¡¡	Chinese Journal of Computers   Full Text
Title	A Survey of Skin Color Detection
Authors	CHEN Duan-Sheng1),2) LIU Zheng-Kai1)
Address	1)(Department of Electronic Engineering and Information Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027) 2)(Department of Computer Science, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021)
Year	2006
Issue	No.2(194¡ª207)
Abstract &   Background	Skin color detection has many applications in tasks like detecting and tracking human faces and gestures, filtering web image contents, retrieving people in databases and Internet, and diagnosing diseases. This paper comprehensively surveys the skin color detection techniques by dividing them into statistics-based and physics-based approaches. Important aspects of skin color detection are discussed, including color space selection, static and dynamic skin color modeling, skin reflection models, and visual and infrared skin spectrum. Based on the discussion, the color space selection is related to feature exaction and classification methods. The selection of color space is actually the selection of a feature base for the classification; and features are not independent from the classifier, so how well they cooperate can affect the overall performance of the classification system. Therefore, it is of little significance to discuss the optimal color space for skin color detection without considering the methods of skin color modeling and the principle and implementation of the classifier. A successful dynamic skin color model should be able to work well under varying illumination, which is also the precondition for a skin color detection system to work properly outdoors. Physics-based skin color detection should study skin reflection model or skin spectrum, the combination of reflected and emitted data will essentially improve the performance of skin color detection system. The major challenge of skin color detection techniques is how to deal properly with different illumination conditions and complex background. The further research directions of the skin color detection techniques include intercrossing related disciplines, fusing related algorithms and combining related features. It is a trend to integrate physics-based techniques in statistics-based skin detection techniques in high end applications. keywords skin color detection; skin color modeling; reflection model; skin spectrum; computer vision Background This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian, China under grant Noª±A0510020 and the Key International S&T Cooperation Project of Fujian, China under grant Noª±2004I014. The projects focus on pattern classification techniques supporting intelligent detection and recognition of text and image patterns on the Web. In the past years, the authors have researched and developed several novel techniques for human skin color detection under complex illumination condition and face detection. As the primary stage of the research projects, the content of this paper mainly helps to focus attention on interested regions in color images.