Reliable facial expression recognition for multi-scale images using weber local binary image based cosine transform features

Accurate recognition of facial expression is a challenging problem especially from multi-scale and multi orientation face images. In this article, we propose a novel technique called Weber Local Binary Image Cosine Transform (WLBI-CT). WLBI-CT extracts and integrates the frequency components of images obtained through Weber local descriptor and local binary descriptor. These frequency components help in accurate classification of various facial expressions in the challenging domain of multi-scale and multi-orientation facial images. Identification of significant feature set plays a vital role in the success of any facial expression recognition system. Effect of multiple feature sets with varying block sizes has been investigated using different multi-scale images taken from well-known JAFEE, MMI and CK+ datasets. Extensive experimentation has been performed to demonstrate that the proposed technique outperforms the contemporary techniques in terms of recognition rate and computational time.