Face detection based on a human attention guided multi-scale model.

Multiscale models are among the cutting-edge technologies used for face detection and recognition. An example is Deformable part-based models (DPMs), which encode a face as a multiplicity of local areas (parts) at different resolution scales and their hierarchical and spatial relationship. Although these models have proven successful and incredibly efficient in practical applications, the mutual position and spatial resolution of the parts involved are arbitrarily defined by a human specialist and the final choice of the optimal scales and parts is based on heuristics. This work seeks to understand whether a multi-scale model can take inspiration from human fixations to select specific areas and spatial scales. In more detail, it shows that a multi-scale pyramid representation can be adopted to extract interesting points, and that human attention can be used to select the points at the scales that lead to the best face detection performance. Human fixations can therefore provide a valid methodological basis on which to build a multiscale model, by selecting the spatial scales and areas of interest that are most relevant to humans.