Frequently Asked Questions

• Getting started
• Licensing procedure
• Application Related Questions
• Other Questions

Where can I download an evaluation version of your software?

We offer product evaluation licenses on request. Please contact our sales department to provide you with a temporary license agreement. Afterwards you will receive the download information by email.

Is there a manual available that provides an overview of the software functionality and helps me to configure FaceVACS to my needs?

All our products provide a detailed manual as PDF and HTML. Both are part of the installation and located in the doc folder of your installation directory.

I have installed my FaceVACS product successfully, but the service does not start? At FaceVACS-SDK: executing the provided examples an error messageis returned?

You need a valid activation key to activate your license and run any FaceVACS application or one of the provided examples. Please refer to the manual and the download email for information how to activate your FaceVACS product.

How can I check license validity in advance to prevent getting runtime license exceptions?

Start Configuration Editor from the start menu:
Start -> Programs -> FaceVACS software -> Configuration Editor

Select Setup -> License from the menubar. The License Management dialog box will pop up. At the bottom the current License state and the enabled features (newer versions only) are displayed. If your license is not permanent also the expiry date is shown.

I receive an error message that my license is invalid or missing. How can I activate my FaceVACS installation?

The functionality of our software is controlled by the license information in the configuration file. Our product licenses are always bound to a specific computer and may be limited in time. In order to issue a valid activation key Cognitec requires a Computer Identification of your target computer and some additional information about your current project, the intended purpose and the user.

The Computer Identification should be created and stored to a file using the Configuration Editor of your FaceVACS product. Please refer to the manual chapter “Activating the FaceVACS-SDK License” or “License Activation”.

Which information are required to issue a valid activation key?

Here is what we need to know for license issuance:

• Product name version:
  (the version of the FaceVACS product, the 1st 2 digits are essential, e.g. SDK 7.0)
• User:
  (name of the technical contact person entitled to get support/ to get the activation key)
• Email of User:
  (email address of User, he will also get the email containing the activation key)
• Project:
  (project name which allows to distinguish different licenses for the same customer)
• Purpose:
  (purposes of usage: development, testing, demo, production etc.)

Please fill in this list and send it together with the file containing the Computer Identification (hardware key and name of the computer, product name and version) to --> license(at)cognitec.com
Sometimes the mentioned file doesn't contain all the data or you create the ComputerID file with an older version of the software so we ask to state computer's name, product name as well as the product version anyway.

Which camera do you recommend?

There are a lot of camera brands and types available, and we are not able to recommend THE camera to be used. We support cameras that are accessible via the following interfaces:

• GigEVision cameras, e.g. Basler or Prosilica
• DirectShow on Windows, e.g. USB or FireWire
• IP cameras accessible via http using still image requests
• Video stream format support depends on installed Direct Show Codecs.

For the GigEVision interface FaceVACS-Alert offers a controlling facility which controls Gain and ExposureTime of the camera according to the faces found in the image. Additional information is available on request. Please describe your special use case and contact our support department.

How many persons can be enrolled?

This depends on the gallery size you purchased. Our largest installation at present covers 52 million persons. We haven't detected any bottlenecks and expect our software to scale to almost every gallery size w/o compromising the response time.

How many images are required for enrollment?

You can stick to one if it is a good frontal snapshot of the person. Taking multiple images increases the enrollment quality and therefore increases the overall performance. We have made good experiences with taking five images for enrollment. More than 10 images won't increase the enrollment quality.

Can I integrate FaceVACS products into my own applications?

All FaceVACS products offer integration capabilities. Depending on the product we offer C++ API, Webservice API or .NET API:

• FaceVACS-Alert and FaceVACS-DBScan contain a Integrators' Kit with C++ API and SOAP/XML web services. The main purpose of the Integrators' Kits is to control an installation of a FaceVACS product which includes the product specific framework.
• FaceVACS-SDK is a software development kit with C++ or .NET API. The provided .Net assembly can be called from any language supporting .NET:
  C#, Visual Basic .NET, Delphi .NET 2005, Managed C++ Extensions for .NET
  To access FaceVACS SDK .NET from Java please consult  Microsoft's Java Language Conversion Assistant Reference.
• Using FaceVACS C++ API from pure Visual Basic, pure Delphi, or pure Java is not supported.

How does FaceVACS-Alert integrate into DVR systems?

FaceVACS-Alert can be integrated into DVR systems using the Integrators Kit, which is delivered with the product.

I use FaceVACS-Alert, is it possible to send an alert message to a cellphone or email address?

The FaceVACS-Alert Integrators' Kit provides interfaces to observe incoming alerts. If an alarm arises, you can use this information to send an email or sms to any user and admin. But this part is not provided by the Integrators' Kit and have to be implemented by your own, e.g. with an C++ email engine which allows you to send and receive email inside of your application.

What is the life cycle of Cognitec's products?

Please refer to the following documents which explain the product life cycle in general and product by product:

• Cognitec product life cycle
• Cognitec product life cycle product by product 

What is a good image for FaceVACS?

There is no simple answer to this question, because the image requirements depend on the specific application scenario where FaceVACS Technology is applied. If you want to use FaceVACS for facial recognition, a good image meets the following conditions:

• A face is completely visible at a frontal view, almost covering the whole image
• Both eyes are clearly visible
• Only minor parts of the face may be covered
• Neutral facial expression
• Homogenous lighting of the face, no hard shadows
• The space between the pupils in the "original" image must be 32 pixels or more.
• Compression of images must not be too extensive, in order to avoid performance degradation.

If you need additional information regarding the image requirements for FaceVACS, please contact our support department.

Can I use printed photographs of existing ID-Documents?

We don't recommend using images scanned from ID-Documents. Beyond a low signal to noise ratio those images usually contain security engravings and imprints. For more information concerning image requirements for face recognition refer to the FaceVACS-Alert/ -DBScan Manual, section "Biometrics with Face Recognition". This reference is also available from our website (1 MByte):
Image Acquisition Guide
This ZIP archive contains 3 according HTML files and the glossary.

Please also refer to the other FAQ pages that address general biometric information.

• Biometrics Catalog
• Biometrie Online
• BSI (German)
• EU project 3D Face
• Face Recognition Homepage
• Find Biometrics
• International Association for Biometrics (iAfB) and International Computer Security Association (ICSA)
• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37 - Biometrics
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• TeleTrusT, WG6 Biometrics
• The Biometric Consortium