Detection and tracking of face by a walking robot

Abstract

We propose a system for detection and tracking of face in dynamic and changing environments from a camera mounted on a walking robot. The proposed system is based on the principal component analysis (PCA) technique. For the detection of a face, first, we use a skin color information and motion information. Thereafter, we verify that the detected regions are indeed the face using the PCA technique. The tracking of a face is based on the Euclidian distance in eigenspace between the previously tracked face and the newly detected faces. Walking robot control for the face tracking is done in such a way that the detected face region is kept on the central region of the camera screen by controlling the robot motion. The proposed system is extensible to other walking robot systems and gesture recognition systems for human-robot interaction. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.