Face match
Face match answers a single question: is the person taking the selfie the same person shown on the identity document? Zanyara compares the two faces and returns a similarity score against a threshold you control — so the decision is a number you can reason about, not a black-box yes/no.
How it works
- CaptureThe applicant takes a guided selfie (Zanyara’s SDKs frame and quality-check it).
- ReferenceThe face is compared to the document portrait — or, on chipped documents, the signed photo read from the NFC chip, a stronger source of truth.
- ScoreA 1:1 similarity score is returned and compared to your accept threshold; the score, threshold and outcome are all in the result.
Tuning the threshold
The right threshold is a risk decision, not a fixed constant. Tighten it to cut false accepts at the cost of more manual reviews; loosen it to reduce friction where the downside of a wrong match is lower. Because Zanyara returns the raw score, you can set the policy per workflow and change it without re-integrating.
Always with livenessA face match on its own can be met by a photo of the target. Zanyara pairs it with liveness and presentation-attack detection so the matched face is a real, present person — the two together are what bind a person to an identity.
Frequently asked questions
- Is face match a yes/no, or a score?
- A score. Zanyara returns a similarity value between the live selfie and the reference face, and compares it to a threshold you can tune for your risk appetite. A stricter threshold rejects more borderline matches (fewer false accepts, more manual reviews); a looser one does the opposite. The score and the threshold are both returned so your reviewers and audit trail see the reasoning, not just a verdict.
- What is the reference face compared against?
- The portrait extracted from the verified identity document, or — when the document has an NFC chip — the cryptographically signed photo read from the chip, which is far harder to swap than a printed page. See NFC chip verification.
- Does a high face-match score mean the person is really present?
- No — on its own, a face match can be satisfied by a photo of the target. That is why face match is always paired with liveness / presentation-attack detection, which confirms the selfie is a real, present person before the match is trusted.