Profile-based face recognition

In this paper, we introduce a new system for profile-based face recognition. The specific scenario involves a driver entering a gated area and using his/her side-view image (the driver remains seated in the vehicle) as identification. The system has two modes: enrollment and identification. In the enrollment mode, 3D face models of subjects are acquired and profiles extracted under different poses and stored to form a gallery database. In the identification mode, 2D images are acquired and the corresponding planar profiles are extracted and used as probes. Then, probes are matched to the gallery profiles to determine identity. The matching is accomplished using implicit shape registration via the vector distance functions. In our experiments, the approach using implicit registration exhibited higher accuracy than the iterative closest point methodology due to the use of more general transformations. The performance of our system is illustrated using a variety of databases.