In this paper, we present a novel human detection method based on color features. Our approach has advantages of high efficiency and low computation load. In order to reduce the sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to illumination variations, a normalized RGB technique is used to represent a color image. An integration of face and body detections is employed in our approach. The detailed procedures are as follows: First, a broad area of skin color of a face can be detected by using a feature of the distinctive color to the background area; second, a lip can be detected by adopting its darker skin color in contrast to that of the face; third, the face is located according to its relative position to the lip; finally, the body can be detected easily by wearing appropriate color of clothes such as blue color. In addition, the morphological operations are applied to remove noise and label connection scheme is used to obtain complete human detection. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is highly efficient in computations and practical in applications.