Face detection using representation learning

Face representation is a crucial step of face detection system. In this paper, we present a fast face detection algorithm based on representation learnt using convolutional neural network (CNN) so as to explicitly capture various latent facial features. Firstly, in order to improve the speed of detection in the system, we train an Adaboost background filter which can remove the background most quickly. Secondly, we use the CNN to extract more distinctive features for those face and non-face patterns that have not been filtered by Adaboost. CNN can automatically learn and synthesize a problem-specific feature extractor from a training set, without making any assumptions or using any hand-made design concerning the features to extract or the areas of the face pattern to analyze. Finally, support vector machines (SVM) are used to detect instead of using the classification function of CNN itself. Extensive experiments demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of our system by comparing it with several popular face detection algorithms on the widely used CMU+MIT frontal face dataset and FDDB dataset. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.