Semantic face matching

The need for efficient methods for archiving and retrieving personal digital photo collections arises due to a significant increase in the number of digital images and videos that people have to manage. We propose a semantic face matching approach for managing consumer photographs based on semantic face attributes. These attributes are organized as a semantic face graph (derived from a 3D generic face model) containing facial components such as eyes and mouth in the spatial domain. We align the semantic facial components in the semantic face graph with the extracted facial features in a given image. Aligned facial components are transformed to a feature space spanned by Fourier descriptors of facial components for face matching. The semantic face graph allows face matching based on selected facial components. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed semantic representation of the face is useful for face matching and visualization (e.g., generating facial caricatures).