Provided is a face orientation estimation device that estimates, with respect to a face in image data, the position of a facial organ point and the angle of face orientation in a manner that is temporally stable and that does not reach stability at a false estimation position. The face orientation estimation device is provided with a face detection unit that detects face image data and a face orientation estimation unit that estimates, with respect to the face image data, the position of a facial organ point and the angle of face orientation. When face images detected by the face detection unit are continuous over a plurality of frames, the face orientation estimation unit executes, for each frame, (1) an estimation reference value calculation process for determining an estimation reference value from a global search fitting process, and (2) a tracking process for performing a local search fitting process on the basis of a three-dimensional face model that is a fitting result from a previous frame. The tracking process (2) includes a correction process that uses the estimation reference value. The face orientation estimation unit outputs, for each frame, the position of a facial organ point and the angle of face orientation from the result of the local search fitting process.
FACE ORIENTATION ESTIMATION DEVICE AND METHOD