An active model for facial feature tracking

Abstract

We present a system for finding and tracking a face and extract global and local animation parameters from a video sequence. The system uses an initial colour processing step for finding a rough estimate of the position, size, and inplane rotation of the face, followed by a refinement step drived by an active model. The latter step refines the previous estimate, and also extracts local animation parameters. The system is able to track the face and some facial features in near real-time, and can compress the result to a bitstream compliant to MPEG-4 face and body animation.