A Novel Kernel Discriminant Analysis for Face Verification

In this paper a novel non-linear subspace method for face verification is proposed. The problem of face verification is considered as a two-class problem (genuine versus impostor class). The typical Fisher´s linear discriminant analysis (FLDA) gives only one or two projections in a two-class problem. This is a very strict limitation to the search of discriminant dimensions. As for the FLDA for N class problems (N is greater than two) the transformation is not person specific. In order to remedy these limitations of FLDA, exploit the individuality of human faces and take into consideration the fact that the distribution of facial images, under different viewpoints, illumination variations and facial expression is highly complex and non-linear, novel kernel discriminant algorithms are proposed. The new methods are tested in the face verification problem using the XM2VTS database where it is verified that they outperform other commonly used kernel approaches.