On the spatial distribution of local non-parametric facial shape descriptors

Abstract

In this paper we present a method to form pattern specific facial shape descriptors called basis-images for non-parametric LBPs (Local Binary Patterns) and some other similar face descriptors such as Modified Census Transform (MCT) and LGBP (Local Gabor Binary Pattern). We examine the distribution of different local descriptors among the facial area from which some useful observations can be made. In addition, we test the discriminative power of the basis-images in a face detection framework for the basic LBPs. The detector is fast to train and uses only a set of strictly frontal faces as inputs, operating without non-faces and bootstrapping. The face detector performance is tested with the full CMU+MIT database. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.