• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.43 no.4 s.310
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• pp.58-66
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• 2006

In this paper, we apply DCM(Dilation of Color and Motion information) mask and Active Contour Models(Snakes) to extract facial outline in moving pictures with complex background. First, we propose DCM mask which is made by applying morphology dilation and AND operation to combine facial color and motion information, and use this mask to detect facial region without complex background and to remove noise in image energy. Also, initial curves are automatically set according to rotational degree estimated with geometric ratio of facial elements to overcome the demerit of Active Contour Models which is sensitive to initial curves. And edge intensity and brightness are both used as image energy of snakes to extract contour at parts with weak edges. For experiments, we acquired total 480 frames with various head-poses of sixteen persons with both eyes shown by taking pictures in inner space and also by capturing broadcasting images. As a result, it showed that more elaborate facial contour is extracted at average processing time of 0.28 seconds when using interpolated initial curves according to facial rotation degree and using combined image energy of edge intensity and brightness.