Face-Based Authentication in Identity Verification Explained

This innovative authentication method is being adopted across many industries, although it remains somewhat unfamiliar and high-tech to some individuals.

"Your face is your personal digital signature; it's the embodiment of your identity in the digital age."
— Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella

The truth is that we are increasingly seeing face-based authentication used in our daily lives. From logging in to your computer to unlocking your smartphone, face authentication has completely changed how we access our devices and essential documents.

This article delves into the workings of face-based authentication, its pivotal role in identity verification, and the sectors leveraging this technology, highlighting its efficiency and the peace of mind it offers users.

What is Face-Based Authentication?

A face-based authentication program allows operating systems and smart devices to identify or confirm a person's identity by recognizing their face. This form of authentication captures high-resolution images of facial features such as a scar, the shape of the face, the color of the skin, and other defined features, making each face different from the other. It captures all the data and then copies it into the database.

So when a user opts for face-based authentication, the program will compare the user's facial features with those that it has already stored before, or it could search for the face among other extensive collections of existing images. If all the face features match with the one stored in the program, the user will get access to it. Otherwise, they have to try some other method to log in.

Currently, most smartphones with front-facing cameras use face-based authentication to give users access to their mobile phones.

Examples of Face-Based Authentication in Our Daily Lives

Many people have seen the working of face-based authentication, which FaceID uses in the latest models of mobile phones. In its typical implementation, this form of authentication does not rely on massive data sets that hold information from thousands of images to determine an individual's identity. With FaceID, the program only identifies and recognizes the facial features of one person who is the sole smartphone owner while restricting access to others.

Face-based authentication has become increasingly common in our daily lives due to advancements in facial recognition technology. Here are some common examples:

• Smartphones and Devices: Unlocking devices, logging into apps, and securing mobile payments.
• Biometric Access Control: Controlling entry into workplaces and high-security facilities.
• Online Account Access: Verifying identity during logins to websites and digital platforms.
• Banking and Finance: Enhancing security in mobile banking and digital transactions.
• Airport Security: Verifying passengers at check-in, boarding, and customs checkpoints.
• Social Media: Suggesting friends for tagging and enhancing filters using facial recognition.
• Healthcare: Enabling secure access to electronic health records and sensitive medical data.
• Event Entry: Speeding up attendee check-in at conferences and live events.
• Automated Kiosks: Supporting self-service in hotels, car rentals, and transport terminals.
• Vehicle Security: Authenticating drivers and personalizing settings in smart cars.
• Smart Home Devices: Managing access and customizing smart environments through facial data.

Beyond this implementation, the government uses Face-based authentication in public places for surveillance by recognizing the faces of people passing using unique cameras. Face-based authentication helps identify the individuals on the government's watch list. The way facial authentication is used can vary, but the underlying technology at work remains the same.

How Face-Based Authentication Helps in Identity Verification?

Face-based authentication has dramatically boosted the accuracy department of identity verification. Its implementation can be seen right now in various places; given below are a few critical sectors where identity verification is taking the assistance of face-based authentication to come up with accurate results.

Healthcare

Hospitals are now using face-based authentication for patient identity verification. This way, doctors can access the patient's record and streamline patient registration. Also, this technology is used for monitoring the emotions and pain felt by patients when they are under a doctor's supervision.

AiCure is the one application that is the leading face-based authentication technology in medical science. Using AiCure, doctors can determine whether the patient is regularly taking their prescribed medicines.

Tracking Attendance of Employees & Students

Some educational institutes in China and other parts of Asia have started using face-based authentication to ensure that the students who are coming to classes get their attendance. Tablets are placed in the entrance of classrooms to scan students' faces and match them with the images in the database for identity verification.

Moreover, some companies are carrying out the same procedure for giving access to employees to certain areas of the office that can only be accessed if they have clearance from the administration. This way, employees specifically working in network administration can only access the server rooms, and no other employee can go in there.

Finding Missing Person

Face-based identity verification is used to find someone missing and the victims of human trafficking. Police officials upload the images of a missing person into their database, and once any face matches the facial image present in the database, law enforcement will be notified.

This implementation can work for cameras in public places like shopping malls, retail stores, airports, and railway and bus stations across the country.

Reducing Retail Crime

Face-based authentication can help identify shoplifters and organized retail criminals. Photographs of those individuals can be stored in the extensive database of criminals so that retail store owners can prevent all sorts of thefts by identified fugitives or get notified when any of them enter their store.

Border Control

Face-based authentication has become familiar when travelling between countries via flight. Airports are one of the public areas where this form of identity verification is implemented on a larger scale.

More and more flyers are now opting for biometric passports. These biometric passports allow them to skip the long queues at the airport and verify themselves on an automated e-passport control system.

Face-based authentication massively reduces passengers' waiting time while providing extra security at the airport. According to the latest reports by Homeland Security of the US Department, face-based authentication is used on 97% of the passengers coming to the US or crossing nearby border checkpoints.

Conclusion

"The face is nature's most advanced biometric identifier, and leveraging it for authentication reinforces the security fabric of our interconnected world."
— Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. (Google)

Face-based authentication is the latest identity verification method in biometric security. It is slowly rolling out to the general public and businesses to give them the power that enhances their security measures. It might seem like a technology or a feature, but its implementation is now ahead of us. All we have to do is take a second look at the cameras placed in nearby public areas.

FAQs

Q1. What is face-based authentication?
Face-based authentication uses facial features to verify or identify individuals for secure access to devices, systems, or premises.

Q2. How does face-based authentication work?
Face-based authentication captures and analyzes facial features to match against stored data, granting access if there's a match.

Q3. Why is face-based authentication considered reliable for identity verification?
Face-based authentication is reliable due to unique facial features, accurate recognition, and the potential to reduce fraud.

Q4. What industries are adopting face-based authentication for identity verification?
Industries such as healthcare, education, security, aviation, and retail use face-based authentication to enhance identity verification.

Q5. What are the benefits of using face-based authentication in border control?
Face-based authentication speeds up passenger processing, enhances security, and offers a seamless travel experience at border checkpoints.