Log-Linear Elliptic Transform for Frontal-Face Parameter Estimation

Face detection methods are important in many applications such as face recognition, iris detection, eye-gaze estimation, gesture recognition and in man-machine interfaces, among others. In this paper, a new method for face detection of frontal faces is proposed. The method is based on a geometric transform we named Log-Linear Elliptic Transform, LET, that converts the lower semi-elliptical contour of the face into a vertical line in the transformed space. The vertical line can be detected by a simple projected histogram allowing a fast computation. The vertical line detection is sensitive to the face position, eccentricity and rotation. This allows the selection of an ellipse that better represents the face. The method was applied successfully in the detection of frontal faces in the FERET database.