Patent ID: 6574354
Filing Date: 2003-06-03
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
A method for detecting a face disposed within a digital image, comprising the steps of:providing a digital image composed of a plurality of pixels; producing a binary image from the digital image by detecting skin colored pixels; removing pixels corresponding to edges in the luminance component of said binary image thereby producing binary image components; mapping said binary image components into at least one graph; and classifying said mapped binary image components as facial and non-facial types wherein the facial types serve as facial candidates, wherein said step of classifying comprises forming a bounding box around a classified component of said components and performing at least one of: comparing an area of the bounding box to a bounding box threshold; comparing an aspect ratio of the bounding box to an aspect ratio threshold; determining an area ratio, said area ratio being the comparison between the area of said classified component and the area of said bounding box and comparing said area ratio to an area ratio threshold; determining an orientation of elongated objects within said bounding box; and determining a distance between a center of said bounding box and a center of said classified component.