Biometrics refers to the automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological and/or behavioral characteristics.

Biometrics refers to the automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological and/or behavioral characteristics.

The Biometrics Security and Privacy (BSP) group at Idiap focuses on three main areas of research:

  1. Biometric recognition: We investigate and develop new biometrics based recognition algorithms, notably for face, voice, and vein biometric modalities.
  2. Presentation attack detection: We look for new and better ways of detecting presentation attacks on face, voice, and vein biometric recognition systems.
  3. Biometric template protection: We research effective methods of preserving both the security of biometric recognition systems and the privacy of their users by protecting the biometric models ("templates") that are employed by the system for recognition purposes.

The BSP group prioritizes reproducibility in research. This is important for ensuring that our work can be both verified and built upon by the wider research community. To enable reproducibility, we mainly make use of our Python-based signal-processing and machine-learning toolbox, Bob, which we make freely available for academic purposes. The group also develops and maintains the BEAT platform -- a MLaaS platform compliant with Swiss and European data-security norms.

The group participates in several large-scale biometrics projects at Swiss (SNSF), European (H2020) or world-wide levels but also conducts projects directly with companies.

The BSP group provides also expertise to the Swiss Center for Biometrics Research and Testing, which, among other things, carries out tests and evaluations on commercial products related to biometrics.

Group News

Improving Biometric Privacy with Generative AI
research — Mar 27, 2025

Face recognition is widely used today, from unlocking phones to enhancing surveillance systems. However, this technology often relies on large datasets of internet photos collected without consent, raising privacy and ethical concerns. To address this, researchers at Idiap have developed a synthetic (fake but realistic) face dataset, offering a privacy-friendly alternative without compromising model performance.

Sébastien Marcel receives IEEE fellowship elevation
research — Feb 13, 2025

Sébastien Marcel, senior scientist at Idiap, has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 1, 2025. The IEEE fellowship testifies “the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, bringing the realization of significant value to society”[1].

World leaders in biometrics met at Idiap
tech — Apr 26, 2023

Idiap hosted a Biometrics Week. This one of a kind event gathered several hundreds of people from various backgrounds ranging from academia to industry. Organizers included the European Association for Biometrics and the US based Center for Identification Technology Research.

Group Job Openings

Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.

Current Group Members

The group is led by Sébastien Marcel.

MARCEL, Sébastien
(Senior Research Scientist with Academic Title, Interim management team)
- website


BHATTACHARJEE, Sushil (Kumar)
(Research Associate)
- website


ECABERT, Christophe
(Research Associate)


GEORGE, Anjith
(Research Associate)
- website


KOMATY, Alain
(Research Associate)


KOTWAL, Ketan
(Research Associate)
- website


KRIVOKUĆA HAHN, Vedrana
(Research Associate)
- website


COLBOIS, Laurent
(Postdoctoral Researcher)


LUÉVANO GARCÍA, Luis Santiago
(Postdoctoral Researcher)
- website


OTROSHI SHAHREZA, Hatef
(Postdoctoral Researcher)
- website


ÖZTÜRK, Ünsal
(Postdoctoral Researcher)


VIDIT, Vidit
(Postdoctoral Researcher)


POLAC, Magdalena
(Research Assistant)


RAHIMI NOSHANAGH, Parsa
(PhD Student / Research Assistant)


ULUCAN, Ibrahim
(Research Assistant)
- website


AL AMINE, Zeina
(Research Intern)


BOLLENGIER, Alexis
(Research Intern)


OUTUMURO BUENO, Alberto
(Research Intern)


POH, François
(Research Intern)
- website


Alumni

Please note that this list is not exhaustive.

  • AEBERHARD, Niels
  • ALVARENGA CARDOSO, Lucas (Alexandre)
  • ATANASOAEI, Constantin-Cosmin
  • BALA SUBBURAMAN, Venkatesh
  • BENDALE, Abhijit
  • BOURLARD, Maxime
  • BROS, Victor
  • BRUNINI, Gabriele
  • CAJEUX, Nils
  • CHINGOVSKA, Ivana
  • DE FREITAS PEREIRA, Tiago
  • DE REZENDE ROCHA, Anderson
  • DIEFENBAUGH, Jaden
  • EGLITIS, Teodors
  • EL KHOURY, Elie
  • EL SHAFEY, Laurent
  • ERDOGMUS, Nesli
  • FORMAZ, Marine
  • GALBALLY, Javier
  • GÜNTHER, Manuel
  • HALSTEAD, Michael (Allan)
  • HEUSCH, Guillaume
  • HUANG, Junduan
  • IBSEN, Mathias
  • JOHANSSON, Niklas
  • JUST, Agnès
  • KEOMANY, Jean
  • MÄÄTTÄ, Jukka
  • MANDASARI, Miranti
  • MCCOOL, Christopher
  • MCLAREN, Mitchell
  • MEHTA, Rakesh
  • MILLIUS, Josselin
  • MOHAMMADI, Amir
  • MORAIS, Antonio
  • NGUYEN, Huy (Hong)
  • NIKISINS, Olegs
  • OLDENBURGER, Laura
  • ORRÙ, Giulia
  • ÖZBULAK, Gokhan
  • PANNATIER, Yvan
  • PETTINATO, Michela
  • RABELLO DOS ANJOS, André
  • RAZEGHI, Behrooz
  • ROY, Anindya
  • SANCHEZ RIERA, Jordi
  • SARFJOO, Saeed (Seyyed)
  • SARKAR, Eklavya
  • SCHMIDLI, Dominic
  • SELLIAH, Janani
  • STEL, Lucas
  • THURRE, Veronique
  • TOME, Pedro
  • UNNERVIK, Alex
  • VANONI, Matthias
  • VAUCHER, Karine
  • VOISIN PLUMEL, Lou
  • WALLACE, Roy (Geoffrey)
  • WEBER, Benno
  • ZHANG, Xinyi

CITeR Membership

The Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) is an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). This center has been created with the core mission to advance the state of the art in human identification capabilities through coordinated university research. This initiative invites industry players to join forces in a cooperative effort to support and drive high quality research in biometrics and in return, to have privileged access to the developed technologies. 

CITeR consists of a number of academic sites (typically universities), and industry partners. The academic sites in CITeR conduct research projects focussing on the basic and applied research needs of CITeR members. Thus, CITeR members may fund sponsored research on proprietary projects for which they exclusively receive the research results. In the process, the CITeR membership fees are directly used to fund graduate-level research. To date it boasts membership of over 20 companies and organizations such as Idemia, Qualcomm, Infineon, Integrated Biometrics, Precise Biometrics, the FBI and Defense Research and Development Canada. The Swiss Biometrics Center is the first non-U.S. academic site of CITeR.

 

 

Why should you become a CITeR affiliate?

Industrial partners gain membership of CITeR by becoming affiliate partners of one of its academic sites. Any company, public R&D organization, or laboratory operated by a  government-owned contractor is eligible to become a CITeR affiliate. In broad terms, being a CITeR affliate brings you the following benefits: 
  • Research Access: CITeR affiliates (members) can attend the twice yearly meetings to review progress of current projects and to propose new projects. In addition to your own partner site, participation at these meetings gives you access to a wider community of biometrics resesearchers. At these meetings, you will also have the right to vote on which proposals should be funded by CITeR for the next round of projects. CITeR membership may also help to establish contacts with new, future customers.
  • Project Monitor: Members can mentor specific research projects at a CITeR site, that may be relevant to their business needs.
  • Exclusive Rights to Results: you will have exclusive access to the outcomes of the projects sponsored by you. Affiliates have the right to obtain worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual licenses to the results obtained within the projects funded by the Center, sub-licensable to its wholly owned subsidiaries.
  • Review and Deferral: the affiliates have the right to review publication requests of papers and presentations containing results and request a deferral of a limited time in case the publication contains patentable results or require protection.
  • Funding opportunities: CITeR membership opens up possibilities for teaming up with academic partners for project-proposals addressing specific government funding initiatives.
You can find more information about CITeR membership on the CITeR website

Contact us to join the Center as an Idiap Affiliate

Our affiliates

Current Affliliates Past Affiliates

Recent CITeR Projects at Idiap

CITeR projects are typically funded for a period of one year, starting either in October or Spring March. The start date of a project corresponds to the CITeR meeting (Fall or Spring) in which the project is approved. In recent years, we have undertaken the following projects within the scope of CITeR:

  • GENPAI  — Oct. 2023 – Oct. 2024
  • FAIRFACE — Jan. 2020 – Dec. 2020
  • VLM4FORBIO — March 2025 – March 2026

Active Research Grants

Past Research Grants