Precise addresses scarcity of quality synthetic biometric data with new service

Synthetic biometric data generation is not just taking a place in Precise Biometrics’ own product development process, but is also a new line of business for the company.

Precise says its experience in biometrics, AI and image analysis enable it to create synthetic biometric data at scale. And developers armed with large-scale biometric datasets can use them to improve security and user experience while shortening time-to-market and minimizing privacy risks, according to the company announcement.

Synthetic data can be used for biometric algorithm training, optimization, validation and market preparation for authentication and identification technologies.

The company explains in an article on its website that huge amounts of high-quality data are necessary to build and test biometric algorithms, and that it must represent the demographics of the target population adequately or it will deliver different levels of efficiency for different groups – in other words bias. The article also described the difficulty of generating synthetic data that “is truly representative of the complexity and diversity found in real-world conditions.”

In addition to algorithm developers, Precise says synthetic biometric data has major potential value for biometric sensor manufacturers, electronics OEMs and certification authorities.

Datasets of synthetic faces have been previously introduced by Mindtech, Microsoft and Idiap, but for the other two modalities Precise lists among its specialties – fingerprint and palm – it seems less data is available.

Synthetic data generated by IDnow is being used in EU-funded research into ethics and AI, and for biometric algorithm training by companies including Amazon. The latter was notably for palm biometrics algorithms.

Precise claims collecting fingerprint and palm biometrics, anti-spoofing and liveness detection among its areas of expertise.

“Synthetic biometric data allows us to speed up development, improve accuracy, and minimize potential privacy concerns. It is a core part of our data driven business and a natural extension of our proven expertise in biometric data collection and AI.”

The synthetic data will be offered “as a service.”

Precise has been claiming progress toward a stronger commercial position, and is planning to begin sales in India during 2026. The company also rebranded its YOUNiQ biometric access control portfolio as Precise Access earlier this year.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  Precise Biometrics  |  research and development  |  synthetic biometric data  |  synthetic data