Vocabulary harmonisation for biometrics: the development of ISO/IEC 2382 Part 37

This study discusses a 10-year effort by Standards Committee 37 of the International Organisation for Standardisation/International Electrotechnical Commission Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37) to create a systematic vocabulary for the field of `biometrics´ based on international standards for vocabulary development. That process has now produced a new International Standard (ISO/IEC 2382-37:2012), which conceptualises and defines 121 terms that are most central to the proposed field. This study will review some of the philosophical and operational principles of vocabulary development within SC37, present 11 of the most commonly used standardised terms with their definitions and discuss some of the conceptual changes implicit in the new vocabulary.