Multi-scale elastic graph matching for face detection

Abstract

We propose a multi-scale elastic graph matching (MS-EGM) algorithm for face detection, in which the conventional EGM is improved with two simple image processing techniques of the Gabor wavelet-based pyramid and the weak Gabor feature elimination. It is expected to solve difficulties of the real-time process in the conventional EGM. The Gabor wavelet-based pyramid effectively reduces not only the computational cost of the Gabor filtering but also the computational complexity of feature representation of a model face, preserving the facial information. The elimination of the weak Gabor feature extracted from an input image facilitates an accuracy of the Gabor feature similarity computations as unexpected. We then test that the MS-EGM can be capable of rapid face detection processing while achieving a high correct detection rate, comparable to the AdaBoost Haar-like (HL) feature cascade. We also show that the MS-EGM has strong robustness to the image of a face occluded with sunglasses and scarfs because of topologically preserved feature representations.