Eyeball Tracking As An ID Verification Tool

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jul 21, 2017

Don’t roll your eyes at this one

Identity solutions provider Jumio has introduced a new enhancement for its biometric Netverify product, which helps banks, online gambling and other e-commerce companies to verify the ID of customers.

The new technology is centred on eyeball tracking to conduct what the company calls a “liveness” check on a customer holding a mobile device. The product enhances already available technology that can check facial recognition and facial image matching.

Jumio CEO Steve Stuut claims that the addition of eyeball tracking makes Jumio’s Netverify the most sophisticated ID verification solution in the market, with particular reference to the mobile sector, where customer interaction increasingly is taking place.

The new eyeball tracking authentication will require users to follow an icon on the screen of a mobile device, like a smartphone, with their eyes. The icon will move in a random pattern, and the software will be able to identify whether or not the person holding the device is legitimate.

The “liveness” check ensures that a real person is holding the handset, while other biometric verifications will be able to ensure that the person is who they claim to be.

“Fingerprint and iris scans give consumers a false sense of security,” says Philipp Pointner, VP of Products at Jumio.

“Just in May, hackers demonstrated they could beat the Samsung 8 iris scan. This is a technology arms race. The addition of eyeball tracking makes it exponentially more difficult to imitate someone you’re not, giving businesses and consumers a higher level of trust.”

---