Method and system for age estimation based on relative ages of pairwise facial images of people
First Claim
1. A method for automatically performing age estimation based on the facial image of people using the notion of pairwise facial image and relative age, comprising the following steps of:
- a) generating first pairwise facial images along with reference faces from a database of facial images, and annotating the first pairwise facial images for their relative ages and the reference faces for their absolute ages,b) determining face-based class similarity for the first pairwise facial images by appearance-based face clusters or demographic categories,c) training learning machines using the first pairwise facial images so that the learning machines estimate the relative age and face-based class similarity score of any pairwise facial images,d) constructing second pairwise facial images from an input face and the reference faces,e) estimating the relative ages of the second pairwise facial images, using the trained learning machines, andf) estimating the age of the input face using the relative ages of the second pairwise facial images,wherein each of the learning machines represents a face-based class among pre-determined face-based classes,wherein first face of each pair in the pairwise facial images belongs to the face-based class, andwherein the face-based class similarity represents whether two faces in the pairwise facial images belong to one of predetermined face-based classes.
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Abstract
The present invention is a system and method for estimating the age of people based on their facial images. It addresses the difficulty of annotating the age of a person from facial image by utilizing relative age (such as older than, or younger than) and face-based class similarity (gender, ethnicity or appearance-based cluster) of sampled pair-wise facial images. It involves a unique method for the pair-wise face training and a learning machine (or multiple learning machines) which output the relative age along with the face-based class similarity, of the pairwise facial images. At the testing stage, the given input face image is paired with some number of reference images to be fed to the trained machines. The age of the input face is determined by comparing the estimated relative ages of the pairwise facial images to the ages of reference face images. Because age comparison is more meaningful when the pair belongs to the same demographics category (such as gender and ethnicity) or when the pair has similar appearance, the estimated relative ages are weighted according to the face-based class similarity score between the reference face and the input face.
57 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for automatically performing age estimation based on the facial image of people using the notion of pairwise facial image and relative age, comprising the following steps of:
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a) generating first pairwise facial images along with reference faces from a database of facial images, and annotating the first pairwise facial images for their relative ages and the reference faces for their absolute ages, b) determining face-based class similarity for the first pairwise facial images by appearance-based face clusters or demographic categories, c) training learning machines using the first pairwise facial images so that the learning machines estimate the relative age and face-based class similarity score of any pairwise facial images, d) constructing second pairwise facial images from an input face and the reference faces, e) estimating the relative ages of the second pairwise facial images, using the trained learning machines, and f) estimating the age of the input face using the relative ages of the second pairwise facial images, wherein each of the learning machines represents a face-based class among pre-determined face-based classes, wherein first face of each pair in the pairwise facial images belongs to the face-based class, and wherein the face-based class similarity represents whether two faces in the pairwise facial images belong to one of predetermined face-based classes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for automatically performing age estimation based on the facial image of people using the notion of pairwise facial image and relative age, comprising:
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a) means for generating first pairwise facial images along with reference faces from a database of facial images, and annotating the first pairwise facial images for their relative ages and the reference faces for their absolute ages, b) means for determining face-based class similarity for the first pairwise facial images by appearance-based face clusters or demographic categories, c) means for training learning machines using the first pairwise facial images so that the learning machines estimate the relative age and face-based class similarity score of any pairwise facial images, d) means for constructing second pairwise facial images from an input face and the reference faces, e) means for estimating the relative ages of second pairwise facial images, using the trained learning machines, and f) means for estimating the age of the input face using the relative ages of the second pairwise facial images, wherein each of the learning machines represents a face-based class among pre-determined face-based classes, wherein first face of each pair in the pairwise facial images belongs to the face-based class, and wherein the face-based class similarity represents whether two faces in the pairwise facial images belong to one of predetermined face-based classes. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification