Andreas Lanitis

Bio: Andreas Lanitis is an academic researcher from Cyprus University of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Virtual reality & Facial recognition system. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 117 publications receiving 4864 citations. Previous affiliations of Andreas Lanitis include Cyprus College & University of Manchester.

Toward automatic simulation of aging effects on face images

Abstract: The process of aging causes significant alterations in the facial appearance of individuals When compared with other sources of variation in face images, appearance variation due to aging displays some unique characteristics Changes in facial appearance due to aging can even affect discriminatory facial features, resulting in deterioration of the ability of humans and machines to identify aged individuals We describe how the effects of aging on facial appearance can be explained using learned age transformations and present experimental results to show that reasonably accurate estimates of age can be made for unseen images We also show that we can improve our results by taking into account the fact that different individuals age in different ways and by considering the effect of lifestyle Our proposed framework can be used for simulating aging effects on new face images in order to predict how an individual might look like in the future or how he/she used to look in the past The methodology presented has also been used for designing a face recognition system, robust to aging variation In this context, the perceived age of the subjects in the training and test images is normalized before the training and classification procedure so that aging variation is eliminated Experimental results demonstrate that, when age normalization is used, the performance of our face recognition system can be improved

Automatic interpretation and coding of face images using flexible models

Abstract: Face images are difficult to interpret because they are highly variable. Sources of variability include individual appearance, 3D pose, facial expression, and lighting. We describe a compact parametrized model of facial appearance which takes into account all these sources of variability. The model represents both shape and gray-level appearance, and is created by performing a statistical analysis over a training set of face images. A robust multiresolution search algorithm is used to fit the model to faces in new images. This allows the main facial features to be located, and a set of shape, and gray-level appearance parameters to be recovered. A good approximation to a given face can be reconstructed using less than 100 of these parameters. This representation can be used for tasks such as image coding, person identification, 3D pose recovery, gender recognition, and expression recognition. Experimental results are presented for a database of 690 face images obtained under widely varying conditions of 3D pose, lighting, and facial expression. The system performs well on all the tasks listed above.

Comparing different classifiers for automatic age estimation

Abstract: We describe a quantitative evaluation of the performance of different classifiers in the task of automatic age estimation. In this context, we generate a statistical model of facial appearance, which is subsequently used as the basis for obtaining a compact parametric description of face images. The aim of our work is to design classifiers that accept the model-based representation of unseen images and produce an estimate of the age of the person in the corresponding face image. For this application, we have tested different classifiers: a classifier based on the use of quadratic functions for modeling the relationship between face model parameters and age, a shortest distance classifier, and artificial neural network based classifiers. We also describe variations to the basic method where we use age-specific and/or appearance specific age estimation methods. In this context, we use age estimation classifiers for each age group and/or classifiers for different clusters of subjects within our training set. In those cases, part of the classification procedure is devoted to choosing the most appropriate classifier for the subject/age range in question, so that more accurate age estimates can be obtained. We also present comparative results concerning the performance of humans and computers in the task of age estimation. Our results indicate that machines can estimate the age of a person almost as reliably as humans.

Active shape models: evaluation of a multi-resolution method for improving image search

Abstract: We describe a multi-resolution technique for locating for variable structures in images. This is an extension of work on Active Shape Models (ASMs) - statistical models which iteratively deform to match image data. An ASM consists of a shape model controlling a set of landmark points, together with a statistical model of the grey-levels expected around each landmark. Both the shape model and the grey-level models are trained on sets of labelled example images. In order to apply a coarse-to-fine search strategy it is necessary to train a set of grey-level models for each landmark, one for every level of a multi-resolution image pyramid. During image search the model is started on the coarsest resolution image. As the search progresses it moves to finer and finer resolutions until no further improvement can be made. We describe an automatic technique for deciding when to :ss has converged. We demonstrate the ntitative experiments which show a sigi speed and quality of fit compared to previous methods.

Eigenfaces vs. Fisherfaces: recognition using class specific linear projection

Abstract: We develop a face recognition algorithm which is insensitive to large variation in lighting direction and facial expression. Taking a pattern classification approach, we consider each pixel in an image as a coordinate in a high-dimensional space. We take advantage of the observation that the images of a particular face, under varying illumination but fixed pose, lie in a 3D linear subspace of the high dimensional image space-if the face is a Lambertian surface without shadowing. However, since faces are not truly Lambertian surfaces and do indeed produce self-shadowing, images will deviate from this linear subspace. Rather than explicitly modeling this deviation, we linearly project the image into a subspace in a manner which discounts those regions of the face with large deviation. Our projection method is based on Fisher's linear discriminant and produces well separated classes in a low-dimensional subspace, even under severe variation in lighting and facial expressions. The eigenface technique, another method based on linearly projecting the image space to a low dimensional subspace, has similar computational requirements. Yet, extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed "Fisherface" method has error rates that are lower than those of the eigenface technique for tests on the Harvard and Yale face databases.

Sequential Monte Carlo methods in practice

Abstract: Monte Carlo methods are revolutionizing the on-line analysis of data in fields as diverse as financial modeling, target tracking and computer vision. These methods, appearing under the names of bootstrap filters, condensation, optimal Monte Carlo filters, particle filters and survival of the fittest, have made it possible to solve numerically many complex, non-standard problems that were previously intractable. This book presents the first comprehensive treatment of these techniques, including convergence results and applications to tracking, guidance, automated target recognition, aircraft navigation, robot navigation, econometrics, financial modeling, neural networks, optimal control, optimal filtering, communications, reinforcement learning, signal enhancement, model averaging and selection, computer vision, semiconductor design, population biology, dynamic Bayesian networks, and time series analysis. This will be of great value to students, researchers and practitioners, who have some basic knowledge of probability. Arnaud Doucet received the Ph. D. degree from the University of Paris-XI Orsay in 1997. From 1998 to 2000, he conducted research at the Signal Processing Group of Cambridge University, UK. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Melbourne University, Australia. His research interests include Bayesian statistics, dynamic models and Monte Carlo methods. Nando de Freitas obtained a Ph.D. degree in information engineering from Cambridge University in 1999. He is presently a research associate with the artificial intelligence group of the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are in Bayesian statistics and the application of on-line and batch Monte Carlo methods to machine learning. Neil Gordon obtained a Ph.D. in Statistics from Imperial College, University of London in 1993. He is with the Pattern and Information Processing group at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in the United Kingdom. His research interests are in time series, statistical data analysis, and pattern recognition with a particular emphasis on target tracking and missile guidance.

Face recognition: A literature survey

Abstract: As one of the most successful applications of image analysis and understanding, face recognition has recently received significant attention, especially during the past several years. At least two reasons account for this trend: the first is the wide range of commercial and law enforcement applications, and the second is the availability of feasible technologies after 30 years of research. Even though current machine recognition systems have reached a certain level of maturity, their success is limited by the conditions imposed by many real applications. For example, recognition of face images acquired in an outdoor environment with changes in illumination and/or pose remains a largely unsolved problem. In other words, current systems are still far away from the capability of the human perception system.This paper provides an up-to-date critical survey of still- and video-based face recognition research. There are two underlying motivations for us to write this survey paper: the first is to provide an up-to-date review of the existing literature, and the second is to offer some insights into the studies of machine recognition of faces. To provide a comprehensive survey, we not only categorize existing recognition techniques but also present detailed descriptions of representative methods within each category. In addition, relevant topics such as psychophysical studies, system evaluation, and issues of illumination and pose variation are covered.

Active appearance models

Abstract: We describe a new method of matching statistical models of appearance to images. A set of model parameters control modes of shape and gray-level variation learned from a training set. We construct an efficient iterative matching algorithm by learning the relationship between perturbations in the model parameters and the induced image errors.