Face biometrics

Content 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 biometrical systems, such as: system reliability, price, flexibility, necessity of physical contact with the scanning device and many others. Selecting a certain biometrical identification method or using a multi-biometrical system can help to support these often discrepant requirements.

Face recognition can be an important alternative for selecting and developing an optimal biometrical 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 biometrical or multi-biometrical 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 eye irises, so facial recognition reliability is slightly lower than these other biometrical 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 biometrical method for developing more security-critical applications.

The multi-biometrical approach is especially important for identification (1:N) 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:N-matching routines with only one biometrical 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-biometrical 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 3.2 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 3.2 Standard SDK is intended for PC-based biometrical application development. It includes Matcher and Extractor components, programming samples and tutorials, camera manager software and software documentation. The SDK allows the development of biometric applications for Microsoft Windows, Linux or Mac OS X operating systems.
• VeriLook 3.2 Extended SDK is intended for biometrical Web-based and network application development. It includes all features of Standard SDK. Additionally, the SDK contains sample client applications, tutorials and a ready-to-use matching server.

FaceCell EDK

The FaceCell technology has been developed for using in various embedded or mobile hardware, like smart phones, handheld computers and devices.

FaceCell 1.1 EDK is available on 30 day trial period. This downloadable trial kit allows developers to explore the technology and to try it in real environments and real applications.

MegaMatcher SDK

MegaMatcher is a multi-biometrical technology, intended for large-scale face-fingerprint systems and AFIS integrators. The technology includes fingerprint and facial recognition engines that could be used either separately or together. The face engine shows an outstanding matching speed, which makes it especially valuable for large-scale systems.

MegaMatcher 2.1 SDK includes server software for local multi-biometrical systems, cluster software for large-scale multi-biometrical products development, and a set of valuable task-specific components.