How can I detect faces using Ruby?

Question

Can anyone tell me how to detect faces in a static picture using Ruby or Javascript?

Answer 1

After some research and help from this thread I've decided to make a rubygem which can be found here:

EDIT: Unfortunately rekognize decided to discontinue their services making this Gem obsolete.

This uses the face recognition API from rekognition.com.

Answer 2

Since the other answers to that interesting question are mostly outdated now, here the 2012 solution:

Using jQuery with jquery.objectdetect:

$("#faces").objectdetect("all", {classifier: objectdetect.frontalface}, function(coords) {
    // Do something with the face coordinates
});

Using jQuery with jquery.facedetection:

var coords = $("#faces").faceDetection();
// Do something with the face coordinates

Not using jQuery: Both plugins are based on stand-alone libraries that do not depend on jQuery at all.

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In reply to @joeforker who said

"If you really don't understand that the notion JQuery can detect faces is a joke, you need to learn a lot before you will be ready to detect faces."

Or you just have to wait a year or two ;)

Answer 3

If you are going to try and write something from scratch, there is a great explanation of the process on the Carnegie Mellon Website - neat graphics too.

However, your best bet is probably trying to hook into the Opensource Computer Vision project. Here is a good tutorial on using OpenCV for facial recognition.