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The Signicat Blog
Alba Zaragoza

Communications Manager

Facial Recognition: how it works and its safety

What is facial recognition, also known as face recognition? How does facial recognition work? What practical applications can it have? Biometrical facial recognition is one of the most demanded identification solutions for online identity verification.

Learn more about all the topics mentioned above in this article.

# What is Facial Recognition? The meaning of face recognition and how it works

By definition, facial recognition refers to the technology capable of identifying or verifying a subjectthrough an image, video, or any audiovisual element of his face. Generally, this identification is used to access an application, system, or service and works like a face scanner.

It is a method of biometric identification that uses those body measures, in this case, face and head, to verify the identityof a person through its facial biometric pattern and data. The technology collects a set of unique biometric data of each person associated with their face and facial expression to identify, verify and/or authenticate a person.

# Facial Recognition Software

The face identifier procedure requires any device with digital photographic technology to generate and obtain the images and data necessary to create and record the biometric facial pattern of the person that needs to be identified.

Unlike other identification solutions such as passwords, verification by selfies or images, email or fingerprint identification, Biometric facial recognition uses unique mathematical and dynamic patterns that work like a face scanner, making this method one of the safest and most effective.

The objective of face recognition is, from the incoming image, to find a series of data of the same face in a set of training images in a database. The great difficulty is ensuring this process is carried out in real time, which is unavailable to all biometric face recognition software providers.

And where is facial recognition used? The facial recognition process can perform two variants depending on when it is performed:

  • The one in which, for the first time, a facial recognition system addresses a face to register it and associate it with an identity so that it is recorded in the system. This process is also known as digital onboardingwith facial recognition.
  • The variant in which the user is  authenticated before being registered. In this process, the incoming data from the camera is crossed with the existing data in the database. If the face matches an already registered identity, the user is granted access to the system with his credentials.

# How does Facial Recognition work?

How reliable is facial recognition? How does face recognition work? Face recognition systems work bycapturing an incoming image from a camera device in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional way, depending on the device's characteristics. 

These compare the relevant information of the incoming image signal in real-time in a photo or video in a database, being much more reliable and secure than the information obtained in a static image. This biometric facial recognition procedure requires an internet connection since the database cannot be located on the capture device as it is hosted on servers.

In this comparison of faces, it analyses mathematically the incoming image without any margin of error, and it verifies that the biometric data matches the person who must use the service or is requesting access to an application, system, or even building.