ID R&D expands support for face biometric liveness to Nvidia Jetson platform

ID R&D is seeking to add to the momentum behind its passive face biometric liveness detection product by offering IDLive Face on Nvidia’s Jetson platform. The company said that IDLive Face runs on the Jetson Xavier NX system on system-on-module (SOM), which will offer performance gains and lower hardware costs for a variety of edge computing applications.

In terms of performance, ID R&D cited the small module’s ability to run multiple AI neural networks running in parallel as a key advantage that will translate into speed and accuracy gains for face biometrics applications using liveness detection. Because of its size and lower cost compared to other proprietary embedded systems, the company sees the potential for customers to use IDLive Face in connected cars, vending machines, printers and building access systems, along with the expected smart camera and sensor applications.

One customer already offering ID R&D’s passive facial liveness detection is Precise Biometrics. Precise Biometrics incorporates the ID R&D’s technology into its facility access control product, YOUNiQ. The company is currently testing its software on the Jetson platform to further reduce the footprint and cost of required hardware.

“Enabling our facility access control clients to leverage face biometrics with passive liveness increases security while improving convenience. We see huge value for IDLive Face in this scenario where face biometrics can replace or supplement keys, tags or PINs,” said Mark Cornett, U.S. senior sales director at Precise Biometrics in a prepared statement.

General availability of IDLive Face on Nvidia systems is scheduled for May 2021, the company said.

Liveness detection growing fast in 2021

Offering IDLive Face on a new platform will be important to sustaining already fast growth in 2021. Revenues booked by ID R&D for its biometric and passive liveness technologies during its first quarter of fiscal 2021 more than doubled its revenues from the same period a year earlier, the company reported earlier in April. ID R&D’s single-image passive liveness detection technology. Close to 80 percent of ID R&D clients implement IDLive Face to replace an active biometric liveness technology they have in place, the company said. Offering the technology on the Nvidia platform brings the advantage of Nvidia’s own momentum and size in the market for edge AI chips.

For one thing, smaller suppliers might face chip shortages that have impacted auto makers and other industries, but Nvidia says it has been able to plan against constraints and will be able to grow its business in 2021 despite supply issues. Nvidia’s volumes mean its prices are likely to be lower than competitors, which in turn will make it easier for ID R&D’s customers to integrate and sell biometric systems.

Article Topics

AI chips  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  edge computing  |  ID R&D  |  Nvidia  |  passive facial liveness  |  research and development