Face Detection and Verification using Local Binary Patterns

This thesis proposes a robust Automatic Face Verification (AFV) system using Local Binary Patterns (LBP). AFV is mainly composed of two modules: Face Detection (FD) and Face Verification (FV). The purpose of FD is to determine whether there are any face in an image, while FV involves confirming or denying the identity claimed by a person. The contributions of this thesis are the following: 1) a real-time multiview FD system which is robust to illumination and partial occlusion, 2) a FV system based on the adaptation of LBP features, 3) an extensive study of the performance evaluation of FD algorithms and in particular the effect of FD errors on FV performance. The first part of the thesis addresses the problem of frontal FD. We introduce the system of Viola and Jones which is the first real-time frontal face detector. One of its limitations is the sensitivity to local lighting variations and partial occlusion of the face. In order to cope with these limitations, we propose to use LBP features. Special emphasis is given to the scanning process and to the merging of overlapped detections, because both have a significant impact on the performance. We then extend our frontal FD module to multiview FD. In the second part, we present a novel generative approach for FV, based on an LBP description of the face. The main advantages compared to previous approaches are a very fast and simple training procedure and robustness to bad lighting conditions. In the third part, we address the problem of estimating the quality of FD. We first show the influence of FD errors on the FV task and then empirically demonstrate the limitations of current detection measures when applied to this task. In order to properly evaluate the performance of a face detection module, we propose to embed the FV into the performance measuring process. We show empirically that the proposed methodology better matches the final FV performance

Estimating the quality of face localization for face verification

Face localization is the process of finding the exact position of a face in a given image. This can be useful in several applications such as face tracking or person authentication. The purpose of this paper is to show that the error made during the localization process may have different impacts depending on the final application. Hence in order to evaluate the performance of a face localization algorithm, we propose to embed the final application (here face verification) into the performance measuring process. Moreover, in this paper, we estimate this embedding using either a multilayer perceptron or a K nearest neighbor algorithm in order to speedup the evaluation process. We show on the BANCA database that our proposed measure best matches the final verification results when comparing several localization algorithms, on various performance measures currently used in face localization. 1

Boosting Pixel-based Classifiers for Face Verification

The performance of face verification systems has steadily improved over the last few years. State-of-the-art methods use the projection of the gray-scale face image into a Linear Discriminant subspace as input of a classifier such as Support Vector Machines or Multi-layer Perceptrons. Unfortunately, these classifiers involve thousands of parameters that are difficult to store on a smart-card for instance. Recently, boosting algorithms has emerged to boost the performance of simple (weak) classifiers by combining them iteratively. The famous AdaBoost algorithm have been proposed for object detection and applied successfully to face detection. In this paper, we investigate the use of AdaBoost for face verification to boost weak classifiers based simply on pixel values. The proposed approach is tested on a benchmark database, namely XM2VTS. Results show that boosting only hundreds of classifiers achieved near state-of-the-art results. Furthermore, the proposed approach outperforms similar work on face verification using boosting algorithms on the same database

Explicit-Ready Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Turbocharged Spark-Ignited Engine

International audienceThe trend to reduce the engine size in automotive industry is motivated by more restrictive pollutant emissions standards. That is why engine technical definitions have become more and more complicated. The control challenge has also grown since engines are now considered as highly nonlinear multi-input multi-output systems with saturated actuators. In this context, the need for model-based control laws is bigger than ever. In this study we propose a nonlinear model predictive control strategy based on a physical engine model. Moreover, we also underline the benefit of using a thermodynamic engine term in the objective function. Finally, the design and calibration choices consciously fulfill the criterions of the use of an explicit approach for the real time implementation

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of the Air Path of a Turbocharged Gasoline Engine Using Laguerre Functions

International audienceObjectives in terms of pollutant emissions and fuel consumption reduction have led car manufacturers to enhance the technical definitions of combustion engines. The latter should now be considered as multiple-input multiple-output nonlinear systems with saturated actuators. This considerably increases the challenge regarding the development of optimal control laws under the constraints of constant cost reductions in the automotive industry. In the present paper, the use of a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme is studied for the air path control of a turbocharged gasoline engine. Specifically, a zero dimension physics-based model is combined with parameterization of the future control trajectory. The use of Laguerre polynomials is shown to increase flexibility for the future control trajectory at no cost in computational requirements. This increase in flexibility leads to an improvement of the transient response of the closed-loop with respect to traditional approaches. This practical application shows that this approach makes it easier to fine-tune the NMPC scheme when dealing with engine air path control

Multiview Face Detection

In this document, we address the problem of multiview face detection. This work extends the frontal face detection system developed at the IDIAP Research Institute to multiview face detection. The main state-of-the art techniques are reviewed and a novel architecture is presented, based on a pyramid of detectors that are trained for different views of faces. The proposed approach robustly detects faces rotated up to -67.5 degree in the image plane and up to -90 degree out of the image plane. The system is real-time and achieves high performances on benchmark test sets, comparable to some state-of-the-art approaches

On the Recent Use of Local Binary Patterns for Face Authentication

This paper presents a survey on the recent use of Local Binary Patterns (LBPs) for face recognition. LBP is becoming a popular technique for face representation. It is a non-parametric kernel which summarizes the local spacial structure of an image and it is invariant to monotonic gray-scale transformations. This is a very interesting property in face recognition. This probably explains the recent success of Local Binary Patterns in face recognition. In this paper, we describe the LBP technique and different approaches proposed in the literature to represent and to recognize faces. The most representatives are considered for experimental comparison on a common face authentication task. For that purpose, the XM2VTS and BANCA databases are used according to their respective experimental protocols

Hand Posture Classification and Recognition using the Modified Census Transform

Developing new techniques for human-computer interaction is very challenging. Vision-based techniques have the advantage of being unobtrusive and hands are a natural device that can be used for more intuitive interfaces. But in order to use hands for interaction, it is necessary to be able to recognize them in images. In this paper, we propose to apply to the hand posture classification and recognition tasks an approach that has been successfully used for face detection~\cite{Froba04}. The features are based on the Modified Census Transform and are illumination invariant. For the classification and recognition processes, a simple linear classifier is trained, using a set of feature lookup-tables. The database used for the experiments is a benchmark database in the field of posture recognition. Two protocols have been defined. We provide results following these two protocols for both the classification and recognition tasks. Results are very encouraging

Robust-to-Illumination Face Localisation using Active Shape Models and Local Binary Patterns

This paper addresses the problem of locating facial features in images of frontal faces taken under different lighting conditions. The well-known Active Shape Model method proposed by Cootes {\it et al.} is extended to improve its robustness to illumination changes. For that purpose, we introduce the use of Local Binary Patterns (LBP). Three different incremental approaches combining ASM with LBP are presented: profile-based LBP-ASM, square-based LBP-ASM and divided-square-based LBP-ASM. Experiments performed on the standard and darkened image sets of the XM2VTS database demonstrate that the divided-square-based LBP-ASM gives superior performance compared to the state-of-the-art ASM. It achieves more accurate results and fails less frequently

Explicit Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of the Air Path of a Turbocharged Spark-Ignited Engine

International audiencePollutant emissions and fuel economy objectives have led car manufacturers to develop innovative and more sophisticated engine layouts. In order to reduce time-to-market and development costs, recent research has investigated the idea of a quasi-systematic engine control development approach. Model based approaches might not be the only possibility but they are clearly predetermined to considerably reduce test bench tuning work requirements. In this paper, we present the synthesis of a physics-based nonlinear model predictive control law especially designed for powertrain control. A binary search tree is used to ensure real-time implementation of the explicit form of the control law, computed by solving the associated multi-parametric nonlinear problem