The invention discloses a method for quickly and accurately detecting and tracking a human face based on a video sequence, which relates to the technical field of mode identification. The method comprises the following steps of: 1, extracting a video frame image from a video stream; 2, preprocessing the video frame image, namely compensating light rays, extracting skin color areas, performing morphological processing and combining the areas; 3, detecting the human face, namely representing the human face by using Harr-like characteristics and detecting the human face by using a cascaded Adaboost algorithm with an assistant decision function; 4, establishing the characteristics of the human face, namely detecting the area characteristics of the detected human face and the shape characteristics of the edge profile of the human face; 5, tracking the human face, particularly tracking the human face by using a human face area characteristic model when an intersection does not occur in a human face area, and further matching when the intersection occurs according to the shape characteristics of the edge profile of the human face; and 6, extracting the sequence of a human face image. By the technical method, the human face can be detected and tracked quickly and accurately on the basis of the video sequence.