FaceTec 3D Face Matching: Only astounding levels of accuracy will do

FaceTec 3D Face Matching: So you’re looking at facial recognition software and you see promises of “99.9% accuracy” – sounds excellent, right? Wrong. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to biometrics, you must demand accuracy in terms of 99.999% – and above.

Which is just what you will get from 3D liveness and facial recognition company FaceTec, the first and only face authenticator certified to Level 1 and 2 in the iBeta/NIST Presentation Attack Detection test based on the ISO 30107-3 standard.

FaceTec – the world leader in Face Liveness & Matching software – lives by the conviction that accuracy percentages are of utmost importance, especially in industries such as banks and other financial services, where there are hundreds of thousands, or even millions of users.

In fact, the company offers a FAR (False Accept Rate) setting of 1/125 million @ <1% FRR (False Rejection Rate), and patented 3D depth detection and human liveness detection that cannot be fooled by 2D photos, videos, or even 3D masks or life-like dolls.

And, putting its money where its mouth is, FaceTec is also the only 3D liveness detection and face authentication software that is backed by a $200 000 Spoof Bounty Programme to prove its liveness detection can be trusted in real-world unsupervised scenarios.

3D Face Matching: What’s the big deal?

There are plenty of biometric software vendors that offer 2D to 2D face matching, such as smartphone 2D Face Unlock, which uses a device’s front-facing camera to capture an image of a user, and then stores it.

But 2D Matching will never have the accuracy needed for true unsupervised identity verification and authentication, because there is just too much variability in how the same 3D human face appears when flattened into 2D at different image capture distances. This variability creates significant overlapping similarity between the 2D features of different humans and confuses the 2D algorithms, preventing them from achieving highly accurate FARs at usable FRRs.

FaceTec stands by its promise that its 3D matching algorithms are the most accurate in the world. “FaceTec leverages 3D FaceMap Technology to achieve levels of accuracy ~10 times better than Apple’s Face ID and 50-100X times better than the 2D NIST FRVT leaders measures in its ongoing vendor tests.”

Decoding the complexity

FAR, FRR, NIST, FaceMap, 3D, 2D, biometrics, liveness – it sounds really complicated, but it all comes down to confirming beyond any shadow of doubt that a subject (individual) and their representation perceived via an unsupervised source (a phone, camera, etc) are currently one and the same.

In a nutshell, 3D face matching is a computer system’s ability to estimate the probability that two 3D FaceMaps were derived from the same human.

FaceTec’s 3D matching algorithms are at least two orders of magnitude more accurate than any 2D matching algorithms, because they operate on 3D Data that is captured from a 2D Camera, using patented technology.

“Apple, Google, and Intel understand this, so their 3D Face Matching systems use 3D infrared cameras, but that, of course, requires each device to include special hardware. In contrast, FaceTec securely performs 3D Matching from virtually any device with a 2D camera,” states FaceTec.

3D FaceMaps are much more accurate replicas of the 3D human users they were collected from than 2D photos or videos are. This increase is in both depth and breadth of the data, and that data enables FaceTec’s AI to recreate any frontal 2D face photo scenario, and match to another 3D FaceMap with astounding accuracy, and without bias. 

For the highest levels of biometric security, high confidence face matching is vital for onboarding, legal identity verification, re-verification, and anti-fraud use cases.

FaceTec 3D match levels: How do they work?

FaceTec offers a range of match levels, which will be set by the organisation using the software according to their accuracy needs. For instance, a high-risk industry like banking would opt for 3D-to-3D face matching, with a match level of 15 (1/125 million FAR). A lower security, such as employee entry for example, would require a lower level.

There is currently no other vendor that can attain these match levels:

1. 3D:3D Face Matching (up to level 15)
2. 3D:2D Face Portrait Match (up to level 9)
3. 3D:2D Third-party ID Photo Matching (up to level 7)

The higher the level, the higher the accuracy (FAR), with 3D-to-3D face matching being the highest tier.  

See full lists below for the range of levels, and their associated FAR:

1. 3D:3D FaceTec Match Levels & associated probabilities at <0.99% FRR:
2. Match Level 15 – 1/125,000,000 FAR
3. Match Level 14 – 1/95,000,000 FAR
4. Match Level 13 – 1/70,00,000 FAR
5. Match Level 12 – 1/50,000,000 FAR
6. Match Level 11 – 1/25,000,000 FAR
7. Match Level 10 – 1/12,800,000 FAR
8. Match Level 9 – 1/2,000,000 FAR
9. Match Level 8 – 1/1,000,000 FAR
10. Match Level 7 – 1/500,000 FAR
11. Match Level 6 – 1/100,000 FAR
12. Match Level 5 – 1/10,000 FAR
13. Match Level 4 – 1/1,000 FAR
14. Match Level 3 – 1/500 FAR
15. Match Level 2 – 1/250 FAR
16. Match Level 1 – 1/100 FAR
17. Match Level 0 – Non-match (fail)
    
    
18. 3D:2D Face Portrait Matching:
19. Match Level 9 – 99.99995% (1/2,000,000 FAR)
20. Match Level 8 – 99.9999% (1/950,000 FAR)
21. Match Level 7 – 99.9998% (1/500,000 FAR)
22. Match Level 6 – 99.999% (1/100,000 FAR)
23. Match Level 5 – 99.99% (1/10,000 FAR)
24. Match Level 4 – 99.99% (1/1,000 FAR)
25. Match Level 3 – 99.8% (1/500 FAR)
26. Match Level 2 – 99.6% (1/250 FAR)
27. Match Level 1 – 99% (1/100 FAR)
28. Match Level 0 – Non-match (fail)
    
    
29. 3D to 2D 3rd-Party ID Photo Matching
30. Match Level 7 – 99.9998% (1/500,000 FAR)
31. Match Level 6 – 99.999% (1/100,000 FAR)
32. Match Level 5 – 99.99% (1/10,000 FAR)
33. Match Level 4 – 99.99% (1/1,000 FAR)
34. Match Level 3 – 99.8% (1/500 FAR)
35. Match Level 2 – 99.6% (1/250 FAR)
36. Match Level 1 – 99% (1/100 FAR)
37. Match Level 0 – Non-match (fail)

Visit our website and get in touch to discuss your risk management and ID verification & authentication needs:

Phone: +27 (0) 10 823 5194
E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES:

1. FaceTec – Face matching overview
2. FaceTec – Intro to FaceTec’s 3D face matching
3. FaceTec – 2D vs 3D
4. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/07/09/realtime-id-verification-expanded/
5. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/09/15/facetec-3d-liveness-a-cut-above-the-rest/
6. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/05/19/facetec-debuts-voice-guidance-advanced-ocr-with-new-updates/
7. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/07/01/facetecs-100k-spoof-bounty-program/
8. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/03/09/facetec-3d-liveness-software-enables-frictionless-secure-transacting/
9. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2021/03/29/facetec-age-check-technology-bolsters-verification/
10. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2020/04/09/pbverifys-3d-liveness-service-enables-contactless-biometric-customer-verification/
11. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2020/09/09/facial-recognition-at-height-of-efficiency/
12. pbVerify News – https://www.datanamix.com/media/2020/04/09/pbverifys-3d-liveness-service-enables-contactless-biometric-customer-verification/