Techniques for face detection and tracking

• US 9,042,599 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2010
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Du, Yangzhou, Li, Qiang Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Bitar, Nancy
• Application Number:
  US12/997,300
• Publication Number:
  US 20120114172A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,789 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/96 Management of image or video recognition tasks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/165 using facial parts and geometric relationships

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed that involve face detection. For instance, face detection tasks may be decomposed into sets of one or more sub-tasks. In turn the sub-tasks of the sets may be allocated across multiple image frames. This allocation may be based on a resource budget. In addition, face tracking tasks may be performed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing a plurality of image frames in a memory; and

performing a face detection task on the plurality of image frames, the face detection task comprising multiple successive sets of tasks;

wherein the successive sets employ progressively increasing detection region size;

detecting whether sufficient computing resources exist for a sub-task;

merging and filtering faces in the data structure in response to the determination that sufficient resources do not exist for the sub-task;

wherein each of the multiple sets employs one or more detection regions having the corresponding detection region size; and

wherein at least one of the multiple sets employs two or more partially overlapping detection regions having the corresponding detection region size.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating a resource budget for face detection sub-task performance in each of the plurality of image frames.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing comprises, for each sub-task, scanning a window within a detection region, the detection region having the detection region size of the corresponding set.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said performing comprises, for each sub-task, employing a plurality of classification stages, each classification stage operating on multiple windows concurrently.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing comprises performing at least one of the sub-tasks in a corresponding one of the plurality of frames.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a face tracking task on the plurality of image frames.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising maintaining information regarding one or more previously detected faces.

18. The method of claim 1 including using overlapping detection regions.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a face tracking module to track one or more previously detected faces within an image frame; and

a face detection module to perform one or more face detection tasks within the image frame;

wherein each face detection task scans a window within a detection region; and

wherein the successive sets employ progressively increasing detection region size, detect whether sufficient computing resources exist for a sub-task, and merge and filter faces in the data structure in response to the determination that sufficient resources do not exist for the sub-task;

wherein each of the multiple sets employs one or more detection regions having the corresponding detection region size; and

wherein at least one of the multiple sets employs two or more partially overlapping detection regions having the corresponding detection region size.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a storage medium to store information regarding the one or more previously detected faces.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the storage medium further stores information regarding any faces detected by one or more face detection tasks.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising an image sensor to generate the image frame.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a display to output the image frame.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the detection module includes a plurality of classification stages, each classification stage including multiple classification module to operate on multiple windows concurrently.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein each of the face detection tasks are included in one of a plurality of task sets;

and

wherein each of the task sets employs a corresponding window size.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

perform a face detection task on the plurality of image frames, the face detection task comprising multiple successive sets of tasks;

wherein the successive sets employ progressively increasing detection region size;

detect whether sufficient computing resources exist for a sub-task;

merge and filter faces in the data structure in response to the determination that sufficient resources do not exist for the sub-task;

wherein each of the multiple sets employs one or more detection regions having the corresponding detection region size; and

wherein at least one of the multiple sets employs two or more partially overlapping detection regions having the corresponding detection region size.

16. The article of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

allocate a resource budget for face detection task performance in each of the plurality of image frames.

17. The article of claim 15, wherein said performing comprises, for each task, scanning a window within a detection region, the detection region having the detection region size of the corresponding set.