Face detection and recognition using hidden Markov models

Abstract

The work presented in this paper describes a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based framework for face recognition and face detection. The observation vectors used to characterize the states of the HMM are obtained using the coefficients of the Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT). The face recognition method presented reduces significantly the computational complexity of previous HMM-based face recognition systems, while slightly improving the recognition rate. Consistent with the HMM model of the face, this paper introduces a novel HMM-based face detection approach using the same feature extraction techniques used for face recognition.