Face recognition software is commonly used as a gatekeeper for accessing secure websites and electronic devices, but what if someone can defeat it by simply wearing a mask resembling another person’s face? Newly published research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reveals the current state of the art for software designed to detect this sort of spoof attack.
The new study appears together with another that evaluates software’s ability to call out potential problems with a photograph or digital face image, such as one captured for use in a passport. Together, the two NIST publications provide insight into how effectively modern image-processing software performs an increasingly significant task: face analysis.