PXL Vision and Idiap Research Institute develop new deepfake detector

Reliable detection of fake or manipulated faces to protect against digital identity fraud using identity documents.

Zurich, February 24th 2026 - PXL Vision, a leading Swiss provider of digital identity verification, and the Idiap Research Institute, one of Europe's leading institutes for artificial intelligence (AI) and biometrics, have successfully completed their joint research project on improving the detection of deepfakes. The collaboration, which began in spring 2024, focused on identifying synthetic faces in digital identity verification. These AI-generated images of supposedly real people are becoming increasingly widespread and pose an enormous challenge for identity verification. This is because they are now almost indistinguishable from real images. The research project was supported by the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse. The so-called deepfake detector is now integrated as a new key technology in PXL Vision's PXL Ident software solution and is available to all customers. This represents another major step forward for the company in terms of reliable fraud prevention in identification processes, and it is aware that further investments in this direction will follow in order to remain at the cutting edge of technology.

The PXL Deepfake Detector complements existing fraud prevention technologies and was developed to identify the following:

• Face swapping: replacing one person's face with that of another
• Face reenactments: manipulating the facial expressions or movements of a real person, and
• Fully synthetic faces, i.e. AI-generated images of people who do not exist in reality

The technology has been available to all customers since the beginning of the year. It is based on advanced deep learning architectures and has been trained using a diverse, extensive dataset of real and manipulated facial images. Deepfake Detector represents an important milestone in the company's mission to ensure trust, authenticity and compliance in digital identity verification.

Sébastien Marcel, head of the Biometric Security and Privacy group and member of the interim management team at Idiap, says: "As part of the project, we developed advanced AI-based technologies to detect and prevent deepfakes and other forms of identity fraud. This achievement reflects Idiap's long-standing expertise in biometrics, AI security and trusted digital identity. Our collaboration with PXL Vision has been both productive and inspiring. We look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of robust, privacy-compliant identity verification in the future."

The biggest challenge for Sébastien Marcel and his team was to leverage their biometrics expertise to tackle a new and demanding problem: identity documents. “‘While our experience with identity documents was limited, we were able to build on PXL’s strong expertise in this area,’ Marcel continues, ‘The result achieved has exceeded our initial expectation.’

‘Working with the Idiap team has been extremely rewarding,’ says Nevena Shamoska, CTO of PXL Vision. ‘Thanks to their world-class expertise in biometrics and generative AI, we have been able to significantly accelerate our progress in integrating state-of-the-art deepfake detection capabilities into our platform.’

PXL Vision will continue to invest in research on biometric security, AI forensics and deepfake resilience in order to effectively protect customers in the financial, telecommunications and government sectors from next-generation digital identity attacks. Idiap itself will scientifically process the findings from the research project and use them as content for white papers and specialist conferences.

About PXL Vision
PXL Vision is a leading Swiss provider of digital identity verification and electronic signature solutions. Based in Zurich, the company helps businesses to automate customer onboarding, increase conversion rates and reduce onboarding and compliance costs while preventing identity fraud. PXL Vision's solutions are based on artificial intelligence and offer fully automated, browser-based ID verification and electronic signature capabilities that can be seamlessly integrated into existing processes. PXL Vision's solutions are characterised by their wide range of configuration options and compliance with standards such as ISO, ZertEs and eIDAS.

About the Idiap Research Institute
The Idiap Research Institute, located in Martigny, Switzerland, is a Swiss and world leading research institute in Artificial Intelligence since 1991. With almost 200 employees, the Institute is specialized in several fields of AI, organized into four research programs: Human-AI Teaming, Resilient & Sustainable Societies, AI for Life & AI for All. In addition to its cutting-edge research, Idiap actively participates in local, national, and international projects, fosters collaborations with companies, and drives continuous innovation in the field.