An Investigation of Minutiae Template Interoperability

This paper describes tests examining the interoperability of fingerprint matchers using ISO/IEC 19794-2 record format and compact-card compliant templates generated by multiple vendors. Using five databases totalling approximately 5000 subjects interoperability tests were conducted using template generation and matching software from four vendors. The intermediate results of the project demonstrated a great deal of variability between databases, making simple performance based metrics an unsuitable indicator of interoperability. As expected the reduction of information in standards compliant minutiae templates increases error rates. Compact-card format further reduces the available information, marginally adding to the error rates. Despite variability in absolute performance, the relative performance loss and the outlying pairs of interoperable vendors are consistent across our different databases We describe further work that is required in terms of certifying interoperable performance and removing ambiguity in certain parts of the published standards.