New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS): The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday said it was going to roll out face authentication as an additional security feature for Aadhaar verification from July 1.

The new feature would make it convenient for those who have difficulty in authentication through fingerprints or iris.

However, the face recognition would be used only in "fusion mode", that is it would be valid only when used along with one more authentication feature -- fingerprint or iris or one-time password (OTP), the UIDAI said in a statement.

Presently UIDAI provides two modes of biometric authentication -- fingerprint and iris.

"The UIDAI has decided to enable face authentication in fusion mode on registered devices by July 1, 2018 so that people facing difficulty in other biometric authentication (fingerprint and iris) could easily authenticate," the Authority said.

"The face authentication feature will provide additional option for all residents to have inclusive authentication. Besides, the feature will also be allowed on need basis," it added.

The moves comes due to mismatch of biometrics being reported, including those faced by senior citizens with fading fingerprints. Fading fingerprints is also faced by people in rural areas who depend on labour-intensive employment.

The UIDAI said the new feature will help in "inclusive authentication of those who are not able to biometrically authenticate due to their worn out fingerprints, old age or hard work conditions".

It said that since face photo is already available in UIDAI database, there is no need to capture any new reference data at the Authority's Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR).

Aadhaar authentication is being used as the primary identity verification mechanism by many systems such as banks, telecom companies, PDS, Income Tax Department, employees attendance etc.