Face Detection Based on Thick Feature Edges and Neural Networks

Many researchers have developed various techniques for detection of human faces in ordinary still images. Face detection is the first imperative step of human face recognition systems. The two main problems of human face detection are how to cutoff the running time and how to reduce the number of false positives. In this paper, we present frontal and near-frontal face detection algorithm in still gray images using a thick edge image and neural network. We have devised a new filter that gets the thick edge image. Our overall scheme for face detection consists of two main phases. In the first phase we describe how to create the thick edge image using the filter and search for face candidates using a whole face detector. It is very helpful in removing plenty of windows with non-faces. The second phase verifies for detecting human faces using component-based eye detectors and the whole face detector. The experimental results show that our algorithm can reduce the running time and the number of false positives.