Method for locating face landmarks in an image

A method for locating face landmarks in an input image comprising the steps of:

• (a) locating a face region in the input image by means of skin color;
• (b) finding, from the face region, a plurality of feature regions having different colors from the skin color, so as to align the input image according to the feature regions thereby obtaining an aligned input image;
• (c) comparing the aligned input image with a reference image located with face landmarks by performing a plurality of comparisons between pixel rows Ri (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , m) of the reference image and pixel rows Tu (u=1, 2, 3, . . . , p) of the aligned input image for obtaining m x p distances d(Ri, Tu);
• and
• (d) in a first matrix formed of nodes (i,u) (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , m;
• and u=1, 2, 3, . . . , p), associating each node (i,u) with one of the distances d(Ri, Tu), and in a path from a starting point (1, 1) to an ending point (p, m) of the first matrix, finding a minimum accumulated value of the distances d(Ri, Tu) as a first optimal path, so as to obtain a correspondence between all pixel rows Ri of the reference image and all pixel rows Tu of the input image, thereby using the correspondence and the face landmarks of the reference image to find face landmarks of the aligned input image.