Face Recognition Apparatus and Methods

Apparatus, comprising:

• a computer-readable medium (144, 148) storing computer-readable instructions;
• and
• a data processor (142) coupled to the computer-readable medium, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising
• detecting a face region in an input image (24);
• assigning to the face region one or more facial recognition categories each of which is associated with a respective set of one or more different feature extraction modules (66) and a respective set of one or more different facial recognition matching modules (76);
• for each of the facial recognition categories assigned to the face region, processing the input image (24) with each of the feature extraction modules (66) associated with the facial recognition category to produce a respective facial region descriptor vector of facial region descriptor values characterizing the face region;
• and
• determining a recognition result between the face region and a reference face image (28) based on application of the facial recognition matching modules (76) associated with the facial recognition categories assigned to the face region to the facial region descriptor vectors produced for the face region detected in the input image (24)

At least one computer-readable medium (144, 148) having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer (140) to implement a method comprising:

• detecting a face region in an input image (24);
• assigning to the face region one or more facial recognition categories each of which is associated with a respective set of one or more different feature extraction modules (66) and a respective set of one or more different facial recognition matching modules (76);
• for each of the facial recognition categories assigned to the face region, processing the input image (24) with each of the feature extraction modules (66) associated with the facial recognition category to produce a respective facial region descriptor vector of facial region descriptor values characterizing the face region;
• and
• determining a recognition result between the face region and a reference face image (28) based on application of the facial recognition matching modules (76) associated with the facial recognition categories assigned to the face region to the facial region descriptor vectors produced for the face region detected in the input image (24).