General Description of Face Biometrics

The face is made up of many distinct micro and macro elements. The macro elements include the mouth, nose, eyes, cheekbones, chin, lips, forehead, and ears. The micro features include the distances between the macro features, or a reference feature and the size of the feature itself. Also, unseen to the human eye is the fact that our bodies and faces radiate heat, which can be measured by using infrared cameras . All these features can be used by face biometric systems to help identify and authenticate someone. The use of these traits is described in greater detail in the section regarding algorithms.