Face Detection using Fusion of Skin Detection and Viola-Jones Face Detection

Face Detection is the first step of any automated face and facial expression recognition system. It is applied in many applications such as computer vision and biometric applications like face recognition, expression recognition and classification, security access systems, video surveillance, and intelligent human computer interaction. A false detection rate and slow detection speed remain major problems in face detection. In this paper, we present a method to avoid these problems, by combining skin detection and Viola and Jones Face detection. Skin detection is used to reject false positive. After determining all possible face candidate regions, the Viola Jones detector is applied to detect face. Our method has high detection rate and accuracy than an individual face detector. It can perform quiet well in complex background and varying lighting conditions when it is applied images with complex backgrounds. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method