Patent · US Expired

Image processing method, facial region extraction method, and apparatus therefor

US6816611B1 · kind B1 · utility

124Cited by
17References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 26, 1999
Grant dateNov 9, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 26, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06V10/507
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A flesh tone region detection processor (12) detects a flesh tone region from a color still image, and a projective distribution generator (13) generates the projective distribution of the detected flesh tone region. A facial region search processor (14) searches the projective distribution for a parabola using, e.g., a genetic algorithm, and extracts a facial region candidate from the position of the found parabola. A knowledge processor (15) checks based on the aspect ratio of the region, matching with facial patterns prepared in advance, or the presence/absence of a region corresponding to hair if the extracted facial region candidate is a facial region. The user can set the processing time, the number of persons to be detected, and the face area ratio as a search end condition.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.