FACIAL FEATURES AND AXIS OF SYMMETRY EXTRACTED USING NATURAL ORIENTATION INFORMATION

We describe a method of extracting facial features using natural orientation information. The method uses the symbolic output from the ''MIRAGE'' algorithm (Watt and Morgan 1985), which supplies a list of zero-bounded regions in the band-pass filtered image. The eyes, nose, and mouth produce regions whose major axes of orientation are slightly positive or negative about the minor axis of the face, These orientations are characterized as a peak in the orientation histogram. The peak is reliably detected despite rotations and translation in the plane, size, individual differences, background, range of spatial frequencies, and lighting conditions. We use the regions comprising the orientation peak to locate the axis of symmetry of the face.