Classifying images of faces by gender

Abstract

A method classifies images of faces according to gender. Training images of male and female faces are supplied to a vector support machine. A small number of support vectors are determined from the training images. The support vectors identify a hyperplane. After training, a test image is supplied to the support vector machine. The test image is classified according to the gender of the test image with respect to the hyperplane.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A method for classifying images of faces according to gender, comprising the steps of: 
 supplying a vector support machine with a plurality of training images, the training images including images of male and female faces;    determining a plurality of support vectors from the training images for identifying a hyperplane;    supplying the support vector machine with a test image; and    classifying the gender of the test image with respect to the hyperplane.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of: 
 scaling the training images to locate the faces; and  
 warping the scaled images to locate facial features.  
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the facial features include hair, and further comprising the steps of: 
 masking the scaled images to reduce the amount of hair.  
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of: 
 reducing the resolution of the training images and the test image by sub-sampling before supplying the images to the support vector machine.  
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of: 
 maximizing a distance between the support vectors and error margins of the hyperplane.