Face biometrics

Contents of this page

• About face identification
• Facial recognition technology
• Related Products

About face identification

Currently there are many methods of biometric identification: fingerprint, eye iris, retina, voice, face etc. Each of these methods has certain advantages and disadvantages which must be considered in developing biometric systems, such as: system reliability, price, flexibility, necessity of physical contact with the scanning device and many others. Selecting a certain biometric identification method or using a multi-biometric system can help to support these often discrepant requirements.

Face recognition can be an important alternative for selecting and developing an optimal biometric system. Its advantage is that it does not require physical contact with an image capture device (camera). A face identification system does not require any advanced hardware, as it can be used with existing image capture devices (webcams, security cameras etc.).

Thus, facial recognition should be considered as a serious alternative in the development of biometric or multi-biometric systems.

Facial recognition technology

Like fingerprint biometrics, facial recognition technology is widely used various systems, including physical access control and computer user accounts security.

Usually these systems extract cetain features from face images and then perform face matching using these features. A face does not have as many uniquely measurable features as fingerprints and irises, so facial recognition reliability is slightly lower than these other biometric recognition methods. However, it is still suitable for many applications, especially when taking into account its convenience for user. Facial recognition can also be used together with fingerprint recognition or another biometric method for developing more security-critical applications.

The multi-biometric approach is especially important for identification (1-to-many) systems. In general, identification systems are very convenient to use because they do not require any additional security information (smart cards, passwords etc.). However, using 1-to-many matching routines with only one biometric method, can result in a higher false acceptance probability, which may become unacceptable for applications with large databases. Using face identification as an additional biometric method can dramatically decrease this effect. This multi-biometric approach also helps in situations where a certain biometric feature is not optimal for certain groups of users. For example, people who do heavy labor with their hands may have rough fingerprints, which can increase the false rejection rate if fingerprint identification was used alone.

Related Products

VeriLook SDK

The VeriLook technology is intended for facial recognition system integrators. VeriLook offers fast, reliable identification with live face detection and the ability of multiple face processing in a single frame.

VeriLook 5.3 SDK is camera independent, webcam capable and offers a set of programming samples and tutorials written in major programming languages. These types of SDK are available:

• VeriLook 5.3 Standard SDK is intended for PC-based biometric application development. It includes Face Matcher and Face Extractor components, programming samples and tutorials, fingerprint scanner support modules and software documentation. The SDK allows the development of biometric applications for Microsoft Windows, Linux or Mac OS X operating systems.
• VeriLook 5.3 Extended SDK is intended for biometric Web-based and network application development. It includes all features and components of Standard SDK. Additionally, the SDK contains Face Client component and a ready-to-use matching server.

VeriLook Embedded SDK

VeriLook Embedded facial identification technology is intended for mobile biometric systems developers and integrators. The technology assures simultaneous multiple face recognition and face matching in 1-to-1 and 1-to-many modes with PC-like reliability. VeriLook Embedded is available as a software development kit that allows development of stand-alone or Web-based solutions for smartphones, tablets and other devices that are running Android OS.

VeriLook Surveillance SDK

VeriLook Surveillance SDK is intended for developing biometric software that performs face identification using live video streams from high-resolution digital surveillance cameras. The technology is suitable for passive biometric identification – when passers-by do not make any efforts to be recognized. List of possible uses includes law enforcement, security, attendance control, visitor counting and other commercial applications.

The VeriLook Surveillance SDK includes support modules for a list of high-resolution digital cameras as well as supports regular webcams. The SDK allows to create applications for Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms.

MegaMatcher SDK

MegaMatcher is a multi-biometric technology, intended for large-scale AFIS or multi-biometric face, fingerprint, iris and palm print system integrators. The technology includes face, fingerprint, iris and palm print recognition engines that could be used either separately or together.

MegaMatcher 4.4 SDK includes server software for local multi-biometric systems, cluster software for large-scale multi-biometric products development, and a set of valuable task-specific components.

MegaMatcher On Card Software Development Kit (SDK):

MegaMatcher On Card is based on MegaMatcher multi-biometric AFIS technology and intended for systems that match faces, fingerprints and/or irises on smart card.

MegaMatcher On Card 3.1 SDK includes smart cards with pre-loaded face, fingerprint and iris matching engines, as well as PC-side face, fingerprint and iris template extraction components.