An apparatus (8, 550, 56, 570, 580, 708) for identifying a person, comprising: - a real image camera for capturing a reflectance image of the person's face in the visible spectrum, - a thermal camera for capturing an infrared emission image of the person's face, - a real image evaluation section, and - an infrared image evaluation section, wherein the real image camera is adapted to transmit the reflectance image in the form of reflectance image data to the real image evaluation section, and the thermal camera is adapted to transmit the infrared emission image in the form of infrared image data to the infrared image evaluation section, wherein the real image evaluation section is adapted to determine first biometric features of the face from the reflectance image data, receive a reference image with a personal identification, determine second biometric features from said reference image, and if the first and the second biometric features coincide to a predetermined degree, provide an output controller with the personal identification, and wherein the infrared image evaluation section is adapted to determine a temperature distribution from the infrared image data and to determine whether the temperature distribution is at least partially approximating a temperature distribution in the face of a living person, in that the real image evaluation section determines whether a temperature value among the temperature distribution does not deviate by more than a predetermined temperature tolerance value from a predetermined temperature threshold value, and in this case to instruct the output controller to output the personal identification, with the real image camera and the thermal camera being coupled to each other and a relative distance between the real image camera and the thermal camera being constant, the real image camera and the thermal camera being adapted to capture the same image area simultaneously, and/or wherein the reflectance image data and the infrared image data are simultaneously evaluated in the real image evaluation section or in infrared real image evaluation section, respectively, and wherein the reflectance image data and the infrared image data are at least partially superimposed in order to detect whether the image data originate from a living face, characterised in that the apparatus further comprises a stereo camera which is oriented vertically to the real image camera and adapted to determine a position and a size of a person and of the person's head and to transmit characteristic data of the position and the size of the head to a camera controller which is connected with the motor drives of the real image camera and the thermal camera, and wherein the camera controller is adapted to control the motor drives of the real image camera and the thermal camera in such a manner that the image areas of the real image camera and the thermal camera covers the person's head, wherein the real image camera and the thermal camera are vertically movable together. - a real image camera for capturing a reflectance image of the person's face in the visible spectrum, - a thermal camera for capturing an infrared emission image of the person's face, - a real image evaluation section, and - an infrared image evaluation section, the real image camera and the thermal camera being adapted to capture the same image area simultaneously, and/or wherein the reflectance image data and the infrared image data are simultaneously evaluated in the real image evaluation section or in infrared real image evaluation section, respectively, and wherein the reflectance image data and the infrared image data are at least partially superimposed in order to detect whether the image data originate from a living face,