What is Face Detection?

In computer vision, one essential problem we are trying to figure out is to automatically
detect objects in an image without human intervention. Face detection can be thought of as
such a problem where we detect human faces in an image. There may be slight differences in
the faces of humans but overall, it is safe to say that there are certain features that are
associated with all the human faces.

Face detection is usually the first step towards many face-related technologies, such as face
recognition or verification. However, face detection can have very useful applications. The
most successful application of face detection would probably be photo taking. When you take
a photo of your friends, the face detection algorithm built into your digital camera detects
where the faces are and adjusts the focus accordingly.

Face recognition is a method of identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using their
face. There are various algorithms that can do face recognition but their accuracy might vary

Face Recognition is a technology in computer vision. In Face recognition / detection we locate

and visualize the human faces in any digital image.

It is a subdomain of Object Detection, where we try to observe the instance of semantic objects.
These objects are of particular class such as animals, cars, humans, etc. Face Detection
technology has importance in many fields like marketing and security

Cascade Classifiers and Haar Features:

Cascade Classifiers and Haar Features are the methods used for Object Detection.

It is a machine learning algorithm where we train a cascade function with tons of images. These
images are in two categories: positive images containing the target object and negative images
not containing the target object.

There are different types of cascade classifiers according to different target objects. In our
project, we will use a classifier that considers the human face to recognize it as the target object.
Haar Feature selection technique has a target to extract human face features. Haar features are
like convolution kernels. These features are different permutations of black and white rectangles.
In each feature calculation, we find the sum of pixels under white and black rectangles.

HAAR CASCADE: For face recognition Haar cascade methodolgy is used. It is a machine
learning based approach where a cascade function is trained from a lot of positive and negative
images. It is then used to detect objects in other images. Initially, positive and negative image is
taken in consideration to train classifier. Every value of the feature is obtained by subtracting the
sum of pixels under white rectangle from the sum of pixels under black rectangle. Now all
possible sizes and locations of each kernel is used to calculate plenty of features. For feature
calculations we will find sum of pixels under white and black pixels. Among all the features we
have calculated, most of them are irrelevant. For example, if we consider the image we have put
in our project, the first feature selected seems to focus on the eyes more than the nose and
cheeks. Second one is made dark for the eyes and the bridge of the nose is focused.
Software Details

Computer Vision
Face tracking and detection features in sequence is an important and fundamental problem in
computer vision. This area of research has a lot of applications in face identification systems,
model based coding, gaze detection, human computer, interaction, teleconferencing, etc. human-
computer interaction, teleconferencing, etc.
Open CV
OpenCV means Intel® Open Source Computer Vision Library. It is a collection of C functions
and a few C++ classes that implement some popular Image Processing and Computer Vision
algorithms. OpenCV has cross-platform middle-to-high level API that consists of a few hundreds
C functions. It does not rely on external libraries, though it can use some when it is possible.
OpenCV is free for both non-commercial and commercial use. OpenCV provides transparent
interface to Intel Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP). That is, it loads automatically IPP
libraries optimized for specific processor at runtime, if they are available
OpenCV uses a type of face detector called a Haar Cascade classifier. Given an image, which
can come from a file or from live video, the face detector examines each image location and
classifies it as "Face" or "Not Face." Classification assumes a fixed scale for the face, say 50x50
pixels. Since faces in an image might be smaller or larger than this, the classifier runs over the
image several times, to search for face s across a range of scales. This may see man enormous
amount of processing, but thanks to algorithmic tricks, explained in the sidebar, classification is
very fast, even when it's applied at several scales. The classifier uses data stored in an XML file
to decide how to classify each image location. The OpenCV download includes our flavors of
XML data for frontal face detection, and one for profile faces. It also includes three non-face
XML files -one for full body (pedestrian) detection, one for upper body, and one for lower body.