Regression-based methods for face alignment: A survey

Abstract

Face alignment is the process of determining a face shape given its location and size in an image. It is used as a basis for other facial analysis tasks and for human-machine interaction and augmented reality applications. It is a challenging problem due to the extremely high variability in facial appearance affected by many external (illumination, occlusion, head pose) and internal factors (race, facial expression). However, advances in deep learning combined with domain-related knowledge from previous research recently demonstrated impressive results nearly saturating the unconstrained benchmark data sets. The focus is shifting towards reducing the computational burden of the face alignment models since real-time performance is required for such a highly dynamic task. Furthermore, many applications target devices on the edge with limited computational power which puts even greater emphasis on computational efficiency. We present the latest development in regression-based approaches that have led towards nearly solving the face alignment problem in an unconstrained scenario. Various regression architectures are systematically explored and recent training techniques discussed in the context of face alignment. Finally, a benchmark comparison of the most successful methods is presented, taking into account execution time as well, to provide a comprehensive overview of this dynamic research field.