Face spoofing detection using surface and sub-surface reflections analysis

Abstract

Reflection based analysis has been used in previous research for various objectives. Materials classification is one of them. Basically, each material consists of two types of reflections: surface and sub-surface. To separate these two reflections, polarized light could be applied. Previously, multi-reflections characteristics were analyzed using polarized light to classify objects such as between metals and non-metals. However, no trial has been done using the same method to distinguish real and fake faces that could be used to combat spoofing attempts in face biometric system. Since human skin is multi layers structure, it also produces multi reflections. In this paper, driven by the theory, surface and sub-surface reflections of both genuine human face and paper face mask were statistically examined. In addition, iPad displayed face images were also used as spoofing attempts. Images of genuine and spoofing faces were captured using polarized light under two different polarization angles: 0 and 90 degrees. Each angle captured images with surface and sub-surface reflections, accordingly. Those reflections were analyzed based on the mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. Modality distribution of each image was also studied using another method called the bimodality coefficient (BC). From the results, it is not possible to distinguish between genuine face and printed photos because of the multi reflections’ similarities. However, iPad displayed face images have been successfully identified as spoofing trials.