Features for robust face-based identity verification

In this paper we propose the discrete cosine transform (DCT) mod2 feature set, which utilizes polynomial coefficients derived from 2D DCT coefficients obtained from spatially neighboring blocks. Face verification results on the multi-session VidTIMIT database suggest that the DCT-mod 2 feature set is superior (in terms of robustness to illumination direction changes and discrimination ability) to features extracted using three popular methods: eigenfaces principal component analysis, 2D DCT and 2D Gabor wavelets. Moreover, compared to Gabor wavelets, the DCT-mod 2 feature set is over 80 times faster to compute. Additional experiments on the Weizmann database also show that the DCT-mod 2 approach is more robust than 2D Gabor wavelets and 2D DCT coefficients. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.