Reliable detection of doppelgängers based on deep face representations

• Published in: IET biometrics Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 215 - 224
• Main Authors: Rathgeb, Christian, Fischer, Daniel, Drozdowski, Pawel, Busch, Christoph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Stevenage John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2022; Hindawi-IET
• Subjects: Accuracy; Algorithms; Analysis; Automation; Biometrics; Biometry; Crowdsourcing; Datasets; detection; Detectors; doppelgänger; Error analysis; Error detection; Face; Face recognition; Facial recognition technology; lookalike; Machine learning; Morphing; Pattern recognition; Representations; Support vector machines
• ISSN: 2047-4938; 2047-4946
• DOI: 10.1049/bme2.12072

Doppelgängers (or lookalikes) usually yield an increased probability of false matches in a facial recognition system, as opposed to random face image pairs selected for non‐mated comparison trials. In this work, the impact of doppelgängers on the HDA Doppelgänger and Disguised Faces in The Wild databases is assessed using a state‐of‐the‐art face recognition system. It is found that doppelgänger image pairs yield very high similarity scores resulting in a significant increase of false match rates. Further, a doppelgänger detection method is proposed, which distinguishes doppelgängers from mated comparison trials by analysing differences in deep representations obtained from face image pairs. The proposed detection system employs a machine learning‐based classifier, which is trained with generated doppelgänger image pairs utilising face morphing techniques. Experimental evaluations conducted on the HDA Doppelgänger and Look‐Alike Face databases reveal a detection equal error rate of approximately 2.7% for the task of separating mated authentication attempts from doppelgängers.