Implementation and evaluation of Heskes self organizing map counter propagation network for face recognition

Face recognition has attracted a lot of interest in the fields of computer vision and pattern recognition given its extensive applications in security, surveillance, and human-computer interaction. Many linear and non-linear classifiers have been introduced to bring about effectiveness in face recognition, however, the problem of occlusion, light conditions and changes in face persist. The Heskes-self-organizing map (SOM) counter propagation network (CPN) model leverages the competitive learning and self-organizing features of SOM CPN with Heskes layer to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of face recognition systems. Heskes-SOM CPN was implemented and evaluated on MATLAB R2016a using 600 images captured with the aim of digital camera. The implemented model was trained with 360 face images and tested with 240 face images using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and false positive rate as performance metrics at four distinct threshold values of 0.23, 0.35, 0.50, and 0.75. The major objective of the research was achieved by investigating with 50×50 and 200×200 face dimensions. Empirical results and statistical evidence established that Heskes-SOM CPN has high accuracy of approximately 97.92%, high specificity of 98.33%, high sensitivity of 99.44%, and a very low filter performance rating (FPR) of 1.67%. Therefore, Heskes-SOM CPN is presented as a novel CPN model for face recognition.