Facial recognition software is used in all kinds of ways. Airport security and law enforcement rely on it to track individuals and verify their identities. Banks use it to enable more secure online transactions. It’s also a standard feature in smartphones, offering a hands-free way to unlock devices and authenticate activities.
Applying image recognition and artificial intelligence, facial recognition software captures a person’s facial features to create a unique digital map that is then compared to a database of known faces. This allows the software to confirm a person’s identity or locate a particular face among a large collection of images.
Top Facial Recognition Software
- Amazon Rekognition
- Microsoft Face API
- AuthenticID
- Clearview AI
- Incode
- Pimeyes
- HV Authentication
- Kairos
Several software platforms have emerged as leaders in the field. From consumer-facing applications to large-scale security solutions, the tools below are integrating facial recognition into everyday life.
Top 20 Facial Recognition Software
Amazon Rekognition
Amazon Recognition is a facial recognition and image analysis tool that uses automated machine learning to analyze faces, noting unique attributes like eye position, facial hair and even emotions. It also supports face search and verification within private image repositories, and can detect face liveness to identify pre-recorded, synthetic and deepfake videos.
Clearview AI
Clearview AI’s facial identification software is trained on the largest and most diverse dataset, according to the company, comprising more than 50 billion images collected from social media and other sites on the internet. It is primarily used by law enforcement and other government agencies to solve crimes, gather intelligence and identify foreign and domestic threats. It is also used by financial institutions to prevent financial fraud and identity theft.
Azure Face API
Microsoft’s Face API provides specialized AI models that can detect, recognize and analyze human faces in images. Some of its capabilities include identity verification, liveness verification and face grouping, where images of people are organized into groups based on their visual similarity. The software is only available to select customers and partners who follow Microsoft’s responsible AI guidelines when using the technology.
AuthenticID
AuthenticID provides real-time identity verification and fraud prevention services to top financial institutions, credit bureaus and wireless providers, according to the company. Equipped with biometric technology, the software can authenticate a person’s identity by matching their selfie to a photo on a government-issued ID, as well as verify their liveness to prevent face masks, deepfakes and other attacks. It also maintains a watchlist of bad actors and fake documents to prevent fraudulent activities and block known offenders.
Incode
Incode offers facial recognition, optical character recognition, document verification and deepfake detection services. The software also ranks among the best in age estimation and verification, as well as facial biometric authentication, successfully detecting 99.99 percent of fraud attempts, according to the company.
PimEyes
PimEyes is a reverse image search engine that gives users the ability to find specific photos online. All they have to do is upload a photo, and the tool will search the internet to identify websites where the same image has been published. PimEyes also enables users to erase unwanted photos from external websites and monitor their online presence, sending email notifications when the software detects a new result containing their face.
HV Authentication
HV Authentication is a tool developed by HyperVerge that helps companies across the financial services, e-commerce, logistics and telecommunications industries identify fraud and authenticate verified in as little as 0.2 seconds. Its liveness detection technology is one of the few on the market to be ISO compliant, and its face recognition solutions have been ranked among the top 10 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Kairos
The Kairos platform offers a range of face detection, identification and verification services, as well as age and gender detection services. It is designed to reduce bias, according to the company, as it has been trained on diverse datasets that reflect various ethnicities, genders and age groups. It is also designed to be “developer first” and compatible with any coding language. Companies can integrate Kairos via its cloud API, or they can host the software on their own servers for more control over their data privacy.
OneSpan
OneSpan provides passwordless user authentication, digital transaction security and mobile app shielding services to mitigate cyberattacks. Its identity verification software leverages AI and biometric technology to verify the authenticity of ID documents in real-time, as well as enable secure remote activity for banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions.
BioID
BioID offers liveness detection and facial recognition, while ensuring GDPR compliance. The software also has deepfake detection capabilities, which flags AI-generated fraud attempts. In addition to these services, BioID maintains a database to help researchers compare the quality of their facial recognition algorithms with others.
Betaface
Betaface is a facial recognition software vendor, providing software development kits, custom software development services and hosted web services that focus on image and video analysis and object recognition. Using biometric technology, its software can detect gender, age, ethnicity, race, hairstyle and facial features, as well as emotions.
FaceFirst
FaceFirst’s facial matching software is designed to help retailers prevent violence, theft and fraud in their stores. It is also used in hotels, casinos, airports, stadiums and arenas. Once an organization has uploaded a photo of a known offender to their database, the algorithm scans through security camera footage to find every recent instance of that person entering certain locations, creating a comprehensive inventory of past offenses that can be handed off to law enforcement or other authorities.
FaceVACS Engine
Developed by Cognitec, FaceVACS Engine uses deep learning, computer vision and pattern recognition technology to track people’s faces in videos and live streams and match them to known identities. Cognitec develops software for biometric entry screening and video scanning for government agencies and companies around the world.
FacePhi
FacePhi specializes in digital identity protection and verification. Its authentication software accepts several types of biometric data, including face, fingerprints and voice, performing with 99.99 percent accuracy, according to the company. FacePhi’s platform is used across a variety of industries, from financial services and legal to gaming and sports events.
SkyBiometry
SkyBiometry offers free, cloud-based face detection and recognition software. Built on algorithms made by its former parent company Neurotechnology, its APIs can identify one or more faces at various angles simultaneously, as well as determine characteristics like race and gender. It can also sort through databases of photos and categorize them. SkyBiometry says its technology is particularly useful in conducting advertising campaigns, managing photography databases, tracking attendance and moderating dating social media platforms.
Face2Gene
Face2Gene helps doctors and researchers diagnose rare genetic conditions by analyzing pictures of patients’ faces. Trained on hundreds of disorders, its algorithms map the points on a patient’s face, compare those points with a database of thousands of other faces and suggest potential diagnoses based on the physcial similarities. And thanks to machine learning, the software learns from every new face it scans, with the goal of making more accurate diagnoses over time.
iProve
Using its flagship Genuine Presence Assurance technology, iProve verifies the identity and authenticity of individuals through either face or palm scans. In an effort to protect against identity theft, account takeover and other cybercrime, the company offers a range of remote onboarding and in-person authentication services, including biometric capture, facial matching and liveness detection. Its software is used by government agencies around the world, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Health Service in the U.K. and Singapore’s Government Technology Agency.
Face++
Face++ offers a range of facial detection, comparison and search services. It is also capable of human body recognition, where it detects and locates peoples’ bodies within an image, establishes bounding boxes around them and analyzes components like the head, neck, elbows, hands and feet. Plus, its image recognition service can identify specific faces in photo albums and cluster them automatically.
Oosto
Oosto can identify persons of interest using existing security camera systems and monitor their behavior — whether they’re running, walking, sitting, laying down or standing still. The company’s software is used in law enforcement, airport security, border control, correctional facilities, schools and smart cities.
TrueFace.ai
TrueFace.ai provides facial recognition services through both a software development kit and deployable docker container for on-premise use, transforming users’ camera footage into actionable intelligence. Services include facial recognition, object detection and spoof mitigation. The company says it can make a facial comparison in less than 200 nanoseconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is facial recognition software?
Facial recognition software is technology that identifies or verifies a person’s identity by digitally mapping their facial features and comparing it to a database of known faces using artificial intelligence.
How accurate is facial recognition software?
The accuracy of facial recognition software varies widely, but some systems can achieve near-perfect results. For example, software used to match subjects to clear reference images (passport photos and mugshots) achieved accuracy scores as high as 99.97 percent, according to research conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). But this precision is only possible under ideal conditions, when lighting is consistent and facial features are clear and unobscured. Another NIST study found that facial recognition systems were much more accurate (94.4 percent) when matching faces from surveillance footage at airport boarding gates — a relatively controlled setting — compared to more chaotic environments like sporting venues, where accuracy ranged from 36 to 87 percent, depending on camera placement.
