Race Recognition Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Face Recognition Based on Deep Learning and FPGA for Ethnicity Identification

In the last decade, there has been a surge of interest in addressing complex Computer Vision (CV) problems in the field of face recognition (FR). In particular, one of the most difficult ones is based on the accurate determination of the ethnicity of mankind. In this regard, a new classification method using Machine Learning (ML) tools is proposed in this paper. Specifically, a new Deep Learning (DL) approach based on a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) model is developed, which outperforms a reliable determination of the ethnicity of people based on their facial features. However, it is necessary to make use of specialized high-performance computing (HPC) hardware to build a workable DCNN-based FR system due to the low computation power given by the current central processing units (CPUs). Recently, the latter approach has increased the efficiency of the network in terms of power usage and execution time. Then, the usage of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) was considered in this work. The performance of the new DCNN-based FR method using FPGA was compared against that using graphics processing units (GPUs). The experimental results considered an image dataset composed of 3141 photographs of citizens from three distinct countries. To our knowledge, this is the first image collection gathered specifically to address the ethnicity identification problem. Additionally, the ethnicity dataset was made publicly available as a novel contribution to this work. Finally, the experimental results proved the high performance provided by the proposed DCNN model using FPGAs, achieving an accuracy level of 96.9 percent and an F1 score of 94.6 percent while using a reasonable amount of energy and hardware resources.

Automatic Ethnicity Classification from Middle Part of the Face Using Convolutional Neural Networks

In the field of face biometrics, finding the identity of a person in an image is most researched, but there are other, soft biometric information that are equally as important, such as age, gender, ethnicity or emotion. Nowadays, ethnicity classification has a wide application area and is a prolific area of research. This paper gives an overview of recent advances in ethnicity classification with focus on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and proposes a new ethnicity classification method using only the middle part of the face and CNN. The paper also compares the differences in results of CNN with and without plotted landmarks. The proposed model was tested using holdout testing method on UTKFace dataset and FairFace dataset. The accuracy of the model was 80.34% for classification into five classes and 61.74% for classification into seven classes, which is slightly better than state-of-the-art, but it is also important to note that results in this paper are obtained by using only the middle part of the face which reduces the time and resources necessary.

Racial Identity-Aware Facial Expression Recognition Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Multi-culture facial expression recognition remains challenging due to cross cultural variations in facial expressions representation, caused by facial structure variations and culture specific facial characteristics. In this research, a joint deep learning approach called racial identity aware deep convolution neural network is developed to recognize the multicultural facial expressions. In the proposed model, a pre-trained racial identity network learns the racial features. Then, the racial identity aware network and racial identity network jointly learn the racial identity aware facial expressions. By enforcing the marginal independence of facial expression and racial identity, the proposed joint learning approach is expected to be purer for the expression and be robust to facial structure and culture specific facial characteristics variations. For the reliability of the proposed joint learning technique, extensive experiments were performed with racial identity features and without racial identity features. Moreover, culture wise facial expression recognition was performed to analyze the effect of inter-culture variations in facial expression representation. A large scale multi-culture dataset is developed by combining the four facial expression datasets including JAFFE, TFEID, CK+ and RaFD. It contains facial expression images of Japanese, Taiwanese, American, Caucasian and Moroccan cultures. We achieved 96% accuracy with racial identity features and 93% accuracy without racial identity features.

Deep Learning Approach for Screening Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children with Facial Images and Analysis of Ethnoracial Factors in Model Development and Application

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges. Early intervention for children with ASD can help to improve their intellectual ability and reduces autistic symptoms. Multiple clinical researches have suggested that facial phenotypic differences exist between ASD children and typically developing (TD) children. In this research, we propose a practical ASD screening solution using facial images through applying VGG16 transfer learning-based deep learning to a unique ASD dataset of clinically diagnosed children that we collected. Our model produced a 95% classification accuracy and 0.95 F1-score. The only other reported study using facial images to detect ASD was based on the Kaggle ASD Facial Image Dataset, which is an internet search-produced, low-quality, and low-fidelity dataset. Our results support the clinical findings of facial feature differences between children with ASD and TD children. The high F1-score achieved indicates that it is viable to use deep learning models to screen children with ASD. We concluded that the racial and ethnic-related factors in deep-learning based ASD screening with facial images are critical to solution viability and accuracy.

Multiple Electric Energy Consumption Forecasting Using a Cluster-Based Strategy for Transfer Learning in Smart Building

Electric energy consumption forecasting is an interesting, challenging, and important issue in energy management and equipment efficiency improvement. Existing approaches are predictive models that have the ability to predict for a specific profile, i.e., a time series of a whole building or an individual household in a smart building. In practice, there are many profiles in each smart building, which leads to time-consuming and expensive system resources. Therefore, this study develops a robust framework for the Multiple Electric Energy Consumption forecasting (MEC) of a smart building using Transfer Learning and Long Short-Term Memory (TLL), the so-called MEC-TLL framework. In this framework, we first employ a k-means clustering algorithm to cluster the daily load demand of many profiles in the training set. In this phase, we also perform Silhouette analysis to specify the optimal number of clusters for the experimental datasets. Next, this study develops the MEC training algorithm, which utilizes a cluster-based strategy for transfer learning the Long Short-Term Memory models to reduce the computational time. Finally, extensive experiments are conducted to compare the computational time and different performance metrics for multiple electric energy consumption forecasting on two smart buildings in South Korea. The experimental results indicate that our proposed approach is capable of economical overheads while achieving superior performances. Therefore, the proposed approach can be applied effectively for intelligent energy management in smart buildings.

Exploiting the Symmetry of Integral Transforms for Featuring Anuran Calls

The application of machine learning techniques to sound signals requires the previous characterization of said signals. In many cases, their description is made using cepstral coefficients that represent the sound spectra. In this paper, the performance in obtaining cepstral coefficients by two integral transforms, Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), are compared in the context of processing anuran calls. Due to the symmetry of sound spectra, it is shown that DCT clearly outperforms DFT, and decreases the error representing the spectrum by more than 30%. Additionally, it is demonstrated that DCT-based cepstral coefficients are less correlated than their DFT-based counterparts, which leads to a significant advantage for DCT-based cepstral coefficients if these features are later used in classification algorithms. Since the DCT superiority is based on the symmetry of sound spectra and not on any intrinsic advantage of the algorithm, the conclusions of this research can definitely be extrapolated to include any sound signal.