Patent Document ID: 8320682
Application ID: 10363339
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for locating a face of a person pictorially represented in a target image containing at least one face to be located in front of a background, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing an edge line model containing edge line information of a plurality of faces and storing model edge line directions for comparison; (b) converting the target image to an intermediate image having edge lines at least accentuated; (c) providing from said accentuated edge lines a binarized edge direction image of the target image, representing directions of said accentuated edge lines; (d) comparing directions in said binarized edge direction image with the stored model edge line directions at a plurality of pixel locations, by providing angle differences of directions at the pixel locations and wherein prior to providing the angle differences at the pixel locations the angles at said pixel locations are converted to acute angles between zero and 90 degrees instead of between zero and 180 degrees; (d1) and summing said angle differences to provide a first sum of angle differences, (d2) moving said edge line model and the binarized edge direction image in steps relative to each other and providing for each step a sum of angle differences at a plurality of pixel locations, wherein prior to providing the angle differences at the plurality of pixel locations for each step the angles at said pixel locations are converted to acute angles between zero and 90 degrees instead of between zero and 180 degrees; (d3) comparing the sums of angle differences of each step, and thereby locating the face to be located in the target image by computing positional information thereof and storing said positional information of said face to be located as a located face.