Kinship verification and recognition based on handcrafted and deep learning feature-based techniques

Background and Objectives Kinship verification and recognition (KVR) is the machine’s ability to identify the genetic and blood relationship and its degree between humans’ facial images. The face is used because it is one of the most significant ways to recognize each other. Automatic KVR is an interesting area for investigation. It greatly affects real-world applications, such as searching for lost family members, forensics, and historical and genealogical studies. This paper presents a comprehensive survey that describes KVR applications and kinship types. It presents a literature review of current studies starting from handcrafted passing through shallow metric learning and ending with deep learning feature-based techniques. Furthermore, kinship mostly used datasets are discussed that in turn open the way for future directions for the research in this field. Also, the KVR limitations are discussed, such as insufficient illumination, noise, occlusion, and age variations problems. Finally, future research directions are presented, such as age and gender variation problems. Methods We applied a literature survey methodology to retrieve data from academic databases. An inclusion and exclusion criteria were set. Three stages were followed to select articles. Finally, the main KVR stages, along with the main methods in each stage, were presented. We believe that surveys can help researchers easily to detect areas that require more development and investigation. Results It was found that handcrafted, metric learning, and deep learning were widely utilized in kinship verification and recognition problem using facial images. Conclusions Despite the scientific efforts that aim to address this hot research topic, many future research areas require investigation, such as age and gender variation. In the end, the presented survey makes it easier for researchers to identify the new areas that require more investigation and research.