Relevant standards for Match-on-Card
Match-on-Card is a growing market. Therefore, it is important to achieve interoperability in order to offer freedom of choice, hence
cost-efficiency and flexibility, for the customer. One way to reach such desired interoperability is to establish and comply with standards. Here you find information about the standards that are relevant for Match-on-Card.
Comply with standards
Within the field of biometrics, there is standardization work carried out in order to establish standards on appropriate levels of the technology. Involved in the standardization work are governments, industry organizations and enterprises.
The starting point should be the objective of refering to a standard. If the objective is interoperability and exchangeability of the biometric components, then this is best achieved by referencing ISO standards at all interfaces.
- Image from sensor: ISO 19794-4
- Template from extractor: ISO 19794-2
- Card edge to Match-on-Card: ISO 7816-11
- Internal interface to the matching algorithm: Java Card Forum Biometric API or Multos Biometric API (depending on the type of card operating system)
When referencing a standard, it is useful to define interpretation and choices within the standard in order to achieve real interoperability.
The importance of the Extractor
In order to ensure the best usability of the fingerprint system, it is crucial that the enrollment is of highest possible quality. The fingerprint extractor is by far the most important factor to achieve the wanted interoperability and quality.
An extractor is used to enroll fingerprints and create fingerprint templates. The fingerprint templates are the lasting part of a biometric program as these are being stored on the smart card, but also used for back-up, etc. Enrollment is always one of the most crucial parts of a biometric program to ensure it will be running efficiently over a long time, compared to the matching, which is a one-time operation and use, always being compared to the template created by the extractor.
NIST; US National Institute of Standards and Technology have tested several extractors in the Ongoing MINEX program. » See list of Ongoing MINEX-tested Extractors
