Dogface detection and localization of dogface’s landmarks

Abstract

The paper deals with an approach for a reliable dogface detection in an image using the convolutional neural networks. Two detectors were trained on a dataset containing 8351 real-world images of different dog breeds. The first detector achieved the average precision equal to 0.79 while running real-time on single CPU, the second one achieved the average precision equal to 0.98 but more time for processing is necessary. Consequently, the facial landmark detector using the cascade of regressors was proposed based on those, which are commonly used in human face detection. The proposed algorithm is able to detect dog’s eyes, a muzzle, a top of the head and inner bases of the ears with the 0.05 median location error normalized by the inter-ocular distance. The proposed two-step technique – a dogface detection with following facial landmark detector-could be utilized for a dog breeds identification and consequent auto-tagging and image searches. The paper demonstrates a real-world application of the proposed technique – a successful supporting system for taking pictures of dogs facing the camera. © 2019, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.