Locating the eye in human face images using fractal dimensions

Facial feature extraction is an important step in many applications such as human face recognition, video conferencing, surveillance systems, human computer interfacing etc. The eye is the most important facial feature. A reliable and fast method for locating the eye pairs in an image is vital to many practical applications. A new method for locating eye pairs based on valley field detection and measurement of fractal dimensions is proposed. Possible eye candidates in an image with a complex background are identified by valley field detection. The eye candidates are then grouped to form eye pairs if their local properties for eyes are satisfied. Two eyes are matched if they have similar roughness and orientation as represented by fractal dimensions. A modified approach to estimating fractal dimensions that is less sensitive to lighting conditions and provides information about the orientation of an image under consideration is proposed. Possible eye pairs are further verified by comparing the fractal dimensions of the eye-pair window and the corresponding face region with the respective means of the fractal dimensions of the eye-pair windows and the face regions. The means of the fractal dimensions are obtained based on a number of facial images in a database. Experiments have shown that this approach is fast and reliable