Robust skin segmentation using color space switching

Abstract

Skin detection is very popular and has vast applications among researchers in computer vision and human computer interaction. The skin-color changes beyond comparable limits with considerable change in the nature of the light source. Different properties are taken into account when the colors are represented in different color spaces. However, a unique color space has not been found yet to adjust the needs of all illumination changes that can occur to practically similar objects. Therefore a dynamic skin color model must be constructed for robust skin pixel detection, which can cope with natural changes in illumination. This paper purposes that skin detection in a digital color image can be significantly improved by employing automated color space switching. A system with three robust algorithms has been built based on different color spaces towards automatic skin classification in a 2D image. These algorithms are based on the statistical mean of value of the skin pixels in the image. We also take Bayesian approaches to discriminate between skin-alike and non-skin pixels to avoid noise. This work is tested on a set of images which was captured in varying light conditions from highly illuminated to almost dark.