Method and apparatus of recognizing face using component-based 2nd-order principal component analysis (PCA)/independent component analysis (ICA)

A method of recognizing a face using component-based PCA/ICA, the method comprising the steps of;

• (a) receiving a first facial image to be recognized and a second facial image as a basis for comparison with the first facial image;
• (b) performing component-based PCA/ICA on the first and second facial images, respectively and extracting pieces of second feature information corresponding to the first and second facial images;
• and
• (c) determining whether there is a similarity between the pieces of the second feature information corresponding to the first and second facial images, and outputting the determination result.

A method of searching for a face using component-based PCA/ICA, the method comprising:

• (a) constructing a database (DB) in which facial images of one or more persons and identification information of the persons are stored;
• (b) receiving an arbitrary facial image to be searched for from the DB;
• (c) performing the component-based PCA/ICA on the facial image to be searched for and generating second feature information;
• (d) sequentially reading facial images stored in the DB, and performing the component-based PCA/ICA on the read facial images and generating second feature information;
• (e) comparing the second feature information corresponding to the facial image read from the DB with the second feature information corresponding to the facial image to be searched for, and determining whether the two facial images are from the same person;
• (f) reading identification information corresponding to the facial image from the DB and outputting the same if it is determined that the two facial images are from the same person.

A method of searching for a face using component-based PCA/ICA, the method comprising:

• (a) constructing a database (DB) in which facial images of one or more persons and identification information of the persons are stored;
• (b) receiving an arbitrary facial image to be searched for from the DB;
• (c) performing the component-based PCA/ICA on the facial image to be searched for and generating second feature information;
• and
• (d) detecting the second feature information similar to the second feature information corresponding to the facial image to be searched for from the DB and outputting the same.

An apparatus of generating feature information using component-based PCA/ICA, the apparatus comprising:

• an image segmenting portion which segments a predetermined input original facial image by facial components contained in the input original facial image and generates segmented facial images;
• a low-pass filtered image generator which performs PCA on the segmented facial images and generates low-pass filtered images by removing high-frequency components from the input image;
• a residual image generator which subtracts the low-pass filtered images from the segmented images and generates residual images having only the high-frequency components;
• and
• an ICA coefficient matrix calculator which performs ICA on the residual images and generates pieces of first feature information corresponding to the segmented images, and generates pieces of second feature information as a set of the pieces of first feature information.

An apparatus of extracting a face using component-based PCA/ICA, the apparatus comprising:

• an input portion which receives a first facial image to be recognized and a second facial image as a basis for comparison with the first facial image;
• a feature information generator which performs component-based PCA/ICA on the first and second facial images and generates pieces of second feature information as a set of ICA coefficient matrices corresponding to the components;
• and
• a comparator which compares a piece of second feature information corresponding to the first facial image with that of the second facial image to determine whether there is a similarity therebetween, and outputs the determination result.

An apparatus of searching for a face using component-based PCA/ICA, the apparatus comprising:

• an input portion which receives facial images used in constructing a facial image information database (DB) or the facial image to be searched for included in the DB;
• a feature information generator which receive facial images from the input portion, performs the component-based PCA/ICA on the facial images and generating pieces of second feature information corresponding to the facial images;
• a DB managing portion which stores the second feature information corresponding to the facial images used in constructing the DB, supplied from the feature information generator, and manages the information to be stored in the DB;
• and
• a comparator which receives the second feature information corresponding to the facial image to be searched for from the feature information generator, searches for second feature information whose similarity with the received second feature information is greater than a predetermined reference value, and determines that the two facial images are from the same person.