A grayscale skin and facial detection mechanism for use in conjunction with security system technology via graphical block methodologies on field programmable gate arrays

Abstract

Presented in this paper is the design of a skin filter which unlike many systems already developed for use, this system will not use RGB or HSI colour but an 8-bit greyscale instead. This is done in order to make the system more convenient to employ on an FPGA, to increase the speed to better enable real-time imaging and to make it easier to combine with the previously designed binary based algorithms. This paper will discuss the many approaches and methods that could be considered such as Bayes format and thresholds, pixel extraction, mathematical morphological strings, edge detection or a combination of the previous and a discussion about which provided the best performance. The research for this skin filter was carried out in two stages, firstly on people who had an ethnic origin of White - British, Asian or Asian British, Chinese and Mixed White and Asian. The second phase which won't be included here in great detail will cover the same principles for the other ethnic backgrounds of Black or Black British - Caribbean or Africa, Other Black background, Asian or Asian British - Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi. This is due to the fact that we have to modify the parameters that govern the detection process to account for greyscale changes in the skin tone, texture and intensity; however the same principles would still be applied for general detection and integration into the previous algorithm. The latter is discussed and what benefits it will give.