Kernel Model Applied in Kernel Direct Discriminant Analysis for the Recognition of Face with Nonlinear Variations

A kernel-based discriminant analysis method called kernel direct discriminant analysis is employed, which combines the merit of direct linear discriminant analysis with that of kernel trick. In order to demonstrate its better robustness to the complex and nonlinear variations of real face images , such as illumination, facial expression, scale and pose variations, experiments are carried out on the Olivetti Research Laboratory, Yale and self-built face databases. The results indicate that in contrast to kernel principal component analysis and kernel linear discriminant analysis, the method can achieve lower (7%) error rate using only a very small set of features. Furthermore, a new corrected kernel model is proposed to improve the recognition performance. Experimental results confirm its superiority (1% in terms of recognition rate) to other polynomial kernel models.