Face detection for AIBO using RBF network

We propose a face-tracking system for AIBO by using the skin color, in the first step of acquiring user's characteristics. In this paper, we focus on the human-face, which has many kinds of characteristic parts in a human. We detect faces using the Neural Network (NN) for the purpose of estimating whether one pixel is skin color or not. However, the hierarchical NN may give this system false recognition for unknown color of background. In this paper, we propose high generality face recognition system for AIBO using the radial basis function (RBF) network. Also, in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed method, we perform computer simulations. First of all, we can see the skin color recognition results using the RBF network. In various light conditions, we have the relatively good results of the skin color recognition. Furthermore, we show output value distribution in color space. We can see the possibility of dealing with unknown color using the RBF network. Moreover, we have achieved the skin color recognition for AIBO in a real system. We will show that AIBO can track skin color in many kinds of light conditions. © 2010 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.