Head pose estimation by imperceptible structured light sensing

We describe a method of estimating head pose in space by imperceptible structured light sensing. Firstly, through elaborate pattern projection strategy and camera-projector synchronization, pattern-illuminated images of the subject and the corresponding scene-texture image are captured under imperceptible patterned illumination. 3D positions of the key facial feature points are then derived by a combined use of (1) the 2D facial feature points in the scene-texture image that are localized by AAM, and (2) the point cloud generated by structured light sensing. Eventually, the head orientation and translation are estimated by SVD of a correlation matrix that is generated from the 3D corresponding feature point pairs over the various image frames. Extensive experiments show that the proposed method is effective, accurate, and fast in 6-DOF head pose estimation, making it suitable for use in real-time applications.