The Orb’s first task is to determine if you are an actual living person that is not attempting to defraud the verification. It does so with a variety of camera sensors and machine learning models that analyze facial and iris features. Once that determination is made, the Orb takes a set of pictures of the person’s irises and uses several machine learning models and other computer vision techniques to create an iris code, which is a numerical representation of the most important features of an iris pattern.

All of these operations happen in real-time on the Orb. No images ever leave the device unless you choose to help us enhance the system by opting in to Data Custody.

This iris code is then signed with the Orb’s unique private key and submitted for comparison against all other iris codes to verify uniqueness. It's important to note that Worldcoin does not use your iris to identify who you are, but only to verify that you are unique and do not already exist.

Check out our blog to learn more about the Orb's hardware.
And for more information about the data the Orb collects and how we use it, review the Biometric Data Consent Form that you agree to when signing up at an Orb.