Residual feature decomposition and multi-task learning-based variation-invariant face recognition

Facial identity is subject to two primary natural variations: time-dependent (TD) factors such as age, and time-independent (TID) factors including sex and race. This study aims to address a broader problem known as variation-invariant face recognition (VIFR) by exploring the question: “How can identity preservation be maximized in the presence of TD and TID variations?" While existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods focus on either age-invariant or race and sex-invariant FR, our approach introduces the first novel deep learning architecture utilizing multi-task learning to tackle VIFR, termed “multi-task learning-based variation-invariant face recognition (MTLVIFR)." We redefine FR by incorporating both TD and TID, decomposing faces into age (TD) and residual features (TID: sex, race, and identity). MTLVIFR outperforms existing methods by 2% in LFW and CALFW benchmarks, 1% in CALFW, and 5% in AgeDB (20 years of protocol) in terms of face verification score. Moreover, it achieves higher face identification scores compared to all SOTA methods. Open source code.