Age transformation based on deep learning: a survey

Age transformation aims to preserve personalized facial information while altering a given face to appear at a target age. This technique finds extensive applications in fields such as face recognition, movie special effects, and social entertainment, among others. With the advancement of deep learning, particularly Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), research on age transformation has made significant progress, leading to the emergence of a diverse range of deep learning-based methods. However, a comprehensive and systematic literature review of these methods is currently lacking. In this survey, we provide an all-encompassing review of deep learning methods for facial aging. Firstly, we summarize the key aspects of feature preservation during the age transformation process. Subsequently, we present a comprehensive overview of facial age transformation techniques, categorized according to various deep learning network architectures. Additionally, we conduct an analysis and comparison of commonly used face image datasets, offering recommendations for dataset selection. Furthermore, we consolidate the qualitative and quantitative evaluation metrics commonly employed in age transformation methodologies through experimental assessment. Finally, we address potential areas of future research in age transformation methods, based on the current challenges and limitations.