Automatic Face Tracking based on Active Contour Model using Two-Level Composite Gradient Map

In this paper, we propose a construction technique of two-level composite gradient map to automatically track a face with large movement in successive frames. Our method is composed of three main steps. First, the gradient maps with two-level resolution are generated for fast convergence of active contour. Second, to recognize the variations of face between successive frames and remove the neighbor background, weighted composite gradient map is generated by combining the composite gradient map and difference mask of previous and current frames. Third, to prevent active contour from converging local minima, the energy slope is generated by using closing operation. In addition, the fast closing operation is proposed to accelerate the processing time of closing operation. For performance evaluation, we compare our method with previous active contour model-based face tracking methods using a visual inspection, robustness test and processing time. Experimental results show that our method can effectively track the face with large movement and robustly converge to the optimal position even in frames with complicated background.