RECOGNIZING UNKNOWN PERSON INSTANCES IN AN IMAGE GALLERY

Methods and systems for recognizing people in images with increased accuracy are disclosed. In particular, the methods and systems divide images into a plurality of clusters based on common characteristics of the images. The methods and systems also determine an image cluster to which an image with an unknown person instance most corresponds. One or more embodiments determine a probability that the unknown person instance is each known person instance in the image cluster using a trained cluster classifier of the image cluster. Optionally, the methods and systems determine context weights for each combination of an unknown person instance and each known person instance using a conditional random field algorithm based on a plurality of context cues associated with the unknown person instance and the known person instances. The methods and systems calculate a contextual probability based on the cluster-based probabilities and context weights to identify the unknown person instance.