Subclass linear discriminant analysis for video-based face recognition

We present a novel subclass Linear Discriminant Analysis algorithm for feature extraction that copes with the severe pose, expression and illumination changes present in faces extracted from far-field video streams with subjects unconstrained in their motion and uncooperative to the system. Our novelty lies on the efficient automatic generation of subclasses from the gallery faces, by exploiting their different visual appearance and not constrained by their numbers per class. The proposed feature extraction algorithm is integrated in our complete face recognition system, with modules for preprocessing, classification, and decision fusion. We demonstrate the capability of the new algorithm to automatically generate discriminable subclasses and the resulting improved classification accuracy on a challenging video-based dataset, comprising low quality and resolution faces, as well as large variations in visual appearance. Our results indicate superior recognition rate compared to any systems in the CLEAR 2007 evaluation, running on that dataset. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.