Identification documents are essential for the control and organization of public entities. In order to ensure the recognition of the population, the Government resorts to unique means of identification such as biometric images.
Captured images act at every stage of the documents, from the issuance of the document to the documentary and physical verification, carried out to discern whether the person presenting a document is him/herself.
Therefore, to handle such sensitive and unique data, high levels of process quality must be achieved.
To this end, BioPass ID relies on API packages focused on delivering the quality of registration and identity verification. Before getting to know the solutions, let's understand the relevance of quality in document issuance.
Why invest in biometric image quality in document issuance?
Identification documents contribute to counting and monitoring the population in order to safeguard the rights and duties of both individuals and public agencies.
The Identity Card (RG), the National Driver's License (CNH), the Labor and Social Security Card (CTPS), among other identification documents, have a direct influence on the planning of public policies and the distribution of federal, state and municipal resources.
In addition, the Government uses citizen information to forecast demographic growth. This monitoring is done through the collection of data from each person.
The collection of biometric identification is a tool to combat identity fraud and aims to ensure individual verification. It uses collected biometrics, which can be fingerprints and facial photos.
The use of these characteristics ensures that false documents are not issued and consequently circulate, in addition, it ensures the authenticity of identity in transactions and activities that require user identification. To achieve this effect, some parameters must be followed, such as quality assurance in data collection.
Thus, in order for the image that is used to be viable and have the necessary quality for the documents to be considered secure, there are some guidelines that need to be followed.
Here, we will highlight the guidelines for image capture:
- Lighting.
- Focus.
- Uniform background.
- Image resolution and size.
- Positioning in the camera.
- Facial expression.
- The clothing worn.
To deliver the quality of the images there are some technologies involved. Quality parameters are adopted to register the image and ensure that later the algorithm works in the best way in matching the data of an individual.
How BioPass ID helps the quality of biometric images
BioPass ID offers 3 packages focused on delivering the quality of biometric images: ICAO Quality Check, ICAO Image Crop and Background Remove. Let's understand how each of the APIs works.
ICAO Quality Check
The ICAO Quality Check API has the main function of checking the compliance of a facial image with the ICAO standard (ISO 19794-5), an international standard used in documents such as driver's license and passport.
The ICAO standard has 23 requirements. The ICAO Quality Check API verifies these requirements in order to ensure the security and authenticity of the documents and to simplify identity verification by the responsible authorities.
ICAO Image Crop
The ICAO Image Crop API function is to crop a facial photo image to adapt it to the ICAO standard. The standard considers the positioning of the eyes and the geometry of the face to perform the cropping according to the given standard.
This ensures that photos are accepted and processed in a consistent and uniform manner.
Background Remove
The Remove Background package is one of the newest technologies available in BioPass ID and is responsible for removing the background from captured images.
The removal of the background in images causes the focus of the algorithm to be directed to the geometry and proportion of the face. Thus, the technology contributes to greater accuracy in the collection of information during the processing and registration of facial biometrics.
The addition of this API to the others present in the package makes the process of registering and verifying facial images ideal for authentication processes by meeting the necessary requirements for the quality of data collection and registration.
In addition, the background removal makes the authentication and identity verification processes highly accurate.
How APIs work in practice
The Demo version is one of the easiest ways to test the quality of the image processing without having to implement it.
To do so, go to the BioPass ID menu, click on Demo and select the Background Remove option. Then choose the Send a Picture option as seen below:
This will bring up the options to drag and drop a file for "upload" or use "browse" for selection:
After choosing the option, wait for the data processing, which is being sent to the BioPass ID API, and the final result will be delivered with the default white background color:
Note that the delivery of the treated image respects well the limits for the identification of the person and the quality of the photo depends directly on the quality of the image provided.
In the same way, we can test the functioning of the API Quality Check return in the analysis of the 23 requirements of the ICAO standard, also on the demo page.
Click on the Face Compliance option, choose between the Send a Picture option to select a picture or Face Capture to send a picture captured in real time.
After uploading the image, please note that the fields referencing the 23 requirements are identified with a green check for the correct ones and a red exclamation mark if any requirement is violated.
To use the ICAO Image Crop solution, select the Face Crop option and determine whether to upload the image or capture the image in real time.
When choosing the image, the API will return it with the cutout made or with messages, indicating that the cutout cannot be made because it is not centered as shown in the following example:
Even if the distance is considered large, the operation is performed. Thus, centering the face and making the cut for use of the image in official documents.
See a successful example below:
Now, just implement the API
With the step by step exposed here, it is possible to implement ICAO Quality Check, ICAO Image Crop and Remove Background. To access in detail the implementation of each of them, access the documentation and select the API used.
And now, let's get down to business!
To implement the feature, the operation receives a base64 with the option to indicate the background color. If not indicated by default, the color will be white. If you want to set the background color, a hexadecimal code must be sent.
See the curl with the necessary information for the request:
As a positive return, the JSON body carries a message indicating the operation as successful together with a base image64.
If you want to check the result of the operation, use tools that decode the base64. As a suggestion, go to the base64 Guru website, paste the base and click on "decode" to be able to view the result of the image.
For more details on different ways to test the application, follow the 4 steps to integrate a biometric API in BioPass ID.
After testing and attesting the quality of the APIs, talk to one of our experts and implement the solution to your needs.
Tradução: Thalita Ferreira
