UNHCR looks to face biometrics as QR code standard advances

Face biometrics are likely to play a growing role in the operations of the UNHCR, attendees of a workshop jointly held with the EAB heard Monday.

The workshop, held alongside SC37 Working Group meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark, was sponsored by FaceTec, Biometric Solutions and Innovatrics.

Evolving ISO standards help guide UNHCR’s decisions about biometrics, from the language used in procurements to the potential the draft ISO/IEC 59794-5 standard for facial images in QR codes.

UNHCR moving into face biometrics

UNHCR’s currently operational use of biometrics includes the IrisGuard system first deployed in the Middle East and the biometric information management system (BIMS). One or both of these systems are used in over 95 countries, according to Head of Biometrics and Interoperability Sam Jefferies.

In addition to IrisGuard technology, UNHCR uses biometric devices from Integrated Biometrics, IriTech and Thales.

UNHCR continually caches fingerprint biometrics for 30 seconds during the autocapture process, with data quality algorithms set at a threshold that starts high and drops over time to the lowest level the organization can accept.

Dramatic cuts in funding to the UN refugee agency in 2025 mean that there are less staff registering people, while some tools are unfunded, including “Gateways,” Jefferies says. The organization must look to more online interactions to lower its costs.

UNHCR’s biometric products roadmap reflects this need, including with a planned “Digital Gateway with face service.” The organization also plans to use face biometrics for periodic remote family verifications.

The plan going forward also involves the inclusion of face biometrics on printed credentials and linked to verifiable credentials (VCs). Face may also be used for deduplication of humanitarian registries, and UNHCR wants to use biometrics to enable inclusion in national digital identity programs and digital public infrastructure, following the example of Ethiopia’s NIDP.

The description of issuing verifiable credentials linked to face biometrics that can be printed onto credentials aligns with software offered by event sponsors FaceTec, in the form of its UR Codes, and Innovatrics.

Standard for QR codes with face biometrics in development

Later in the workshop, Innovatrics CTO Jakub Sochor examined the question: “Can a face fit in 1kB?”

If it can, then a QR code with a usable capacity of between 2 and 3kB can fit the biometric data along with the digital signature and metadata that make it useful for identity verification. The benefits of biometric QR codes are many, from inexpensive issuance of printed credentials (as mentioned by Jefferies above) and offline use to verification using only a cell phone running a facial recognition algorithm.

ISO/IEC 59794-5 is currently in development by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37 to standardize interoperability for face images, Sochor explains.

At 112 pixels by 112 pixels, the input resolution of some popular open-source facial recognition engines, a facial photo must be compressed by roughly 40 times to reach 37,632 bytes, Sochor calculates.

The size difference means that running biometric presentation attack detection (PAD) or morphing attack detection (MAD) on the image is unreliable, but Sochor says these fraud defense can still be applied at the enrollment stage, prior to image compression.

In internal testing with one of its own algorithms, Innovatrics found recognition with no compression at a 1 in 1 million false match rate (FMR) delivered a 0.28 percent false non-match rate (FNMR) on an FRTE visa dataset and 1.66 percent FNMR on an ID card dataset. When compressed, the error rates remained at 1.2 percent or lower for the FRTE dataset and 3.61 percent or lower for the ID card dataset, depending on the compression algorithm used.

As UNHCR looks for ways to fulfill its mandate with less resources, the potential face biometrics in QR codes offer for lower-cost identity verification is sure to receive serious consideration.

Article Topics

biometric data quality  |  biometrics research  |  EAB  |  EAB 2026  |  face biometrics  |  ISO/IEC 59794-5  |  QR code  |  UNHCR