The BS ISO/IEC 19794 series of standards cover the science of using biological properties to identify individuals - for example, the recording of fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition - that is set to become a part of everyday life. Some of these standards will be used for the recording of biometric data on UK Passports and on UK ID Cards.
Whilst security threats and fighting terrorism have been the catalysts behind these standards, BSI is also striving to protect both individuals against ID inaccuracies and UK commercial interests in the biometrics industry. BS ISO/IEC 19794 applies to access control and identification systems, for example, information stored on smart cards or other recognition tools, as well as the storage of biometric identification data in corporate databases.
Reinforce Security and Prevent Fraud
These standards are essential for those concerned with government contracts and procurement, or with the enhancement of IT security through the identification of personnel and/or physical access control. They will be of interest to any organization wishing to reinforce security and prevent fraud by implementing strong identity management and access management.
Aimed at the following professional activities:
Use of the standards will enable one vendors equipment to produce a biometric data block in a format (whether its finger minutiae, finger, face or iris image) that can be compared directly with the relevant biometric data block format produced by a different vendors equipment, without the need for any collaboration between the two vendors (interoperability).
These four standards are the first, and probably the most important, of the biometric data block standards to be produced. Written for use in identity management systems, the standards cover will be used in or by:
BS ISO/IEC 19794-2:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Finger minutiae data
This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the features that can be identified and extracted from a digitised fingerprint. It specifies how the minutiae are to be identified, and their relative positions recorded, but most importantly the data structure (the biometric data block format) to be used to record this information. This international standard has two main formats. The first provides rapid and easy matching, the second is a more compressed format that is more suitable where the biometric data block is stored on a smart card.
BS ISO/IEC 19794-4:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Finger image data
This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of one or more fingers (or of a palm). It specifies how the image is to be acquired, and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format.
BS ISO/IEC 19794-5:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Face image data
This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of a face. It specifies how the image is to be acquired (including lighting, pose of the subject expression, head-dress, etc), and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format.
BS ISO/IEC 19794-6:2005 Information technology. Biometric data interchange formats. Iris image data
This standard defines a biometric data block format that contains a digital record of the image of an iris. It specifies how the image is to be acquired, and how it is to be converted to a digital representation, with a full specification of the digital format. Two formats are defined. The first can be produced by minimal processing of the image. The second is more compact, but requires more processing of the image.
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