Standards · · 3 min
ISO/IEC 30107-3 and the science of liveness detection
The international standard defines how presentation-attack detection — defenses against printed eyes, contact lenses and replay — is tested and reported.
A recognition system answers “are these the same iris?” — but not “is this a real, living eye?” Presentation-attack detection (PAD), also called liveness or anti-spoofing, is the layer that rejects printed eyes, patterned contact lenses, prosthetics and screen replays.
ISO/IEC 30107-3 is the international standard that defines how PAD is tested and reported. Its current Edition 2 was published in January 2023. It sets the metrics, the way results must be reported, and a classification of known attack types — so a vendor’s “liveness” claim can be measured consistently rather than merely asserted.
It is part of a family: 30107-1 frames the concepts, -2 defines data formats, and -4 covers PAD testing on mobile devices. A future revision is expected to specify which attacks must be included in a test.
For buyers, the value is comparability and certification: independent labs test PAD subsystems against 30107-3 and report attack-presentation classification error rates, giving procurement teams an objective number instead of a marketing word.