Illumination invariant face recognition using thermal infrared imagery

A key problem for face recognition has been accurate identification under variable illumination conditions. Conventional video cameras sense reflected light so that image grayvalues are a product of both intrinsic skin reflectivity and external incident illumination, thus obfuscating the intrinsic reflectivity of skin. Thermal emission from skin, on the other hand, is an intrinsic measurement that can be isolated from external illumination. We examine the invariance of Long-Wave InfraRed (LWIR) imagery with respect to different illumination conditions from the viewpoint of performance comparisons of two well-known face recognition algorithms applied to LWIR and visible imagery. We develop rigourous data collection protocols that formalize face recognition analysis for computer vision in the thermal IR.