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Skin Color Transfer for Race Related Face Indentification

Jingrong Jia(1)
Lijun Yin(1)
Joseph Morrissey(2)
(1)Department of Computer Science, Binghamton University
(2)Department of Psycology, Binghamton University

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This paper proposes race identification as the initial screening process for face recognition. To provide a tool for race-related psychological research, we attempt to find a general technique for transferring human skin colors of different races. The idea is to match the intensity values of two images and transfer the entire mood of the source image to the target image. Further enhancement can be achieved in two ways. One is facial multi-rgion subdivision to limit the color transfer between corresponding regions. The other is to use "region growing" method based on hue values for color transfer in sub-areas, such as lip, where H channel is dominant in determining pixel colors. The technique appears to be quite simple and results turn out to be encouraging. Our initial psychological experiments show that skin color is amongst one of the factors for race identification, but not the dominant one.




· MFC
· Image Layout
left-top: source image
right-top: target image
right bottom: result image
· Goal: transfer the skin color of source image to the skin of target image
· View Screen Shot
Input dialog 1 Input dialog 2 Input dialog 3 Output screen



Processing on some sample images

+ Source: White female, Target: Asian female
+ Source: Asian female, Target: White female
+ Source: Asian female, Target: Black female
+ Source: White male, Target: Asian male
+ Source: Asian male, Target: White female

Histograms of R, G, B channels

Psychological Testing Result
A psychological test was conducted by 12 volunteers of different races (e.g., students, faculties and psychologists including 4 whites, 4 blacks and 4 east-Asians) from the Department of Psychology and Department of Computer Science, SUNY at Binghamton. See table for result comparison.

(1) Test-I:
Test Method: Each viewer was given 9 original facial images (including 3 whites, 3 blacks and 3 east-Asians), and was asked to read the same set of face images in a week interval. Note that each viewer was given different set of 9 images.
Experiment Result: 10 out of 12 viewers were able to remember the 3 faces of their own race correctly, and 11 out of 12 viewers mis-recognized 6 faces of other-race.

(2) Test-II:
Test Method: Each viewer was given a new set of 9 color-transferred facial images, including 3 artificial-whites which were generated by our skin color-transfer process, i.e., the skin colors of 3 origin-whites were transferred to the 3 origin-black faces; 3 artificial-blacks which were generated by transferring skin colors of 3 origin-blacks to 3 faces of origin-whites; and 3 artificial-Asians by transferring skin colors of 3 origin-Asians to 3 faces of origin-whites. Each viewer was asked to read the same set of artificial-face images in a week interval.
Experiment Result: 6 out of 12 viewers (about 50%) were able to remember the 3 artificial-faces of their own color (not own-race) correctly, and 7 out of 12 viewers mis-recognized 6 faces of other-color (maybe even their own-race).
Own-race/color correct-recognition ratio Other-race/color mis-recognition ratio
Test I (Original) 83.3% 91.7%
Test II (Color-transferred) 50% 58.3%

back to Psycological Testing Result

- Source: White female, Target: Asian female
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White Female



Asian Female



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White Female



Asian Female



back to Image Testing Result

- Source: Asian female, Target: White female

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Asian Female


White Female


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Asian Female


White Female

back to Image Testing Result
- Source: Asian female, Target: Black female

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Asian Female


Black Female

back to Image Testing Result
- Source: White male, Target: Asian male
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White Male


Asian Male

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White Male


Asian Male

back to Image Testing Result
- Source: Asian male, Target: White male

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Asian Male


White Female

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Asian Male


White Male

back to Image Testing Result
Histogram
Top: original target image
Middle: source image
Bottom: color-manipulated target image Left: R channel,
Center: G channel,
Right: B channel


back to Testing Result
To obtain a database of testing images, please email webmaster



Other-race effect is affected by skin colors to a certain degree. Facial skin color is one of the aspects to influence race-related face identification and memorization, but not the dominant factor. Our future work will investigate more facial structure features combining the color feature for human race differentiation and race-related face identification.

- - - You are welcome to discuss this topic with us. For contact, please email lijun@cs.binghamton.edu - - -

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