Robust real-time face tracking using an active camera

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of facial feature detection and tracking in real-time using a single active camera. The variable parameters of the camera (i.e. pan, tilt and zoom) are changed adaptively to track the face of the agent in successive frames and detect the facial features which may be used for facial expression analysis for surveillance or mesh generation for animation purposes, at a later stage. Our tracking procedure assumes planar motion of the face. It also detects invalid feature points i.e. those feature points which do not correspond to actual facial features, but are outliers. They are subsequently abandoned by our procedure in order to extract 'high level' information from the face for facial mesh generation or emotion recognition which might be helpful for Video Surveillance purposes. The only limitation on the performance of the procedure is imposed by the maximum pan/tilt range of the camera. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.