“Smartface”: A face recognition system robust to variations of facial pose and expression

Abstract

AbstractThere has been rapid progress in the development of techniques for identifying individuals from facial images, to be used in human interface and for security purposes. This paper proposes the Smartface recognition system, which can be used on a portable PC. To reduce restrictions on the user's movements, a face recognition should usually accept variations in the user's facial orientation and expression. The proposed system uses a motion image‐based algorithm with feature points that is robust to such variations. A method of reducing the cost of the additional computations is also proposed. Applications of the proposed system include: (1) individualized voice response and environment setting for different users; (2) use of face recognition to control a screen saver; and (3) real‐time disguise simulation. The proposed system consists only of software and can be operated on a portable PC equipped with a camera. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 86(6): 54–61, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.10155