Can a smile reveal your gender?

International audienceAutomated gender estimation has numerous applications including video surveillance, human computer-interaction, anonymous customized advertisement and image retrieval. Most commonly, the underlying algorithms analyze facial appearance for clues of gender. In this work, we propose a novel approach for gender estimation, based on facial behavior in video-sequences capturing smiling subjects. The proposed behavioral approach quantifies gender dimorphism of facial smiling-behavior and is instrumental in cases of (a) omitted appearance-information (e.g. low resolution due to poor acquisition), (b) gender spoofing (e.g. makeup-based face alteration), as well as can be utilized to (c) improve the performance of appearance-based algorithms, since it provides complementary information. The proposed algorithm extracts spatio-temporal features based on dense trajectories, represented by a set of descriptors encoded by Fisher Vectors. Our results suggest that smile-based features include significant gender-clues. The designed algorithm obtains true gender classification rates of 86.3% for adolescents, significantly outperforming two state-of-the-art appearance-based algorithms (OpenBR and how-old.net), while for adults we obtain true gender classification rates of 91.01%, which is comparably discriminative to the better of these appearance-based algorithms

Mitigating Bias in Gender, Age and Ethnicity Classification: a Multi-Task Convolution Neural Network Approach

International audienceThis work explores joint classification of gender, age and race. Specifically, we here propose a Multi-Task Convolution Neural Network (MTCNN) employing joint dynamic loss weight adjustment towards classification of named soft biometrics, as well as towards mitigation of soft biometrics related bias. The proposed algorithm achieves promising results on the UTKFace and the Bias Estimation in Face Analytics (BEFA) datasets and was ranked first in the the BEFA Challenge of the European Conference of Computer Vision (ECCV) 2018

Image-based Gender Estimation from Body and Face across Distances

International audienceGender estimation has received increased attention due to its use in a number of pertinent security and commercial applications. Automated gender estimation algorithms are mainly based on extracting representative features from face images. In this work we study gender estimation based on information deduced jointly from face and body, extracted from single-shot images. The approach addresses challenging settings such as low-resolution-images, as well as settings when faces are occluded. Specifically the face-based features include local binary patterns (LBP) and scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features, projected into a PCA space. The features of the novel body-based algorithm proposed in this work include continuous shape information extracted from body silhouettes and texture information retained by HOG descriptors. Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are used for classification for body and face features. We conduct experiments on images extracted from video-sequences of the Multi-Biometric Tunnel database, emphasizing on three distance-settings: close, medium and far, ranging from full body exposure (far setting) to head and shoulders exposure (close setting). The experiments suggest that while face-based gender estimation performs best in the close-distance-setting, body-based gender estimation performs best when a large part of the body is visible. Finally we present two score-level-fusion schemes of face and body-based features, outperforming the two individual modalities in most cases

A study of the temporal relationship between eye actions and facial expressions

A dissertation submitted in ful llment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Faculty of Science August 15, 2017Facial expression recognition is one of the most common means of communication used for complementing spoken word. However, people have grown to master ways of ex- hibiting deceptive expressions. Hence, it is imperative to understand di erences in expressions mostly for security purposes among others. Traditional methods employ machine learning techniques in di erentiating real and fake expressions. However, this approach does not always work as human subjects can easily mimic real expressions with a bit of practice. This study presents an approach that evaluates the time related dis- tance that exists between eye actions and an exhibited expression. The approach gives insights on some of the most fundamental characteristics of expressions. The study fo- cuses on nding and understanding the temporal relationship that exists between eye blinks and smiles. It further looks at the relationship that exits between eye closure and pain expressions. The study incorporates active appearance models (AAM) for feature extraction and support vector machines (SVM) for classi cation. It tests extreme learn- ing machines (ELM) in both smile and pain studies, which in turn, attains excellent results than predominant algorithms like the SVM. The study shows that eye blinks are highly correlated with the beginning of a smile in posed smiles while eye blinks are highly correlated with the end of a smile in spontaneous smiles. A high correlation is observed between eye closure and pain in spontaneous pain expressions. Furthermore, this study brings about ideas that lead to potential applications such as lie detection systems, robust health care monitoring systems and enhanced animation design systems among others.MT 201

The computational face for facial emotion analysis: Computer based emotion analysis from the face

Facial expressions are considered to be the most revealing way of understanding the human psychological state during face-to-face communication. It is believed that a more natural interaction between humans and machines can be undertaken through the detailed understanding of the different facial expressions which imitate the manner by which humans communicate with each other. In this research, we study the different aspects of facial emotion detection, analysis and investigate possible hidden identity clues within the facial expressions. We study a deeper aspect of facial expressions whereby we try to identify gender and human identity - which can be considered as a form of emotional biometric - using only the dynamic characteristics of the smile expressions. Further, we present a statistical model for analysing the relationship between facial features and Duchenne (real) and non-Duchenne (posed) smiles. Thus, we identify that the expressions in the eyes contain discriminating features between Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. Our results indicate that facial expressions can be identified through facial movement analysis models where we get an accuracy rate of 86% for classifying the six universal facial expressions and 94% for classifying the common 18 facial action units. Further, we successfully identify the gender using only the dynamic characteristics of the smile expression whereby we obtain an 86% classification rate. Likewise, we present a framework to study the possibility of using the smile as a biometric whereby we show that the human smile is unique and stable.Al-Zaytoonah Universit