Hyperspectral face recognition for homeland security
Zhihong Pan, Glenn E. Healey, Manish Prasad, Bruce J. Tromberg · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2003
Hyperspectral sensors provide useful discriminants for human face recognition that cannot be obtained by other imaging methods. Near-infrared spectral measurements allow the sensing of subsurface tissue structure which is significantly different from person to person but relatively stable over time. The spectral properties of human tissue are also nearly invariant to changes in face orientation which bring significant degradation to most other face recognition algorithms. We examine the utility of using near-infrared hyperspectral images for the recognition of human subjects over a database of 200 subjects. The face recognition algorithm exploits spectral measurements for individual facial tissue types and combinations of facial tissue types. We demonstrate experimentally that hyperspectral imaging promises to support face recognition independent of facial expression and orientation.