Face detection and emotional extraction system using double structure neural networks

We propose a new method to examine whether or not human faces are included in color images by using a lip detection neural network (LDNN) and a skin distinction neural network (SDNN). In conventional methods, if there exists the same color as the skin color in scenes, the domain which is accepted as not only the skin color but any other color can be searched. However, first, the lips are detected by LDNN in the proposed method. Next, SDNN is utilized to distinguish skin color from the other colors. The proposed method can obtain relatively high recognition accuracy, since it has the double recognition structure of LDNN and SDNN. Finally, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, computer simulations were performed. First, 100 lip color, 100 skin color and 100 background pictures, which are changed into 10/spl times/10 pixels, are prepared for training. The validity was verified by testing images containing several faces.