Multi-frame super-resolution for face recognition

Face recognition at a distance is a challenging and important law-enforcement surveillance problem, with low image resolution and blur contributing to the difficulties. We present a method for combining a sequence of video frames of a subject in order to create a super-resolved image of the face with increased resolution and reduced blur. An Active Appearance Model (AAM) of face shape and appearance is fit to the face in each video frame. The AAM fit provides the registration used by a robust image super-resolution algorithm that iteratively solves for a higher resolution face image from a set of video frames. This process is tested with real-world outdoor video using a PTZ camera and a commercial face recognition engine. Both improved visual perception and automatic face recognition performance are observed in these experiments.