises:

determining a range of the criterion based on a minimum of the criterion, a maximum of the criterion and an increment of the criterion; and

distributing portions of the range of the criterion between the plurality of data processors.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the distribution of the portions of the range is a linear distribution resulting in each of the plurality of data processors receiving an equal-sized portion.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the distribution of the portions of the range is a distribution based on balancing processing load between the plurality of data processors.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining the processing load in each of the plurality of data processors; and

rebalancing the distribution of the portions of the range based on the determination of the processing load in each of the plurality of data processors.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one criterion is based on detected face scale size.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

assigning a certain threshold to at least one data processor in the plurality of data processors, the certain threshold being configured to cause the at least one data processor to delay detecting faces to a later received frame if further face detection in a received frame would cause a processing load of in the at least one data processor to exceed the certain threshold.

16. At least one machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon, individually or in combination, instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising:

determining how to allocate at least one of detecting faces in image information or tracking detected faces in the image information between a plurality of data processors based on at least one criterion; and

assigning at least one of detecting faces or tracking of detected faces between the plurality of data processors based on the determination of how to allocate.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the determination of how to allocate comprises:

determining a range of the criterion based on a minimum of the criterion, a maximum of the criterion and an increment of the criterion; and

distributing portions of the range of the criterion between the plurality of data processors.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the distribution of the portions of the range is a linear distribution resulting in each of the plurality of data processors receiving an equal-sized portion.

19. The medium of claim 17, wherein the distribution of the portions of the range is a distribution based on balancing processing load between the plurality of data processors.

20. The medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising:

determining the processing load in each of the plurality of data processors; and

rebalancing the distribution of the portions of the range based on the determination of the processing load in each of the plurality of data processors.

21. The medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one criterion is based on detected face scale size.

22. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising:

assigning a certain threshold to at least one data processor in the plurality of data processors, the certain threshold being configured to cause the at least one data processor to delay detecting faces to a later received frame if further face detection in a received frame would cause a processing load of in the at least one data processor to exceed the certain threshold.