US Patent 9047504 Combined cues for face detection in computing devices

Approaches to enable a computing device, such as a phone or tablet computer, to utilize a number of cues to detect the presence of a face (or head) in an image captured by a camera of the computing device. The cues may include the elliptical shape of the face, the stereo disparity signature of the face, color or image brightness, among others. The facial detection may be performed by using a boosted classifier ensemble that has been trained using a plurality of images that are known (i.e., have been previously identified) to contain faces. The classifier ensemble can combine a number of different cues, such as the elliptical shape and/or stereo disparity signature, to be used for detecting faces within an image.