Eyes extraction from facial images using edge density

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method for eyes extraction in facial images using edge density information. The method is based on the observation that irrespective of skin colour, colour variations occur the most in the eye region. In the proposed method, edges are detected in the input facial image. Morphological dilation is applied twice and the holes are filled in the connected regions. This makes the high density edges regions appear as blobs. Certain shapes and geometrical rules are applied to these blobs to extract the eyes. The method was tested using images from the PICS facial images database. The accuracies of the initial blobs extraction and the final eyes extraction were 95% and 72% respectively.