Objects and Action Detection of Human Faces through Thermal Images Using ANU-Net

Abstract

Thermal cameras, as opposed to RBG cameras, work effectively in extremely low illumination situations and can record data outside of the human visual spectrum. For surveillance and security applications, thermal images have several benefits. However, due to the little visual information in thermal images and intrinsic similarity of facial heat maps, completing face identification tasks in the thermal realm is particularly difficult. It can be difficult to attempt identification across modalities, such as when trying to identify a face in thermal images using the ground truth database for the matching visible light domain or vice versa. We proposed a method for detecting objects and actions on thermal human face images, based on the classification of five different features (hat, glasses, rotation, normal, and hat with glasses) in this paper. This model is presented in five steps. To improve the results of feature extraction during the pre-processing step, initially, we resize the images and then convert them to grayscale level using a median filter. In addition, features are extracted from pre-processed images using principle component analysis (PCA). Furthermore, the horse herd optimization algorithm (HOA) is employed for feature selection. Then, to detect the human face in thermal images, the LeNet-5 method is used. It is utilized to detect objects and actions in face areas. Finally, we classify the objects and actions on faces using the ANU-Net approach with the Monarch butterfly optimization (MBO) algorithm to achieve higher classification accuracy. According to experiments using the Terravic Facial Infrared Database, the proposed method outperforms “state-of-the-art” methods for face recognition in thermal images. Additionally, the results for several facial recognition tasks demonstrate good precision.

Keywords

• deep learning
• thermal face recognition
• thermal image
• pre-processing
• feature extraction
• detection