Enhanced Face Detection Based on Haar-Like and MB-LBP Features

The effective real-time face detection framework proposed by Viola and Jones gained much popularity due its computational efficiency and its simplicity. A notable variant replaces the original Haar-like features with MB-LBP (Multi-Block Local Binary Pattern) which are defined by the local binary pattern operator, both detector types are integrated into the OpenCV library. However, each descriptor and its evaluation method has its own set of strengths and setbacks. In this paper, an enhanced two-layer face detector composed of both Haar-like and MB-LBP features is presented. Haar-like features are employed as a coarse filter but with a new evaluation involving dual threshold. The already established MB-LBPs are arranged as the fine filter of the detector. The Gentle AdaBoost learning algorithm is deployed for the training of the proposed detector to reach the classification and performance potential. Experiments show that in the early stages of classification, Haar features with dual threshold are more discriminative than MB-LBP and original Haar-like features with respect to number of features required and computation. Benchmarking the proposed detector demonstrate overall 12% higher detection rate at 17% false alarm over using MB-LBP features singly while performing with ×3 speedup.