Biometrics Standards and Standardardization

Biometric recognition can be described as automated methods to accurately recognize individuals based on distinguishing physiological and behavioural traits. Biometrics covers a variety of technologies in which unique identifiable attributes of people are used for identification and authentication. The report spotlights biometric recognition as a key form of authentication, one which is increasingly used in a wide range of applications made possible by advanced pattern recognition algorithms. To further the use of biometric systems, issues of security and privacy will need to be carefully addressed, as well as the high levels of expectation in accuracy, reliability, performance, adaptability, and cost of biometric technologies for a wide variety of applications. Safety, quality and technical compatibility of biometric technologies can be promoted through standards and standardization activities. Standards are essential for the deployment of biometric technologies on large-scale national and international applications. We discuss the advantages of biometric authenticators over their knowledge and possession based counterparts, describes different physiology- and behaviour-related human traits and how they are used in biometric systems. A choice of biometric recognition applications is highlighted, and an overview of standardization work in the field of biometrics is depicted.