Hierarchical Face Clustering using SIFT Image Features

In this paper an algorithm to cluster face images found in video sequences is proposed. A novel method for creating a dissimilarity matrix using SIFT image features is introduced. This dissimilarity matrix is used as an input in a hierarchical average linkage clustering algorithm, which yields the clustering result. Three well known clustering validity measures are provided to asses the quality of the resulting clustering, namely the F measure, the overall entropy (OE) and the Gamma statistic. The final result is found to be quite robust to significant scale, pose and illumination variations, encountered in facial images