人脸检测的研究具有重要的学术价值，人脸是一类具有相当复杂的细节变化的自然结构目标，对此类目标的挑战性在于：人脸由于外貌、表情、肤色等不同，具有模式的可变性；一般意义下的人脸上，可能存在眼镜、胡须等附属物；作为三维物体的人脸影像不可避免地受由光照产生的阴影的影响。因此，如果能够找到解决这些问题的方法，成功地构造出人脸检测系统，将为解决其他类似的复杂模式的检测问题提供重要的启示。-Face detection can be regarded as a specific case of object-class detection. In object-class detection, the task is to find the locations and sizes of all objects in an image that belong to a given class. Examples include upper torsos, pedestrians, and cars.

Face detection can be regarded as a more general case of face localization. In face localization, the task is to find the locations and sizes of a known number of faces (usually one). In face detection, one does not have this additional information.

Early face-detection algorithms focused on the detection of frontal human faces, whereas newer algorithms attempt to solve the more general and difficult problem of multi-view face detection. That is, the detection of faces that are either rotated along the axis from the face to the observer (in-plane rotation), or rotated along the vertical or left-right axis (out-of-plane rotation), or both. The newer algorithms take into account variations in the image or video by factors such as f