Implementation of an Attention Mechanism Model for Facial Beauty Assessment Using Transfer Learning

Diagnostics (Basel). 2023 Mar 29;13(7):1291. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics13071291.

Abstract

An important consideration in medical plastic surgery is the evaluation of the patient's facial symmetry. However, because facial attractiveness is a slightly individualized cognitive experience, it is difficult to determine face attractiveness manually. This study aimed to train a model for assessing facial attractiveness using transfer learning while also using the fine-grained image model to separate similar images by first learning features. In this case, the system can make assessments based on the input of facial photos. Thus, doctors can quickly and objectively treat patients' scoring and save time for scoring. The transfer learning was combined with CNN, Xception, and attention mechanism models for training, using the SCUT-FBP5500 dataset for pre-training and freezing the weights as the transfer learning model. Then, we trained the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Taiwan dataset to train the model based on transfer learning. The evaluation uses the mean absolute error percentage (MAPE) value. The root mean square error (RMSE) value is used as the basis for experimental adjustment and the quantitative standard for the model's predictive. The best model can obtain 0.50 in RMSE and 18.5% average error in MAPE. A web page was developed to infer the deep learning model to visualize the predictive model.

Keywords: attention mechanism; deep learning; facial attractiveness prediction; transfer learning; visualization.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Grant CORPGL0011 as well as by grants from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan (R.O.C.), under grants number MOST 111-2314-B-182A-130-, 111-2622-E-029-003-, 111-2811-E-029-001-, 111-2621-M-029-004-, and 110-2221-E-029-020-MY3.