Ultrasound-Based Liveness Verification

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Face aliveness or simply “liveness” detection is a challenging problem during (remote) authentication and identity verification. Such techniques are often used for Know Your Customer (KYC) during opening a bank account, applying for a mortgage, log into HMRC, apply for universal credit, to name a few.In this context, by liveness detection we refer to the genuine presence of a live human’s biometrics such as their face. Liveness detection confirms that such presence is not coming from a replica, that is, a pre-captured photo, a pre-recorded video or a mask. EYN developed a prototype of a novel passive liveness detection system. Our proposed solution is innovative for three main reasons. First, we conduct liveness detection passively without asking the user to do something and unlike existing “active” approaches it protects the “how” and “when” of the challenge-response that is being done, therefore, limiting the scope of an adversary to counter-attack. In other words, we leverage short ultrasound pulses to detect genuine presence of the human face and leverage corresponding video to cross-check results. Second, the solution does not require any custom hardware, but leverages existing hardware, that is, the camera, loudspeaker and microphone which are available in most portable devices such as a smartphone or a tablet. Third, it is a 100% software-only solution that can be deployed in billions of portable devices available in the market, at scale.