Generating thermal facial signatures using thermal infrared images

This paper presents preliminary findings using thermal infrared imaging for the detection of the human face vasculature network at the skin surface and the generation of thermal facial signatures. A thermal infrared camera with reasonable sensitivity provides the ability to image superficial blood vessels on the human skin. The experiment presented here consists of the image processing techniques used in thermal infrared images captured using a mid-wave infrared camera from FLIR systems. For the purpose of this experiment thermal images were obtained from 10 volunteers, they were asked to sit straight in front of the thermal infrared camera and a snapshot was taken of their frontal view. The thermal infrared images were then analyzed using digital image processing techniques to enhance and detect the facial vasculature network of the volunteers and generate a thermal facial signature for each volunteer.