Through connectivity in applied computer systems – ADMOS and MARWIN projects

The ADMOS project is funded by the EC and aims to develop a real-time gender classification and age estimation system to be used in private spaces for public use, such as shopping malls, fairs and outdoor events. The purpose is thus, the collection of demographic statistics for marketing purposes including the development of a customised human-computer interface. On top of requirements for real time processing, tracking faces in a public space raises serious privacy issues. A video frame contains images of faces, which by definition, are classed as personal data. The European Union has clear regulations on the acquisition and processing of personal data, which we are obliged to comply with. In this paper, we discuss how issues of fast computation in real time were solved through a combination of LBP-Local Binary Patterns and SVM-Support Vector Machines. Furthermore, we discuss how we were able to track anonymous faces over multiple frames using a method that satisfy EU regulations on privacy. Our solution uses a system of multi-level queues similar to multi-level feedback queues in operating systems. In recent review of the project in Brussels the reviewers suggested that our solution has the potential to set standards for future projects on face detection in public areas.