Kernel Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis for Face Recognition

CHAPTTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. PREAMBLE

Face recognition is a task so common to humans, that the individual does not even notice the extensive number of times it is performed every day. Although research in automated face recognition has been conducted since the 1960’s, it has only recently caught the attention of the scientific community. Many face analysis and face modeling techniques have progressed significantly in the last decade (Yan and Zhang, 2005). However, the reliability of face recognition schemes still poses a great challenge to the scientific community.

Falsification of identity cards or intrusions of physical and virtual areas by cracking alphanumerical passwords appear frequently in the media. These problems of modern society have triggered a real necessity for reliable, user-friendly and widely acceptable control mechanisms for the identification and verification of the individual (Fagertun, 2005)

Biometrics, which is based on authentication on the intrinsic aspects of a specific human being, appears as a viable alternative to more traditional approaches (such as PIN codes or passwords). Among the oldest biometric techniques is fingerprint recognition. This technique was used in China as early as 700 AD for official certification of contracts. Later on, in the middle of the 19th century, it was used for identification of persons in Europe (Heindl, 1922). A currently developed biometric technique is iris recognition (Daugman, 2002). This technique is now used instead of passport identification for frequent flyers in some airports in United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands. As well as for access control of employees to restricted areas in Canadian airports and in the New York JFK airport. These techniques are inconvenient due to the necessity of interaction with the individual who is to be identified or authenticated. Face recognition on the other hand can be a non-intrusive...