Abstract
Face recognition (FR) is defined as the process through which people are identified using facial images. This technology is applied broadly in biometrics, security information, accessing controlled areas, keeping of the law by different enforcement bodies, smart cards, and surveillance technology. The facial recognition system is built using two steps. The first step is a process through which the facial features are picked up or extracted, and the second step is pattern classification. Deep learning, specifically the convolutional neural network (CNN), has recently made commendable progress in FR technology. This paper investigates the performance of the pre-trained CNN with multi-class support vector machine (SVM) classifier and the performance of transfer learning using the AlexNet model to perform classification. The study considers CNN architecture, which has so far recorded the best outcome in the ImageNet Large-Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC) in the past years, more specifically, AlexNet and ResNet-50. In order to determine performance optimization of the CNN algorithm, recognition accuracy was used as a determinant. Improved classification rates were seen in the comprehensive experiments that were completed on the various datasets of ORL, GTAV face, Georgia Tech face, labelled faces in the wild (LFW), frontalized labeled faces in the wild (F_LFW), YouTube face, and FEI faces. The result showed that our model achieved a higher accuracy compared to most of the state-of-the-art models. An accuracy range of 94% to 100% for models with all databases was obtained. Also, this was obtained with an improvement in recognition accuracy up to 39%.