Real time head pose estimation

US8687880B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Yichen Wei · Beijing, CN
• Fang Wen · Beijing, CN
• Jian Sun · Beijing, CN
• Tommer Leyvand · Seattle, US
• Jinyu Li · Beijing, CN
• Casey Leon Meekhof · Kirkland, US
• Tim Keosababian · Redmond, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 20, 2012
• Grant date: Apr 1, 2014
• Expiry date: Sep 27, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06V10/467
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Methods are provided for generating a low dimension pose space and using the pose space to estimate one or more head rotation angles of a user head. In one example, training image frames including a test subject head are captured under a plurality of conditions. For each frame an actual head rotation angle about a rotation axis is recorded. In each frame a face image is detected and converted to an LBP feature vector. Using principal component analysis a PCA feature vector is generated. Pose classes related to rotation angles about a rotation axis are defined. The PCA feature vectors are grouped into a pose class that corresponds to the actual rotation angle associated with the PCA feature vector. Linear discriminant analysis is applied to the pose classes to generate the low dimension pose space.