Support Vector Machine Optimized Using the Improved Fish Swarm Optimization Algorithm and Its Application to Face Recognition

Abstract

Support vector machine (SVM) is always used for face recognition. However, kernel function selection is a key problem for SVM. This paper tries to make some contributions to this problem with focus on optimizing the parameters in the selected kernel function to improve the accuracy of classification and recognition of SVM. Firstly, an improved artificial fish swarm optimization algorithm (IAFSA) is proposed to optimize the parameters in SVM. In the improved version of artificial fish swarm optimization algorithm, the visual distance and the step size of artificial fish are adjusted adaptively. In the early stage of convergence, artificial fish are widely distributed, and the visual distance and step size take larger values to accelerate the convergence of the algorithm. In the later stage of convergence, artificial fish gathered gradually, and the visual distance and the step size were given small values to prevent oscillation. Then the optimized SVM is used to recognize face images. Simultaneously, in order to improve the accuracy rate of face recognition, an improved local binary pattern (ILBP) is proposed to extract features of face images. Numerical results show the advantage of our new algorithm over a range of existing algorithms.