Fast modular neural nets for detection of human faces

In this paper, a new approach to reduce the computation time taken by neural nets for the searching process is introduced. We combine both fast and cooperative modular neural nets to enhance the detection process performance. Such an approach is applied to identify human faces automatically in cluttered scenes. In the detection phase, neural nets are used to test whether a window of 20/spl times/20 pixels contains a face or not. The major difficulty in the learning process comes from the large database required for face/nonface images. A simple design for cooperative modular neural nets is presented to solve this problem by dividing these data into three groups. Such division results in reduction of computational complexity and thus decreasing the time and memory needed during the test of an image. Simulation results for the proposed algorithm show good performance.