Multibiometric techniques and standards activities

The concepts of applying multiple biometric techniques or devices to solve the practical problems that plague biometric deployments have been under development, and analysis for some time. The benefits promised include reduced error rates, better enrollment and higher levels of user acceptance. However, these benefits come at a cost, not necessarily the initial implementation costs, but also the investment in accumulating historical data for sensor characterization, development and tuning of computationally complex systems, and possibly in terms of user inconvenience and/or satisfaction. This paper provides a basis for the discussion and analysis of multibiometric systems. Clear and precise terminology is offered to promote efficient communication within the technical community. A framework is proposed that supports the development, of international standards that will promote the deployment and interoperability of these advanced biometric systems. Hypothetical examples of multibiometric system designs are used to illustrate the concepts and to explore the benefits and costs. And lastly, this paper formulates a challenge to the multibiometric analysis community to recognize and understand the tradeoff between system complexity and achieved benefits.