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Energy-based blob analysis for improving precision of skin segmentation

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Abstract

This paper addresses a problem of precise skin segmentation necessary for sign language recognition purposes. The main contribution of the presented research is an adaptive skin model enhanced with a blob analysis algorithm which significantly reduces false positives and improves skin segmentation precision. Adaptive skin detector utilizes a statistical skin color model updated dynamically based on a face region defined by eye positions. Face geometry is used for face and eye detection in luminance channel prior to the model adaptation. Color-based skin detectors classify every pixel separately which results in high false positives for background pixels which color is similar to human skin. The proposed blob analysis technique verifies detected skin regions by taking into account pixel topology. The experiments for ECU database showed that with the proposed approach false positive rate was reduced from 15.6% to 6% compared with a statistical model in RGB, which can be regarded as a significant improvement.

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  1. Institute of Informatics, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland

    Michal Kawulok

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  1. Michal Kawulok
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Correspondence to Michal Kawulok.

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Kawulok, M. Energy-based blob analysis for improving precision of skin segmentation. Multimed Tools Appl 49, 463–481 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-009-0444-z

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