Person-independent facial expression recognition method based on improved Wasserstein generative adversarial networks in combination with identity aware

Since the distinction between two expressions is fairly vague, usually a subtle change in one part of the human face is enough to change a facial expression. Most of the existing facial expression recognition algorithms are not robust enough because they rely on general facial features or algorithms without considering differences between facial expression and facial identity. In this paper, we propose a person-independent recognition method based on Wasserstein generative adversarial networks for micro-facial expressions, where a facial expression recognition network and a facial identity recognition network are established to improve the accuracy and robustness of facial expression recognition via inhibition of intra-class variation. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that 90% average recognition accuracy of facial expression has been reached on a mixed dataset composed of CK+, Multi-PIE, and JAFFE. Moreover, our method achieves 96% accuracy of person-independent recognition on CK+. A 4.5% performance gain is achieved with the novel identity-inhibited expression feature. The proposed algorithm in this paper has been successfully applied to Haikang Visual Integrated Management Platform (iVMS-8700). At present, it runs well and can effectively recognize facial expressions.