Active Liveness

Active Liveness adds interactive challenges during the selfie step — requiring the user to turn their head, smile, and blink — to provide stronger anti-spoofing protection than passive liveness alone.

Passive vs Active Liveness

Feature	Passive Liveness	Active Liveness
User action	None (single photo)	Head turns, smile, blink
Frames analyzed	1	8 — 12
Spoof resistance	Standard	High
Detects printed photos	Yes	Yes
Detects screen replay	Limited	Yes
Detects 3D masks	Limited	Yes
User friction	Very low	Low — moderate
Best for	Low-risk onboarding	Regulated industries, high-value accounts

How It Works

Challenge prompt

The user is shown a series of on-screen prompts: turn head left, turn head right, smile, and blink. The order is randomized per session.

Multi-frame capture

The SDK captures 8-12 frames during the challenge sequence, analyzing pose variation and expression changes.

Scoring

Each frame is evaluated for pose angle, expression detection, and texture analysis. The scores are aggregated into a final liveness result.

Result

The session receives a liveness score (0-100) and a pass/fail determination based on the configured threshold.

Configuration

Enable active liveness in the Dashboard > Workflows > Liveness Settings, or set it per session via the API:

{
  "profile": {
    "steps": ["document", "selfie"],
    "liveness_mode": "active"
  }
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
`liveness_mode`	string	`passive`	`passive` or `active`
`liveness_threshold`	integer	`75`	Minimum score to pass (0-100)
`liveness_challenges`	array	all	Subset of challenges: `head_left`, `head_right`, `smile`, `blink`

Example: Custom Challenges

{
  "profile": {
    "steps": ["document", "selfie"],
    "liveness_mode": "active",
    "liveness_threshold": 80,
    "liveness_challenges": ["head_left", "head_right", "blink"]
  }
}

Scoring Breakdown

The active liveness score is composed of two primary factors:

Factor	Weight	Description
Pose variation	50%	Measures actual head movement across frames. Higher variation indicates genuine motion.
Expression variation	50%	Detects expression changes (smile, blink). Ensures the user is responding to prompts.

Score Thresholds

Score	Interpretation
90 — 100	Very high confidence of a live person
75 — 89	High confidence — default pass threshold
50 — 74	Moderate confidence — may warrant manual review
0 — 49	Low confidence — likely spoofed

API Response

The session detail response includes the liveness_mode field and active liveness data:

{
  "id": "ses_a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "status": "approved",
  "selfie": {
    "liveness_mode": "active",
    "liveness_score": 92.5,
    "liveness_passed": true,
    "liveness_threshold": 75,
    "challenges_completed": ["head_left", "head_right", "smile", "blink"],
    "frames_captured": 10,
    "pose_variation_score": 94.0,
    "expression_variation_score": 91.0
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
`liveness_mode`	string	`passive` or `active`
`liveness_score`	number	Aggregated liveness score (0-100)
`liveness_passed`	boolean	Whether the score met the threshold
`liveness_threshold`	integer	Threshold used for pass/fail
`challenges_completed`	array	Challenges the user completed
`frames_captured`	integer	Number of frames analyzed
`pose_variation_score`	number	Head movement score (0-100)
`expression_variation_score`	number	Expression change score (0-100)

Active liveness requires the Verilock Web SDK or mobile SDKs. It is not available for API-only document upload flows.

Start with passive liveness for low-risk use cases and upgrade to active liveness for higher-risk scenarios. You can use different liveness modes across different verification workflows.

Getting Started

Integrations

Reference

AML Screening

Transaction Monitoring

Verification Enhancements

Data & Compliance

Decentralized Identity

Passive vs Active Liveness

How It Works

Configuration

Example: Custom Challenges

Scoring Breakdown

Score Thresholds

API Response

​Passive vs Active Liveness

​How It Works

​Configuration

​Example: Custom Challenges

​Scoring Breakdown

​Score Thresholds

​API Response

Passive vs Active Liveness

How It Works

Configuration

Example: Custom Challenges

Scoring Breakdown

Score Thresholds

API Response