Automatic Human Face Detection and Tracking using Cascaded Classifiers and Deformable Meshes

In this paper, we propose a novel method for fully automatic detection and tracking of human heads and faces in video sequences. The proposed algorithm consists of two modules: a face detection module and a face tracking module. The Detection module, detects the face region and approximates it with an ellipse at the first frame using a modified version of AdaBoost cascaded classifier. The detection module is capable of considering the 2-D head pose rotation. The tracking module utiliyes a combination of deformable mesh energy minimization and feature matching approaches. In order to track a face, features are extracted in the face region to tessellate the human face with triangular unstructured meshes. For tracking a mesh, it is necessary to define mesh energies including internal and external energies. We have used new energy definitions for both the internal and the external energies which can accurately track rigid and non-rigid motions of a face and facial features at subsequent frames. We tested the proposed method with different video samples like cluttered backgrounds, partial illumination variations, put on glasses, and 2-D and/or 3-D rotating and translating heads. The experimental results showed that the algorithm is rotation insensitive and has high accuracy, stability and also has convergence for face detection and tracking.