Automatic face detection in video sequences using local normalization and optimal adaptive correlation techniques

Automatic human face detection from video sequences is an important component of intelligent human computer interaction systems for video surveillance, face recognition, emotion recognition and face database management. This paper proposes an automatic and robust method to detect human faces from video sequences that combines feature extraction and face detection based on local normalization, Gabor wavelets transform and Adaboost algorithm. The key step and the main contribution of this work is the incorporation of a normalization technique based on local histograms with optimal adaptive correlation (OAC) technique to alleviate a common problem in conventional face detection methods: inconsistent performance due to sensitivity to variation illuminations such as local shadowing, noise and occlusion. The approach uses a cascade of classifiers to adopt a coarse-to-fine strategy for achieving higher detection rates with lower false positives. The experimental results demonstrate a significant performance improvement gains and achieved by local normalization over methods without normalizations in real video sequences with a wide range of facial variations in color, position, scale, and varying lighting conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.