To properly detect the face region and improve the accuracy and real-time of face detection and location method in the circumstance of inadequate light of vehicle cab

face detecting method based on skin color clustering is used to segment the color image into skin and non-skin areas.Meanwhile

a new algorithm based on Retinex algorithm is proposed to illumination compensation before the face detection.Simulation experiment has been done with the improved algorithm applied to the newly created database of face image.The detection correctness rate is increased by 4.7 % when the algorithm is compared with the traditional method.The experimental result prove that this algorithm has good adaptability to the images containing face rotations with different illumination intensity

and it has excellent practical value.