Face recognition using vector quantization histogram method

We have developed a very simple yet highly reliable face recognition method called the VQ histogram method. A codevector referred (or matched) count histogram, which is obtained by vector quantization (VQ) processing of the facial image, is utilized as a very effective personal feature. By applying appropriate low pass filtering and VQ processing to a facial image, useful features for face recognition can be extracted. Experimental results show a recognition rate of 95.6% for 400 images of 40 persons (10 images per person), which contain variations in lighting, pose, and expression, from the publicly available ORL database. Equal error rate (ERR) of 2.6% is obtained for the verification experiment. By combining multiple low pass filtering procedures, the recognition rate is increased to 97% or higher.