Enhanced facial expression recognition using transfer learning and M-CLAHE

Abstract

In recent years, Facial Expression Recognition (FER) techniques have gained substantial attention within the realm of biometric technology due to their wide range of applications, including emotion analysis, human-computer interaction, and surveillance systems. This paper presents a robust and efficient FER system composed of three key steps. First, precise face detection is performed using the Viola-Jones algorithm, a well-established method for detecting facial features in real-time. Second, the detected images are enhanced using a Modified Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (M-CLAHE) technique to improve contrast and visibility. Finally, feature extraction and classification are carried out using three powerful Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures: VGG16, ResNet50, and Inception-v3, all benefiting from Transfer Learning to boost performance. Experiments were conducted on two widely-used datasets, JAFEE and CK+, with Inception-v3 achieving remarkable accuracy, reaching 98.43% and 99.93% on the respective databases. These results underline the effectiveness and robustness of our approach, particularly through the use of Transfer Learning, which significantly enhances the overall performance of the model compared to existing methods.