Non-frontal Model Based Approach to Forensic Face Recognition

In this paper, we propose a non-frontal model based approach which ensures that a face recognition system always gets to compare images having similar view (or pose). This requires a virtual suspect reference set that consists of non-frontal suspect images having pose similar to the surveillance view trace image. We apply the 3D model reconstruction followed by image synthesis approach to the frontal view mug shot images in the suspect reference set in order to create such a virtual suspect reference set. This strategy not only ensures a stable 3D face model reconstruction because of the relatively good quality mug shot suspect images but also provides a practical solution for forensic cases where the trace is often of very low quality. For most face recognition algorithms, the relative pose difference between the test and reference image is one of the major causes of severe degradation in recognition performance. Moreover, given appropriate training, comparing a pair of non-frontal images is no more difficult that comparing frontal view images.