Pose-invariant face recognition system and process
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented face recognition process for identifying a person depicted in an input image, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:
- creating a database of a plurality of model image characterizations, each of which represents the face of a known person that it is desired to identify in the input image as well as the person'"'"'s face pose, wherein the person'"'"'s face pose refers to pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of the person'"'"'s head;
training a neural network ensemble to identify a person and their face pose from a region which has been extracted from said input image and characterized in a manner similar to the plurality of model images, wherein the network ensemble comprises, a first stage having a plurality of classifiers each of which has input and output units and is dedicated to a particular pose range and outputs a measure of the similarity indicative of the similarity between said characterized input image region and each of said model image characterizations associated with the particular pose range of the classifier, and a fusing neural network as its second stage which combines the outputs of the classifiers to generate an output indicative of the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person; and
employing the network ensemble to identify the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person.
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Abstract
A face recognition system and process for identifying a person depicted in an input image and their face pose. This system and process entails locating and extracting face regions belonging to known people from a set of model images, and determining the face pose for each of the face regions extracted. All the extracted face regions are preprocessed by normalizing, cropping, categorizing and finally abstracting them. More specifically, the images are normalized and cropped to show only a persons face, categorized according to the face pose of the depicted person'"'"'s face by assigning them to one of a series of face pose ranges, and abstracted preferably via an eigenface approach. The preprocessed face images are preferably used to train a neural network ensemble having a first stage made up of a bank of face recognition neural networks each of which is dedicated to a particular pose range, and a second stage constituting a single fusing neural network that is used to combine the outputs from each of the first stage neural networks. Once trained, the input of a face region which has been extracted from an input image and preprocessed (i.e., normalized, cropped and abstracted) will cause just one of the output units of the fusing portion of the neural network ensemble to become active. The active output unit indicates either the identify of the person whose face was extracted from the input image and the associated face pose, or that the identity of the person is unknown to the system.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented face recognition process for identifying a person depicted in an input image, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:
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creating a database of a plurality of model image characterizations, each of which represents the face of a known person that it is desired to identify in the input image as well as the person'"'"'s face pose, wherein the person'"'"'s face pose refers to pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of the person'"'"'s head; training a neural network ensemble to identify a person and their face pose from a region which has been extracted from said input image and characterized in a manner similar to the plurality of model images, wherein the network ensemble comprises, a first stage having a plurality of classifiers each of which has input and output units and is dedicated to a particular pose range and outputs a measure of the similarity indicative of the similarity between said characterized input image region and each of said model image characterizations associated with the particular pose range of the classifier, and a fusing neural network as its second stage which combines the outputs of the classifiers to generate an output indicative of the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person; and employing the network ensemble to identify the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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7. A face recognition system for identifying a person depicted in an input image, comprising:
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a general purpose computing device; and a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to, capture model images, each of which depicts at least one person of known identity, locate and extract regions within the model images, each of which depicts the face of a known person that it is desired to identify in the input image, determine a face pose for each of the face regions extracted from the model images, wherein the face pose refers to pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of a person'"'"'s head, categorize each face region by assigning each to one of a set of pose ranges into which its associated face pose falls, train a neural network ensemble to identify a person and their face pose from a region that depicts the face of a person which has been extracted from said input image, wherein the network ensemble comprises, a first stage having a plurality of classifiers each of which has input and output units and is dedicated to a particular pose range and outputs a measure of the similarity indicative of the similarity between said input image region and each of said model image regions associated with the particular pose range of the classifier, and a fusing neural network as its second stage which combines the outputs of the classifiers to generate an output indicative of the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person; and employ the network ensemble to identify the person associated with the characterized input image region and their face pose. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer-readable memory for use in identifying a person depicted in an input image, comprising:
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a computer-readable storage medium; and a computer program comprising program modules stored in the storage medium, wherein the storage medium is so configured by the computer program that it causes a computer to, input model images, each of which depicts at least one person of known identity, locate and extract regions within the model images, each of which depicts the face of a known person that it is desired to identify in the input image, determine a face pose for each of the face regions extracted from the model images, wherein the face pose refers to pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of a person'"'"'s head, categorize each face region by assigning each to one of a set of pose ranges into which its associated face pose falls, train a neural network ensemble to identify a person and their face pose from a region depicting the face of a person which has been extracted from said input image, wherein the network ensemble comprises, a first stage having a plurality of classifiers each of which has input and output units and is dedicated to a particular pose range and outputs a measure of the similarity indicative of the similarity between said input image region and each of said model image regions associated with the particular pose range of the classifier, and a fusing neural network as its second stage which combines the outputs of the classifiers to generate an output indicative of the person associated with the characterized input image region and the face pose of that person; and employ the network ensemble to identify the person associated with the characterized input image region and their face pose. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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23. A face recognition neural network ensemble for identifying a person depicted in an input image and a face pose range among a set of pose ranges into which the face of each identified person falls, wherein a face pose range refers to ranges of pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of a person'"'"'s head, said ensemble comprising:
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a plurality of face recognition neural networks each of which has input and output units and each of which is dedicated to a particular pose range; and a fusing neural network whose inputs are in communication with the output units of said face recognition neural networks and which has at least enough output units to allow a different output to represent each person it is desired to identify at each of the pose ranges; and
whereinimage feature characterizations derived from the face of a person it is desired to identify as depicted in the input image are respectively input into separate ones of the input units of the face recognition neural networks causing a single one of the output units of the fusing neural network to become active, thereby indicating the identity of the person whose face was depicted in the input image as well as the pose range associated with the pose of the depicted face. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A face recognition network ensemble for identifying a person depicted in an input image and a face pose range among a set of pose ranges into which the face of each identified person falls, wherein a face pose range refers to ranges of pitch, roll and yaw angles that define the position of a person'"'"'s head, said ensemble comprising:
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a plurality of classifiers each of which has input and output units and each of which is dedicated to a particular pose range; and a fusing neural network whose inputs are in communication with the output units of said classifiers and which has at least enough output units to allow a different output to represent each person it is desired to identify at each of the pose ranges; and
whereinimage feature characterizations derived from the face of a person it is desired to identify as depicted in the input image are respectively input into separate ones of the input units of the face recognition classifiers causing a single one of the output units of the fusing neural network to become active, thereby indicating the identity of the person whose face was depicted in the input image as well as the pose range associated with the pose of the depicted face.
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Specification