Title: Visual similarity issues in face recognition

Authors: Andrzej Sluzek; Mariusz Paradowski

Addresses: Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi Campus, P.O. Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, UAE. ' Wroclaw University of Technology, Institute of Informatics, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland

Abstract: The paper discusses several issues of visual similarity in face detection and recognition. Using a straightforward concept of keypoint correspondences, a method is proposed to formalise the subjective impressions of |similar faces|, |similar eyes|, |similar chins|, etc. The method exploits the mechanism of affine near-duplicate fragment detection originally proposed for visual information retrieval. It is shown that using such a method, a simple and relatively reliable face detection/identification systems can be build without any model (or training) of human faces, which can work with images containing multiple faces shown on random backgrounds. Additionally, it is proposed how the same approach can be used to optimise databases of face images and to identify individuals who are at higher risks of mistaken face identification.

Keywords: visual similarity; face recognition; keypoints; image matching; affine transformations; face detection; near-duplicate fragment detection; biometrics; mistaken identification.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBM.2012.044290

International Journal of Biometrics, 2012 Vol.4 No.1, pp.22 - 37

Received: 24 Dec 2010
Accepted: 23 Feb 2011
Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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