Patent ID: 7853086

Claim:
A face detection method comprising: a face candidate extracting step for extracting face image candidates by changing position, inclination and orientation of a face to be detected in an inputted image, calculating, for each of the position, inclination and orientation of the face to be detected, an indicator value indicating a probability of a partial image at the position being a face image containing a face having the inclination and the orientation, and extracting all the partial images having the indicator values not less than a first threshold value as face image candidates; and a discriminating step for discriminating whether or not the face image candidates are true face images, wherein, when a predetermined evaluation value indicating reliability of a certain face image candidate, among the face image candidates, having a predetermined inclination and a first orientation of the face is not less than a predetermined threshold value, the discriminating step discriminates another face image candidate, among the face image candidates, having substantially the same inclination as the predetermined inclination and a second orientation of the face as being a true face image.