Face-image processing apparatus

• US 6,549,644 B1
• Filed: 11/17/1999
• Issued: 04/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Takayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Au, Amelia M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LaRose, Colin
• Application Number:
  US09/442,243
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 382/117, 382/118, 382/203, 382/103, 382/171, 382/173, 348/78
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation

Abstract

A means 9 for extracting the characteristic of the multi-value image causes an extracting filter to perform spiral retrieval so as to extract a nostril region from an image of the face input by a CCD camera 2 so as to cause the nostril region to be stored in the binarized image memory 10. The eye retrieving range is specified by using, as a reference, the position of the nostrils which is an intermediate point of the positions of the centers of gravity of the nostrils in the binarized nostril region stored in the binarized image memory 10. Then, an extracting filter is used to extract an eye region from the image of the face so as to store the eye region in the binarized image memory 10. The opening/closing determining means 11 determines opening/closing of the eyes in accordance with the binarized eye region.

Claims

1. A face-image processing apparatus comprising:

image input means for inputting an image of a face;

multi-value image storing means for storing multi-value image obtained by said image input means;

nostril-region extracting means for extracting a nostril multi-valued region from the multi-value image outputted by said multi-value image storing means;

eye-region extracting means for extracting a multi-valued eye region extracted from a multi-value image outputted by said multi-value image storing means with using a nostril region extracted by said nostril-region extracting means as a reference point;

binarized image storing means for storing a result outputted from said nostril-region extracting means and said eye-region extracting means as a binarized region; and

opening/closing determining means for determining opening/closing of the eyes in accordance with a feature of a shape of the binarized eye-region outputted by said binarized image storing means, wherein

said nostril-region extracting means extracts a nostril region at which a retrieval is started from a position of a center of gravity of a previous nostril by spirally retrieving a portion surrounding the retrieval start point.

2. A face-image processing apparatus comprising:

image input means for inputting an image of a face;

multi-value image storing means for storing multi-value image obtained by said image input means;

nostril-region extracting means for extracting a nostril multi-valued region from the multi-value image outputted by said multi-value image storing means;

eye-region extracting means for extracting a multi-valued eye region extracted from a multi-value image outputted by said multi-value image storing means with using a nostril region extracted by said nostril-region extracting means as a reference point;

binarized image storing means for storing a result outputted from said nostril-region extracting means and said eye-region extracting means as a binarized region; and

opening/closing determining means for determining opening/closing of the eyes in accordance with a feature of a shape of the binarized eye-region outputted by said binarized image storing means, wherein

said nostril-region extracting means extracts a nostril region at which a retrieval is started from a peak position of a projected histogram of the image of the face by spirally retrieving two regions apart from each other for the same distance between a right and a left nostrils surrounding the retrieval start point, if it is an initial extracting time or if there is no nostril-region at a previous position of a center of gravity.