An Automatic Ear Detection Method Based on Improved GVF Snake
LI Yi-Bo1,HUANG Zeng-Xi1,ZHANG Hai-Jun1,MU Zhi-Chun2
1.College of Automation,Shenyang Aerospace University,Shenyang 110136 2.School of Information Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing 100083
Abstract In recent years the biological characteristic research of human ear can only rely on manual positioning and segmentation, which is one obstruction in the practice process of human ear recognition technology. A method of human ear automatic detection is presented in this paper. Firstly, it detects the human ear pieces by taking advantage of YCbCr Skin-Color Model and Gentle AdaBoost cascade classifier, and then uses the improved GVF Snake method to extract the external ear contour. The method extracts the initial contour very close to the actual edge of human ear by building up the ear-shaped map. Accordingly, it not only saves iteration time, but also improves the accuracy of external ear detection in way of GVF Snake. About 97.3% of the correct detection rate is obtained on USTB ear database in our experiment. The experiment results show that the approach has better detection performance and robustness.
[1] Yuan Li, Mu Zhichun, Xu Zhengguang, et al. Personal Recognition with Ear Biometrics. Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, 2005, 18(3): 310-315 (in Chinese) (袁 立,穆志纯,徐正光,等.基于人耳生物特征的身份识别.模式识别与人工智能, 2005, 18(3): 310-315) [2] Arbab-Zavar B, Nixon M S. On Shape-Mediated Enrolment in Ear Biometrics // Proc of the 3rd International Symposium on Advances in Visual Computing. Lake Tahoe, USA, 2007: 549-558 [3] Zhao Yi, Mu Zhicun, Liu Ke. Real-Time Ear Tracking Based on both Skin-Color and Contour Information. Journal of Image and Graphics, 2006, 11(7): 949-953 (in Chinese) (赵 祎,穆志纯,刘 克.基于肤色及轮廓信息的人耳实时检测与跟踪.中国图象图形学报, 2006, 11(7): 949-953) [4] Abdel-Mottaleb M, Zhou Jindan. Human Ear Recognition from Face Profile Images // Proc of the International Conference on Advances in Biometrics. Hongkong, China, 2005: 786-792 [5] Yan Ping, Bowyer K W. Biometric Recognition Using 3D Ear Shape. IEEE Trans on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2007, 29(8): 1297-1308 [6] Zhang Wei, Mu Zhichu, Yuan Li. Fast Ear Detection and Tracking Based on Improved AdaBoost Algorithm. Journal of Image and Graphics, 2007, 12(2): 222-227 (in Chinese) (张 惟,穆志纯,袁 立.基于改进AdaBoost 算法的人耳检测与跟踪.中国图象图形学报, 2007, 12(2): 222-227) [7] Islam S M S, Bennamoun M, Davies R. Fast and Fully Automatic Ear Detection Using Cascaded AdaBoost // Proc of the IEEE Workshop on Application of Computer Vision. Copper Mountain, USA, 2008: 1-6 [8] Kass M, Wifkin A, Terzopouls D. Snake: Active Contour Models. International Journal of Computer Vision, 1987, 1(4): 321-331 [9] Xu Chenyang, Prince J L. Gradient Vector Flow: A New External Force for Snakes // Proc of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recogniton. Los Alamitos, USA, 1997: 66-71 [10] Xu Chenyang, Prince J L. Snakes, Shapes, and Gradient Vector Flow. IEEE Trans on Image Processing, 1998, 7(3): 359-369 [11] Zhang Honglin. Visual C++ Pattern Recognition Technology Based on Digital Image and the Engineering Practice. Beijing, China: Posts and Telecom Press, 2003: 364-373 (in Chinese) (张宏林.Visual C++ 数字图像模式识别技术及工程实践.北京:人民邮电出版社, 2003: 364-373) [12] Viola P, Jones M. Robust Real-Time Object Detection. International Journal of Computer Vision, 2004, 57(2): 137-154 [13] Lienhart R, Kuranov A, Pisarcvsky V. Empirical Analysis of Detection Cascades of Boosted Classifiers for Rapid Object Detection // Proc of the 25th German Pattern Recognition Symposium. Magdeburg, Germany, 2003: 297-304 [14] Bradski G, Kaehler A. Learning OpenCV. California, USA: OReilly Press, 2008 [15] Fitzgibbon A, Pilu M, Fisher R B. Direct Lease-Square Fitting of Ellipses. IEEE Trans on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 1999, 21(5): 476-480 [16] Zhang Haijun. Research on Key Technology in Ear Recognition. Ph. D Dissertation. Beijing, China: University of Science Technology Beijing. School of Information Engineering, 2006 (in Chinese) (张海军.人耳识别技术.博士学位论文.北京科技大学.信息工程学院, 2006) [17] Tian Ying, Wang Lijun, Yuan Weiqi. New Ear Contour Extraction Method Based on Edge Feature. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2007, 34(4): 39-43 (in Chinese) (田 莹,王丽君,苑玮琪.一种基于边界特征的耳廓提取新方法.光电工程, 2007, 34(4): 39-43)
2010, Vol. 23 
