Real-time face recognition with GPUs: A DCT-based face recognition system using graphics processing unit

Abstract

In this paper, we present an implementation of a 2-D DCT-based face recognition system, which uses a high performance parallel computing architecture, based on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Comparisons between the GPU-based and the “gold” CPU-based implementation in terms of execution time have been made. They show that the GPU implementation (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250) is about 50 times faster than the CPU-based one (Intel Dual Core 1.83GHz), allowing the real-time operation of the developed face recognition system. Additionally, comparisons of the DCT-based approach with the PCA-based face recognition methodology shows that the DCT-based approach can achieve comparable recognition hit rates.