Tracking a Detected Face with Dynamic Programming

In this paper we consider the problem of tracking of moving human face in front of a video camera in real-time for a Model-based coding (MBC) application. The 3D head tracking in a MBC system could be implemented sequentially as 2D location tracking, coarse 3D orientation estimation and accurate 3D motion estimation. This work focuses on the 2D location tracking of one subject face object through continuously using a face detector. The face detection scheme is based on a boosted cascade of simple Haar-like feature classifiers. Although such detector demonstrated rapid processing speed, high detection rate can only be achieved for rather strictly near front faces. This introduces the "loss of tracking" problem in 2D tracking when the face rotate a big angle. This paper suggests an easy accessory solution to overcomes the pose problem by using Dynamic Programming (DP). The Haar-like facial features are spatially arranging into a 1D deformable face graph and the DP matching is used to handle the "loss of track" problem. DP match the deformed version of the face graph extracted from a rotated face with the reference one took online when "loss of tracking" happen. Since the deformable face graph covers big pose variation, the developed technique is robust in tracking rotated faces. Embedding Haar-like facial features into a deformable face graph is the key feature of our tracking scheme. A real time tracking system based on this technique has been set up and tested. Encouraging results have been got and are reported.