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NIST Special Publication 800-76-1

Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification

January 2007

July 2013

SP 800-76-1 is superseded in its entirety by the publication of

SP 800-76-2 (July 2013).

NIST Special Publication 800-76-2

Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification

Patrick Grother, Wayne Salamon, Ramaswamy Chandramouli

July 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-76-2

Computer Security Division (Information Technology Lab)

SP 800-76-2 (as of August 7, 2015)

http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/piv/

N/A
NIST Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Data Specification for 

Personal Identity Verification

January 2007

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director

Charles Wilson

Patrick Grother

Ramaswamy Chandramouli

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology

NIST Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Data Specification for 

Personal Identity Verification

January 2007

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director

Charles Wilson

Patrick Grother

Ramaswamy Chandramouli

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

REPORTS ON COMPUTER SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the Nation’s measurement 

and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of concept 

implementations, and technical analyses to advance the development and productive use of information 

technology. ITL’s responsibilities include the development of management, administrative, technical, and 

physical standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of non-national security-related 

information in Federal information systems. This special publication 800-series reports on ITL’s research, 

guidelines, and outreach efforts in information system security, and its collaborative activities with industry, 

government, and academic organizations. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-76-1, 33 pages 

(January 2007) 

ii 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors, Charles Wilson, Patrick Grother, and Ramaswamy Chandramouli of the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST), wish to thank their colleagues who reviewed drafts of this document and 

contributed to its development. Particular thanks go to R. Michael McCabe for his extensive knowledge of the 

Federal Bureau of Investigation's procedures. The authors also gratefully acknowledge and appreciate the many

contributions from the public and private sectors for the continued interest and involvement in the development 

of this publication. 

iii 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-12 called for new standards to be adopted governing the 

interoperable use of identity credentials to allow physical and logical access to Federal government locations 

and systems. The Personal Identity Verification (PIV) standard for Federal Employees and Contractors, Federal 

Information Processing Standard (FIPS 201), was developed to establish standards for identity credentials. This 

document, Special Publication 800-76 (SP 800-76), is a companion document to FIPS 201. It describes 

technical acquisition and formatting specifications for the biometric credentials of the PIV system, including the 

PIV Card1

 itself. It enumerates procedures and formats for fingerprints and facial images by restricting values

and practices included generically in published biometric standards. The primary design objective behind these 

particular specifications is high performance universal interoperability. For the preparation of biometric data 

suitable for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background check, SP 800-76 references FBI 

documentation, including the ANSI/NIST Fingerprint Standard and the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission 

Specification. This document does not preclude use of other biometric modalities in conjunction with the PIV 

card. 

 

1

 A physical artifact (e.g., identity card, “smart” card) issued to an individual that contains stored identity credentials (e.g., photograph, 

cryptographic keys, biometric data) so that the claimed identity of the cardholder can be verified against the stored credentials by

another person (human readable and verifiable) or an automated process (computer readable and verifiable).

iv 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

Table of Contents

1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................1

1.1 Authority.......................................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Purpose and scope......................................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Audience, assumptions, and overview ........................................................................................... 1

2. Terms, acronyms, and notation..............................................................................................3

2.1 Terms.............................................................................................................................................. 3

2.2 Acronyms........................................................................................................................................ 3

3. Fingerprint enrollment.............................................................................................................4

3.1 Scope.............................................................................................................................................. 4

3.2 Fingerprint data retention................................................................................................................ 5

3.3 Fingerprint image acquisition.......................................................................................................... 5

3.4 Fingerprint template specifications ................................................................................................. 6

3.4.1 Source images................................................................................................................... 6

3.4.2 Card Issuance.................................................................................................................... 7

3.4.3 Minutia record .................................................................................................................... 7

3.5 Fingerprint image format for images retained by agencies .......................................................... 10

3.6 Fingerprint image specifications for background checks.............................................................. 12

4. Sensor specifications for fingerprint verification...............................................................12

4.1 Scope............................................................................................................................................ 12

4.2 PIV authentication fingerprint acquisition specifications............................................................... 13

5. Facial image specifications ..................................................................................................14

5.1 Scope............................................................................................................................................ 14

5.2 Acquisition and format .................................................................................................................. 14

6. Common header for PIV biometric data ..............................................................................17

7. Performance testing and certification procedures.............................................................20

7.1 Scope............................................................................................................................................ 20

7.2 PIV authentication......................................................................................................................... 20

7.3 Test overview................................................................................................................................ 20

7.3.1 Template generator ......................................................................................................... 21

7.3.2 Template matcher............................................................................................................ 23

7.4 Test procedure.............................................................................................................................. 23

7.5 Determination of an interoperable group ...................................................................................... 24

7.6 Performance of biometric systems in PIV..................................................................................... 24

8. Conformance to this specification.......................................................................................25

8.1 Conformance ................................................................................................................................ 25

8.2 Conformance to PIV registration fingerprint acquisition specifications......................................... 25

8.3 Conformance of PIV Card fingerprint template records................................................................ 25

8.4 Conformance of PIV registration fingerprints retained by agencies ............................................. 25

8.5 Conformance of PIV background check records.......................................................................... 25

8.6 Conformance to PIV authentication fingerprint acquisition specifications.................................... 25

8.7 Conformance of PIV facial image records .................................................................................... 25

8.8 Conformance of CBEFF wrappers................................................................................................ 25

8.9 Conformance of template generators ........................................................................................... 26

8.10 Conformance of template matchers.............................................................................................. 26

9. References .............................................................................................................................27

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

List of Figures 

Figure 1 : PIV fingerprint image flow.................................................................................................................. 4

Figure 2 : Minutiae angle determination............................................................................................................. 9

List of Tables 

Table 1: Fingerprint acquisition protocols ......................................................................................................... 5

Table 2: Quality control procedure for acquisition of a full set of fingerprint images ........................................ 6

Table 3: INCITS 378 profile for PIV Card templates ......................................................................................... 7

Table 4: INCITS 381 profile for agency retention of fingerprint Images.......................................................... 10

Table 5: Record types for background checks................................................................................................ 12

Table 6: INCITS 385 profile for PIV facial images........................................................................................... 14

Table 7: Simple CBEFF structure ................................................................................................................... 17

Table 8: Patron format PIV specification......................................................................................................... 17

Table 9: CBEFF biometric data type encoding ............................................................................................... 18

Table 10: INCITS 381 specification for PIV Card template generator certification......................................... 21

Table 11: INCITS 378 specification for PIV Card template generator and matcher certification.................... 22

vi 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

1. Introduction 

1.1 Authority

This document has been developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in furtherance 

of its statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, 

Public Law 107-347. 

NIST is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements, for providing 

adequate information security for all agency operations and assets, but such standards and guidelines shall not 

apply to national security systems. This recommendation is consistent with the requirements of the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), Securing Agency Information Systems, as 

analyzed in A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections. Supplemental information is provided in A-130, 

Appendix III. 

This recommendation has been prepared for use by federal agencies. It may be used by non-governmental 

organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright. Nothing in this document should be taken to 

contradict standards and guidelines made mandatory and binding on Federal agencies by the Secretary of 

Commerce under statutory authority. Nor should this recommendation be interpreted as altering or superseding 

the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, or any 

other Federal official. 

1.2 Purpose and scope 

FIPS 201 [FIPS], Personal Identity Verification (PIV) for Federal Employees and Contractors, defines 

procedures for the PIV lifecycle activities including identity proofing, registration, PIV Card issuance, and PIV 

Card usage. FIPS also defines the structure of an identity credential which includes biometric data. 

Requirements concerning cryptographic protection of the biometric data are also described in [FIPS] and in 

[800-78]. 

This document contains technical specifications for biometric data mandated in [FIPS]. These specifications 

reflect the design goals of interoperability and performance of the PIV Card. This specification addresses image 

acquisition to support the background check, fingerprint template creation, retention, and authentication. The 

goals are addressed by citing biometric standards normatively and by enumerating requirements where the 

standards include options and branches. In such cases, a biometric profile can be used to declare what content is 

required and what is optional. This document goes further by constraining implementers' interpretation of the 

standards. Such restrictions are designed to ease implementation, assure conformity, facilitate interoperability,

and ensure performance, in a manner tailored for PIV applications. 

The biometric data specification in this document is the mandatory format for biometric data carried in the PIV 

Data Model (Appendix A of SP 800-73-1). Biometric data used only outside the PIV Data Model is not within 

the scope of this standard. 

This document does however specify that any biometric data in the PIV Data Model shall be embedded in the 

Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework (CBEFF) structure of section 6. This document provides an 

overview of the strategy that can be used for testing conformance to the standard. It is not meant to be a 

comprehensive set of test requirements that can be used for certification or demonstration of compliance to the 

specifications in this document. 

1.3 Audience, assumptions, and overview

This document is targeted at Federal agencies and implementers of PIV systems. Readers are assumed to have a 

working knowledge of biometric standards and applications. This document defines, in section 3, the fingerprint 

acquisition process, the format of the PIV Card minutiae templates, and a format for agency-optional image 

retention. In section 4 it puts requirements on fingerprint mediated verification implementations, and specifies, 

1 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

in section 5, a facial image acquisition and retention format. Section 6 defines the generic header for all PIV 

biometric data. Sections 7 and 8 cover, respectively, certification and conformance tests. Finally section 9 is a 

list of references. 

2 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

2. Terms, acronyms, and notation 

2.1 Terms 

Term Definition 

Segmentation For fingerprints, segmentation is the separation of an N finger image into N single finger images. 

2.2 Acronyms 

Acronym Definition 

ANSI American National Standards Institute 

CBEFF Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework 

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standard 

EFTS / F Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification (Appendix F) 

INCITS InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards 

ISO International Organization for Standardization 

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission 

NFIQ NIST Fingerprint Image Quality

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

PIV Personal Identity Verification 

WSQ Wavelet Scalar Quantization

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

3. Fingerprint enrollment 

3.1 Scope 

The specifications in this section pertain to the production of the mandatory PIV biometric enrollment data. 

That is, this section provides specifications for acquisition, formatting, and storage of fingerprint images and 

templates. The following is an overview of the material covered in this section. 

+ Section 3.2 gives specifications for the use of fingerprint scanners to capture fingerprint images for PIV 

Registration; 

+ Section 3.4 gives the format for fingerprint templates stored on the PIV Card; 

+ Section 3.5 gives specifications for fingerprint images retained by agencies; 

+ Section 3.6 specifies the transformation of fingerprints into records suitable for transmission to the FBI 

for the background check.

Note that although FBI requirements drive the sensor specifications, the permanent electronic storage formats, 

specified in Sections 3.4 and 3.5, are INCITS (i.e. non-FBI) standard records and are therefore specified 

independently. Figure 1 depicts the procedure for fingerprint acquisition and storage. 

Figure 1 : PIV fingerprint image flow

Ten-print 

Fingerprint 

Acquisition

(Table 1) 

Quality Control 

(Table 2) 

Fingerprint 

Images

INCITS 378 

Generator 

(Sec. 3.3) 

INCITS 381 

Generator 

(Sec. 3.4) 

ANSI-NIST 

Type 4 or Type 14 

Generator 

(Sec. 3.5) 

PIV Card 

(800-73) 

Registration 

Authority or

Agency

FBI 

Background 

Check 

Transmit,

directly or 

via OPM 

Retain 

Pass 

Fail 

PIV Card Re-issuance 

[FIPS, 5.3.2.1]

Segmentation 

Store 

Pre-PIV Practice 

Re-acquire 

4 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

3.2 Fingerprint data retention 

This document neither requires nor precludes agencies from retaining fingerprint images. However, if an 

agency elects to retain images, then they shall be stored in the format specified in section 3.5. The format 

specification includes the [CBEFF] header of section 6, and this allows for encryption of the image records. 

This document neither requires nor precludes agencies from retaining fingerprint templates. However, if an 

agency elects to retain templates, in either proprietary or standardized formats, then they shall be embedded in 

the [CBEFF] header of section 6. This allows for encryption of the records. 

Retention of data supports, for example, detection of duplicate identities. 

3.3 Fingerprint image acquisition 

This section specifies the capture of a full set of fingerprint images for PIV registration. A subject's fingerprints 

shall be collected according to any of the three imaging modes enumerated in Table 1. 

Table 1: Fingerprint acquisition protocols 

Option 1 – Required presentations for plain live scan 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the right hand (no thumb) 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the left hand (no thumb) 

Combined impression of the two thumbs 

Option 2 – Required presentations for rolled live scan 

10 separately rolled fingers 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the right hand (no thumb) 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the left hand (no thumb) 

Left thumb plain impression 

Right thumb plain impression 

These captures may be simultaneous (two thumbs next to 

each other) or sequential (one thumb at a time) 

Option 3 - Required presentations for rolled ink on card 

10 separately rolled fingers 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the right hand (no thumb) 

Combined plain impression of the four fingers on the left hand (no thumb) 

Left thumb plain impression 

Right thumb plain impression 

These captures may be simultaneous (two thumbs next to 

each other) or sequential (one thumb at a time) 

INFORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. There is no requirement that the order specified above is the order in which the images must be acquired.

2. The combined multi-finger plain-impression images are also referred to as slaps or flats. They are obtained by 

simultaneous placement of multiple fingers on the imaging surface without specific rolling movement. 

3. Options 2 and 3 represent existing agency practice. Although Option 1 is now acceptable to the FBI agencies may 

need to implement Options 2 or 3 for transmission via the Office of Personnel Management. 

For Options 1 and 2 the devices used for capture of the fingerprints shall have been certified by the FBI to 

conform to Appendix F of the FBI’s Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification [EFTS, Appendix F]. 

For Option 3, a scan of the inked card shall be performed to effect conversion to electronic form. The scanner 

shall be certified by the FBI as being compliant with [EFTS, Appendix F]. The scanning is needed to produce 

fingerprints in the digital format described in Section 3.5 and thereby Section 3.6. The FBI specifications 

include width and height specifications for the imaging surface. The native scanning resolution of the device 

shall be 197 pixels per centimeter (500 pixels per inch) in both the horizontal and vertical directions. These 

specifications comply with the FBI submission requirements and with the Image Acquisition Setting Level 31 of 

the Finger Image-Based Data Interchange Format standard, INCITS 381 [FINGSTD]. 

5 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

The procedure for the collection of fingerprints, presented in Table 2, shall be followed. The procedure shall 

employ the NIST Fingerprint Image Quality [NFIQ] algorithm to initiate any needed reacquisition of the 

images. An attending official shall be present at the time of fingerprint capture. The agency shall employ 

measures to ensure the quality of acquisition and guard against faulty presentation, whether malicious or 

unintentional. Such activity might be an integral function of the acquisition device or might be implemented by

the attending official. In any case, the agency shall ensure that the applicant does not swap finger positions or 

hands, occlude fingers, or misalign or misplace the fingers. Particularly, because it is common during 

collection of multi-finger plain impressions for fingers 05 and 10 to not be long enough to reach the imaging 

platen, it is accepted practice for the hand be placed at an angle to the horizontal to ensure imaging of all four 

fingers. Although this is not needed with newer, large-platen, devices the official shall in all cases take care to 

image all fingers completely. The procedure requires segmentation of the multi-finger plain impressions; this 

operation may be assisted by the attending official. 

Table 2: Quality control procedure for acquisition of a full set of fingerprint images 

Step Action 

1. Attending official should inspect fingers and require absence of foreign material. 

2. Official should ensure imaging surface of the sensor, or the card, is clean. 

3. Acquire fingerprints according to Option 1, 2, or 3 in Table 1. For Option 3, scan the inked card using [EFTS, Appendix F]

certified scanner.

4.

Segment the multi-finger plain impression images into single-finger images. Automated segmentation is recommended. 

Attending official should inspect the boundaries of the automatic segmentation and correct any failures, perhaps via an 

interactive graphical user interface. 

5. Compute NFIQ value for thumbs and index fingers. If all have NFIQ values of 1, 2, or 3 (i.e., good quality) then go to step 8.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 up to three more times. 

7.

If after four acquisitions the index fingers and thumbs do not all have NFIQ values of 1, 2 or 3 then select that set, acquired in

step 3 and segmented in step 4, for which the mean of the NFIQ values of the left index, right index, left thumb, and right 

thumb is minimum (i.e. of best quality). If all of the index finger and thumb quality values are unavailable (perhaps because

of injury to one or more of those fingers) then use the last set from step 3 of those fingers that are available, without any 

application of NFIQ. 

8. Prepare and store the final records per Sections 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6 

Ordinarily, all ten fingerprints shall be imaged in this process; however, if one or more fingers are not available 

(for instance, because of amputation) then as many fingers as are available shall be imaged. When fewer than 

ten fingers are collected, the FBI background transaction of Section 3.4 requires (in field AMP 2.084 of an 

accompanying Type 2 record) the labeling of those fingers that are amputated or otherwise not imaged; see 

[EFTS, Appendix C]. 

3.4 Fingerprint template specifications 

This section specifies how the PIV mandatory biometric elements specified in [FIPS] are to be generated and 

stored. This specification applies to templates stored within the PIV Card, and to [MINUSTD] templates 

otherwise retained by agencies. The templates constitute the enrollment biometrics for PIV authentication and 

as such are supported by a high quality image acquisition specification, and a FBI-certified compression format. 

The specification of a standardized template in this section enables use of the PIV Card in a multi-vendor 

product environment. 

3.4.1 Source images 

Two [MINUSTD] fingerprint templates shall be stored on the PIV Card; these are hereafter referred to as PIV 

Card templates. These shall be prepared from images of the primary and secondary fingers (as specified in 

[FIPS]). These images shall be those obtained by segmenting the plain impressions of the full set of fingerprints 

captured during PIV Registration and stored in row 8 of Table 2. 

6 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

Significant rotation of the multi-finger plain impressions (for example, that which can occur when four fingers 

are imaged using a narrow platen) shall be removed prior to, or as part of, the generation of the mandatory

minutiae templates. The rotation angle shall be that which makes the inter-phalangeal creases approximately

horizontal or, equivalently, the inter-finger spaces approximately vertical. This requirement supports 

interoperable fingerprint matching. 

3.4.2 Card Issuance 

When a PIV Card is issued, one or more authentication attempts shall be executed per [FIPS, 5.3.1]. This shall 

entail capture of new live fingerprints of both the primary and secondary fingers, and matching of those with the 

PIV Card templates. This binds the cardholder to the individual whose background was checked. This 

authentication should use images collected using either a [EFTS/F] multi-finger fingerprint imaging device of 

section 3.2, or a [SINGFING] device of Section 4. 

3.4.3 Minutia record 

PIV Card templates shall be a conformant instance of the INCITS 378-2004 [MINUSTD] minutiae template 

standard. That is, the minutiae from both the primary and secondary fingers shall reside within a single INCITS 

378 record. This means that there will be one instance of the "General Record Header" [MINUSTD, 6.4], and 

two instances of the "Finger View Record" [MINUSTD, 6.5]. This record shall be wrapped in a single instance 

of the CBEFF structure specified in Section 6 prior to storage on the PIV Card. The PIV Card templates shall 

not be encrypted. 

Table 3 is a profile of the generic [MINUSTD] standard. Its specifications shall apply to all minutiae templates 

placed on PIV Cards. These constraints are included to promote highly accurate and interoperable personal 

identity verification. This document recommends that the minutiae records should be prepared after the images 

are captured and before they are compressed for storage (see Figure 1). 

INCITS 378 is likely to be revised by the INCITS M1 committee. Such revisions are irrelevant to PIV; however 

implementations should respect the version number on Line 14 of Table 3. 

To assist implementers, NIST has made [MINUSTD] sample data available2

. 

Table 3: INCITS 378 profile for PIV Card templates

INCITS 378-2004 PIV 

Section title and/or field name Conformance 

(Numbers in parentheses are [MINUSTD]

clause numbers) 

Field 

or

content 

Value 

Reqd Values Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

1. Principle (5.1) NC A Defines fingerprint minutiae 

2. Minutia Type (5.2) See Note 1 [MINUSTD, 5.2] defines minutiae type 

but contains no normative content 

3. Minutia Location : Coordinate System

(5.3.1) NC A

4. Minutia Location : Minutia Placement on 

a Ridge Ending (5.3.2) NC A

5. Minutia Location : Minutia Placement on 

a Ridge Bifurcation (5.3.3) NC A

6. Minutia Location : Minutia Placement on 

Other Minutia Types (5.3.4) NC See Note 1 

Definitions to be used when calculating 

minutia location. 

7. Minutia Direction : Angle Conventions 

(5.4.1) NC A

8. Minutia Direction : Angle of a Ridge 

Ending (5.4.2) NC A

Definitions to be used when calculating 

minutia angle.

 

2 Minutiae records conformant to the PIV specification are here http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/nigos/piv_sample_data.html and these were prepared 

using NIST software available from http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/nigos/incits.html

7 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

INCITS 378-2004 PIV 

Section title and/or field name Conformance 

(Numbers in parentheses are [MINUSTD]

clause numbers) 

Field 

or

content 

Value 

Reqd Values Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

9. Minutia Direction : Angle of a Ridge 

Bifurcation (5.4.3) NC A

10. Byte Ordering (6.2) NC A Big Endian, unsigned integers

11. Minutia Record Organization (6.3) NC A 

12. CBEFF Record Header (6.4) MF MV Patron format

PIV Multi-field CBEFF Header, Sec. 6. 

13. Format Identifier (6.4.1) MF MV 0x464D5200 i.e. ASCII "FMR\0"

14. Version Number (6.4.2) MF MV 0x20323000 i.e. ASCII " 20\0" which is INCITS

378-2004. See Note 2 

15. Record Length (6.4.3) MF MV 26 ≤ L ≤ 1574 This connotes a 2 byte field. See Note 3 

16. CBEFF Product Identifier Owner (6.4.4) MF MV > 0 See Note 4 

17. CBEFF Product Identifier Type (6.4.4) MF MV > 0 See Note 4 

18. Capture Equipment Compliance (6.4.5) MF MV 1000b Sensor complies with EFTS, Appendix 

F per PIV Registration requirement 

19. Capture Equipment ID (6.4.6) MF MV > 0 See Note 5 

20. Size of Scanned Image in x direction 

(6.4.7) MF MV MIT

21. Size of Scanned Image in y direction 

(6.4.8) MF MV MIT

See Note 11 

22. X (horizontal) resolution (6.4.9) MF MV 197 

23. Y (vertical) resolution (6.4.10) MF MV 197 

Parent images conform to section 3.4.1 

24. Number of Finger Views (6.4.11) MF MV 2 Once each for primary and secondary

25.

General Record Header 

Reserved Byte (6.4.12) MF MV 0

26. Finger View Header (6.5.1) NC A 

27. Finger Position (6.5.1.1) MF MV MIT 

28. View Number (6.5.1.2) MF MV 0 See Note 10

29. Impression Type (6.5.1.3) MF MV 0 or 2 Plain live or non-live scan images.

30. Finger Quality (6.5.1.4) MF MV 20,40,60,80,100 See Note 6 

31.

View header 

Number of Minutiae (6.5.1.5) MF MV 0 ≤ M ≤ 128 M minutiae data records follow 

32. Minutiae Type (6.5.2.1) MF MV 01b, 10b, or 00b See Note 1 

33. Minutiae Position (6.5.2.2) MF MV MIT See Note 7

34. Minutiae Angle (6.5.2.3) MF MV MIT See Note 8

35.

M instances 

of minutiae 

data 

Minutiae Quality (6.5.2.4) MF MV MIT 

36.

K instances of the finger view record

Extended Data Block Length (6.6.1.1) MF MV 0 See Note 9 

END OF TABLE 

Acronym Meaning 

MF mandatory field [MINUSTD] requires a field shall be present in the FMR 

MV mandatory value [MINUSTD] requires a meaningful value for a field 

NC normative content [MINUSTD] gives normative practice for PIV. Such sections do not define a field in the 

FMR. 

A as required For PIV, value or practice is as normatively specified in [MINUSTD]. 

MIT mandatory at time of 

instantiation 

For PIV, mandatory value that shall be determined at the time the record is instantiated and 

shall follow the practice specified in [MINUSTD] 

NORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. [MINUSTD] requires that each stored minutia have a type associated with it. For PIV, the mandatory card 

templates shall contain minutiae of type ridge ending or ridge bifurcation. These types are defined in [MINUSTD, 

5.3.{2,3}]. Other types of minutiae, such as trifurcations and crossovers, shall not be included in PIV Card

templates. However, for those minutiae where it is not possible to reliably distinguish between a ridge ending and

a bifurcation, the category of "other" shall be assigned and encoded using bit values 00b. The angle and location

for a minutia of type “other” should be the angle and location that would have applied to the corresponding ridge

ending or bifurcation depending on which one the encoding algorithm determines to be the most likely for that 

8 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

particular minutiae. This is a common characteristic of "inked" impressions that exhibit ridge endings being 

converted to bifurcations and vice-versa due to over- or under-inking in the image. 

2. The second paragraph of [MINUSTD, 6.4.2] refers both to an ASCII space and "three ASCII numerals" mentioned 

in the first paragraph. The practice of using an ASCII space character as the first character of the version number 

shall be followed: " 20\0" i.e. 0x20323000. 

3. The length of the entire record shall fit within the container size limits specified in [800-73]. These limits apply to 

the entire CBEFF wrapped and signed entity, not just the [FINGSTD] record. 

4. Both fields ("Owner" and "Type") of the CBEFF Product Identifier of [MINUSTD, Section 6.4.4] shall be nonzero. The two most significant bytes shall identify the vendor, and the two least significant bytes shall identify the 

version number of that supplier's minutiae detection algorithm.

5. The Capture Equipment ID shall be reported. Its use may improve interoperability. 

6. The quality value shall be that computed for the parent image using [NFIQ] and reported here as Q = 20*(6 - 

NFIQ). 

7. All coordinates and angles for minutiae shall be recorded with respect to the original finger image. They shall not 

be recorded with respect to any image processing sub-image(s) created during the template creation process. 

8. Determination of the minutia direction can be extracted from each skeleton bifurcation. The three legs of every 

skeleton bifurcation must be examined and the endpoint of each leg determined. Figures 2A through 2C illustrate 

the three methods used for determining the end of a leg. The ending is established according to the event that

occurs first: 

o The 32nd pixel – see Figures 2A and 2B – or

o The end of skeleton leg if greater than 10 pixels (legs shorter are not used) – see Figure 2B – or 

o A second bifurcation is encountered before the 32nd pixel – see Figure 2C. 

The angle of the minutiae is determined by constructing three virtual rays originating at the bifurcation point and 

extending to the end of each leg. The smallest of the three angles formed by the rays is bisected to indicate the 

minutiae direction. 

Figure 2 : Minutiae angle determination 

10 < L ≤ 32 pixels

along ridge 

second bifurcation

≥ 32 pixels along ridge 

B

10 < L ≤ 32 pixels 

along ridge 

C 

A 

9. The mandatory value of zero codifies the specification that PIV card templates shall not include extended data. 

10. Per [MINUSTD, 6.5.1.2] this view number field shall have value 0 for the primary finger and 0 for the secondary

finger. The combination of view number and finger position uniquely identifies each template. 

11. [MINUSTD] does not specify how to report the image sizes in the header when two or more views are included in

the record and these were derived from images of different sizes. For PIV, the width on Line 20 shall be the 

larger of the widths of the two input images. Similarly the height on Line 21 shall be the larger of the heights of 

the two input images. 

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

3.5 Fingerprint image format for images retained by agencies

This section specifies a common data format record for the retention of the fingerprint images collected in 

Section 3.2. Specifically fingerprint images enrolled or otherwise retained by agencies shall be formatted 

according to the INCITS 381-2004 finger image based interchange format standard [FINGSTD]. This set shall 

include ten single-finger images. These shall be obtained by segmentation of the plain multi-finger images 

gathered in accordance with Options 1, 2 or 3 of Table 1, and the single plain thumb impressions from

presentations 4 & 5 of Options 2 and 3. These images shall be placed into a single [FINGSTD] record. The 

record may also include the associated multi-finger plain impressions and the rolled images. This document

([800-76]) does not specify uses for any single-finger rolled images gathered according to Options 2 or 3 of

Table 1. The record shall be wrapped in the CBEFF structure described in Section 6. Agencies may encrypt 

this data per the provisions of Section 6, Table 9, Note 2. 

Table 4 gives a clause-by-clause profile of [FINGSTD]. The primary purpose of the Table is to give PIV 

specifications for those fields of [FINGSTD] that have optional content. Rows 1-10 give normative content. 

Row 11 requires the CBEFF structure of Section 6. However, its FASC-N value (Table 8, Line 13) may be 

replaced by a field of all zeroes in this one exceptional case: Storage of PIV registration images before a FASCN has been assigned. Such instances (including the digital signature) shall be regenerated once the FASC-N is 

known. Rows 12-27 give PIV specifications for the fields of the General Record Header of [FINGSTD, Table 

2]. These are common to all images in the record. Similarly, Rows 28-36 provide specifications for the Finger 

Image Header Record in Table 4 of [FINGSTD]. The "PIV Conformance" column provides PIV specific 

practice and parameter defaults of the standard. 

INCITS 381 is likely to be revised by the INCITS M1 committee. Such revisions are irrelevant to PIV; however 

implementations should respect the version number on Line 14 of Table 4. 

To assist implementers, NIST has made [FINGSTD] sample data available3

. 

Table 4: INCITS 381 profile for agency retention of fingerprint Images 

INCITS 381-2004 PIV 

Conformance Section title and/or field name

(Numbers in parentheses are 

[FINGSTD] clause numbers) Field or

content 

Value 

required Values allowed 

Informative Remarks 

1. Byte and bit ordering (5.1) NC A Big Endian MSB then LSB 

2. Scan sequence (5.2) NC A 

3. Image acquisition reqs. (6) NC Level 31 Table 1 

4. Pixel Aspect Ratio (6.1) NC A 1:1 

5. Pixel Depth (6.2) NC A Level 31 → 8

6. Grayscale data (6.3) NC A Level 31 → 1 byte per pixel 

7. Dynamic Range (6.4) NC A Level 31 → 200 gray levels 

8. Scan resolution (6.5) NC A Level 31 → 500 ppi 

9. Image resolution (6.6) NC 197 Pixels per centimeter - no interpolation 

10. Fingerprint image location (6.7) NC A Slap placement info, centering 

11. CBEFF Header (7) MF MV Patron Format

PIV Multi-field CBEFF Header, Sec. 6 

12. General Record Header (7.1) NC A 

13. Format Identifier (7.1.1) MF MV 0x46495200 i.e. ASCII "FIR\0" 

14. Version Number (7.1.2) MF MV 0x30313000 i.e. ASCII "010\0"

15. Record Length (7.1.3) MF MV MIT Size excluding CBEFF structure 

16. CBEFF Product Identifier Owner

(7.1.4) MF MV > 0

17.

Finger image record

format 

CBEFF Product Identifier Type 

(7.1.4) MF MV > 0

CBEFF PID. 

 

3

 Fingerprint images conformant to the PIV specification are here http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/nigos/piv_sample_data.html and

these were prepared using NIST software available from http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/nigos/incits.html 

10 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

INCITS 381-2004 PIV 

Conformance Section title and/or field name

(Numbers in parentheses are 

[FINGSTD] clause numbers) Field or

content 

Value 

required Values allowed 

Informative Remarks 

18. Capture Device ID (7.1.5) MF MV MIT Vendor specified. See Note 1 

19. Image Acquisition Level (7.1.6) MF MV 31 Settings Level 31 

20. Number of Images (7.1.7) MF MV MIT Denote by K, see lines 28-37. See Notes 

2, 3 and 4 

21. Scale units (7.1.8) MF MV 0x02 Centimeters 

22. Scan resolution (horz) (7.1.9) MF MV 197 

23. Scan resolution (vert) (7.1.10) MF MV 197 

24. Image resolution (horz) (7.1.11) MF MV 197 

25. Image resolution (vert) (7.1.12) MF MV 197 

Pixels per centimeter

26. Pixel Depth (7.1.13) MF MV 8 Grayscale with 256 levels 

27. Image compression algorithm

(7.1.14) MF MV 0 or 2 

Uncompressed or WSQ.

See Notes 5 and 6. 

28. Reserved (7.1.15) MF MV 0 Two bytes, see Note 12 

29. Finger data block length (7.2.1) MF MV MIT

30. Finger position (7.2.2) MF MV MIT

31. Count of views (7.2.3) MF MV ≥ 1 M views of this finger, see Note 7 

32. View number (7.2.4) MF MV MIT 

33. Finger image quality (7.2.5) MF MV 20,40,60,80,100 Transformed NFIQ. See Notes 8 and 9 

34. Impression type (7.2.6) MF MV 0 or 2 See ANSI NIST ITL 1-2000 

35. Horizontal line length (7.2.7) MF MV MIT 

36. Vertical line length (7.2.8) MF MV MIT 

See Note 10 

37. Reserved (no clause) MF MV 0 See Note 11 

38.

K fingerprints, or 

multi-finger prints 

M finger views 

Finger image data (7.2.9) MF MV MIT Uncompressed or compressed WSQ Data 

END OF TABLE 

Acronym Meaning 

MF mandatory field [FINGSTD] mandates a field shall be present in the record 

MV mandatory value [FINGSTD] mandates a meaningful value for this field

NC normative content [FINGSTD] gives normative practice for PIV. Such sections do not define a field in the FIR.

A as required by standard For PIV, value or practice is as specified in [FINGSTD]

MIT mandatory at time of instantiation For PIV, mandatory value that shall be determined at the time the record is instantiated and shall 

follow the practice specified in [FINGSTD] 

NORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. The Capture Device ID should indicate the hardware model. The CBEFF PID [FINGSTD, 7.1.4] should indicate 

the firmware or software version. 

2. If certain fingers cannot be imaged, the value of this field shall be decremented accordingly. 

3. The left and right four-finger images, and two-thumb, images may also be included. The value of this field shall 

be incremented accordingly. 

4. For PIV enrollment sets, the number of images will ordinarily be thirteen (that is, the ten segmented images from

the multi-finger plain impressions, and the three plain impressions themselves) or fourteen (if the plain thumb 

impressions were imaged separately). 

5. Images shall either be uncompressed or compressed using an implementation of the Wavelet Scalar Quantization

(WSQ) algorithm that has been certified by the FBI. The FBI's current requirement for a 15:1 nominal 

compression ratio shall apply. 

6. Compression should only be applied after the records required by sections 3.4 and 3.6 have been prepared and

transformed NFIQ values have been assigned. 

7. The term view refers to the number of images of that particular finger. This value would exceed one if imaging 

has been repeated. Inclusion of more than one image of a finger can afford some benefit in a matching process. 

11 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

This document recommends that any additionally available images (say, from a PIV Card re-issuance procedure) 

with quality value 1 to 3 should be included in the record. In all cases the images shall be stored in order of

capture date, with newest first. 

8. Quality values shall be present. These shall be calculated from the NIST Fingerprint Image Quality (NFIQ) 

method described in [NFIQ] using the formula Q = 20*(6 - NFIQ). This scale reversal ensures that high quality 

values connote high predicted performance and consistency with the dictionary definition. The values are 

intended to be predictive of the relative performance of a minutia based fingerprint matching system. It is

recommended that a user should be prompted to first attempt authentication using the finger with the highest 

quality, regardless of whether this is the primary or secondary finger. 

9. The quality value shall be set to 254 (the [FINGSTD] code for undefined) if this record is not a single finger print 

(i.e., it is a multi-finger image, or a palm print) or if the NFIQ implementation fails. 

10. There is no restriction on the image size. However non-background pixels of the target finger shall be retained 

(i.e. cropping of the image data is prohibited). 

11. [FINGSTD, Table 4] refers to a single-byte field labeled "reserved", but there is no corresponding clause to

formally define it. The M1 committee has undertaken to resolve this by inserting a new subclause to require 

inclusion of the "Reserved" field. This will appear in a revision of [FINGSTD]. In any case, PIV implementations

must include the single byte field, setting the value to 0.

12. Line 27 indicates that the "Reserved" field shall have length 2 bytes. [FINGSTD, 7.1.15] indicates a length of 4

bytes which disagrees with the value in [FINGSTD, Table 2]. The INCITS M1 committee has indicated 2 bytes is 

the correct value. PIV implementations shall include the 2 byte field, setting the value to 0.

3.6 Fingerprint image specifications for background checks 

PIV fingerprint images transmitted to the FBI as part of the background checking process shall be formatted 

according to the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000 standard [FFSMT] and the CJIS-RS-0010 [EFTS] specification. Such 

records shall be prepared from, and contain, only those images collected as per specifications in Section 3.1. 

Table 5 enumerates the appropriate transaction formats for the three acquisition options of Section 3.2. The FBI 

documentation [EFTS] should be consulted for definitive requirements. 

Table 5: Record types for background checks 

Option Transaction Data Format in [FFSMT] Reference 

1 Three Type 14 records (and see Note 1) [EFTS, Appendix N]. See Note 2 

2 or 3 Fourteen Type 4 records (and see Note 1) Section 3.1.1.4 "Federal Applicant User Fee" of [EFTS]

NORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. All types of transactions with the FBI require both a Type 1 and Type 2 record to accompany the data; see 

[FFSMT, Table 2]. The Type 2 supports labeling of missing fingers.

2. The forthcoming revision of [FFMST], due in early 2007, adds new fields to the Type 14 record of [FFSMT] but

does so in a backwards compatible way. But, in any case, [EFTS, Appendix N] shall be the definitive reference 

for the format of the images. 

4. Sensor specifications for fingerprint verification 

4.1 Scope 

This section gives specifications for all fingerprint sensors used for capture of live authentication fingerprints 

(i.e. for the verification of PIV cardholders). This specification applies to any sensor involved in use of the 

mandatory PIV Card templates of section 3.4. These specifications are unrelated to those of section 3 which 

govern enrollment. 

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

4.2 PIV authentication fingerprint acquisition specifications 

Fingerprint sensors used for PIV authentication shall conform to the FBI's Image Quality Specifications For 

Single Finger Capture Devices [SINGFING]. The [SINGFING] specification establishes minimum sizes for 

the imaging platen and for the scanning resolution. 

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

5. Facial image specifications 

5.1 Scope 

[FIPS, Section 4.4.1] requires collection of a facial image from PIV applicants, and indicates that it may be used 

for generation of the printed image [FIPS, Section 4.1.4.1] and for augmentation of human authentication of the 

card holder. The face specification in this document supports those activities, and establishes a storage format 

for retention of facial images. This document neither requires nor precludes agencies from retaining facial 

images. However, if an agency elects to retain them, then they shall be stored in the format specified here. As 

with other biometric elements, agencies may elect to store face data on the PIV card and use it for automated 

verification. Although this section places no normative requirements on such agency-optional activities, it does 

specify an image suited for automated biometric enrollment and face recognition. 

5.2 Acquisition and format 

This section provides specifications for the retention of facial images. Facial images collected during PIV 

Registration shall be formatted such that they conform to INCITS 385-2004 [FACESTD]. In addition to

establishing a format, [FACESTD] specifies how a face image should be acquired. This is done to improve 

image quality and, ultimately, performance. The images shall be embedded within the CBEFF structure defined 

in Section 6. Because [FACESTD] is generic across applications it includes sections that have either-or 

requirements. Table 6 is an application profile of [FACESTD] tailored for PIV. It gives concrete specifications 

for much of the generic content. Column 3 references the sections of [FACESTD] and columns 4 and 5 give 

[FACESTD] requirements. For PIV, column 6 of Table 6 gives normative practice or value specifications. The 

table is not conformant with the Implementation Conformance Statement [ICS] standard. Particularly it extends 

the function of ICS but because it has the needed rows it may be useful in construction of a traditional ICS. 

Nevertheless the addition of a "values supported column" as specified in Section 9.1 of [ICS] should be used by

implementers for checking conformance to the specifications. 

INCITS 385 is likely to be revised by the INCITS M1 committee. Such revisions are irrelevant to PIV; however 

implementations should respect the version number on Line 5 of Table 6. 

Table 6: INCITS 385 profile for PIV facial images 

INCITS 385-2004 PIV 

Conformance Section title and/or field name

(Numbers in parentheses are 

[FACESTD] clause numbers) Field or

content 

Value 

Reqd 

Values 

Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

1. Byte Ordering (5.2.1) NC A Big Endian 

2. Numeric Values (5.2.2) NC A Unsigned Integers

3. CBEFF CBEFF Header (5.3) MF MV Patron format

PIV Multi-field CBEFF Header. Sec. 6. 

4. Format Identifier (5.4.1) MF MV 0x46414300 i.e. ASCII "FAC\0"

5. Version Number (5.4.2) MF MV 0x30313000 i.e. ASCII "010\0"

6. Record Length (5.4.3) MF MV MIT See Note 1

7.

Facial Header 

Number of Facial Images (5.4.4) MF MV ≥ 1 One or more images (K ≥ 1). See Notes 

2 and 3, and also line 20. 

8. Facial image Block Length (5.5.1) MF MV MIT

9. Number of Feature Points (5.5.2) MF MV ≥ 0 Positive, if features computed 

10. Gender (5.5.3) MF OV OIT

11. Eye color (5.5.4) MF OV OIT 

12. Hair color (5.5.5) MF OV OIT 

13. Feature Mask (5.5.6) MF OV OIT

These fields populated with meaningful 

values at agency discretion, otherwise 0 

for unspecified. 

14. Expression (5.5.7) MF OV 1 Neutral

15.

Facial Info. Single instance 

of subject-specific info. 

Pose Angles (5.5.8) MF OV 0 Unspecified = Frontal 

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

INCITS 385-2004 PIV 

Conformance Section title and/or field name

(Numbers in parentheses are 

[FACESTD] clause numbers) Field or

content 

Value 

Reqd 

Values 

Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

16. Pose Angle Uncertainty (5.5.9) MF OV 0 Attended operation so should be frontal.

17. MPEG4 Features (5.6.1) NC OIT

18. Center of Facial Features (5.6.2) NC OIT 

19.

Features 

The Facial Feature Block Encoding 

(5.6.3) OF OV OIT

20. Facial Image Type (5.7.1) MF MV 1 See Note 4.

21. Image Data Type (5.7.2) MF MV 0 or 1 See Note 5. Compression algorithm.

22. Width (5.7.3) MF MV MIT

23. Height (5.7.4) MF MV MIT

See Note 7. 

24. Image Color Space (5.7.5) MF MV 1 sRGB. See Note 8.

25. Source Type (5.7.6) MF MV 2 or 6 Digital still or digital video 

26. Device Type (vendor supplied 

device ID) (5.7.7) MF MV MIT

27.

Image Info. Each instance has 

image-specific info. 

Quality (5.7.8) MF MV A [FACESTD] requires 0 (unspecified) 

28. Image Data Data Structure (5.8.1) MF MV MIT Compressed Data 

29. Inheritance (6.1) NC A

30. Image Data Encoding (6.2) NC A See Note 5 

31. Inheritance Image Data Compression (6.3) NC A See Notes 5+6 

32. Facial Header (6.4.1) NC A Include 4 fields 

33. Facial Information (6.4.2) NC A Include 9 fields 

34.

Basic (section 6)

Format 

Image Information (6.4.3) NC A Include 8 fields 

35. Inheritance (7.1) NC A Inherits Basic 

36. Purpose (7.2.1) NC A frontal Annex A 

37. Pose (7.2.2) NC Frontal +/- 5 degrees 

38. Expression (7.2.3) NC Neutral

39. Assistance in positioning face 

(7.2.4) NC A Only the subject appears 

40. Shoulders (7.2.5) NC A Body + Face toward camera

41. Backgrounds (7.2.6) NC Annex A.4.3 Uniform

42. Subject and scene lighting (7.2.7) NC A Uniform

43. Shadows over the face (7.2.8) NC A None 

44. Eye socket shadows (7.2.9) NC A None 

45. Hot spots (7.2.10) NC A Should be absent. Diffuse light.

46. Eye glasses (7.2.11) NC A Subject's normal condition 

47.

Scene 

Eye patches (7.2.12) NC A Medical only

48. Exposure (7.3.2) NC A No saturation 

49. Focus and Depth of Field (7.3.3) NC A In focus 

50. Unnatural Color (7.3.4) NC A White balance

51. Color or grayscale enhancement 

(7.3.5) NC A + no 

recompress No post-processing

52.

Photographic 

Radial Distortion of the camera

lens (7.3.6) NC A + Follow 

Annex A.8 

53. aspect ratio (7.4.2.1) A 1:1 pixels

54.

Geometry origin (7.4.2.2) A top left is 0,0 

55. Density (7.4.3.1) NC A 7 bits dynamic range in gray

56. Color Sat (7.4.3.2) NC A 7 bits dynamic once in grayscale 

57.

Color 

Profile 

Color space (7.4.3.3) NC 24 bit RGB Option a, reported in color space field 

above. See Note 8

58.

Frontal (section 7) 

Digital 

Video Interlacing (7.4.4) NC A Interlaced sensors are not permitted. 

59. Inheritance (8.1) NC A Inherits Frontal + Basic 

60. Scene (8.2) NC A Inherits Frontal + Basic 

61. Centered Image (8.3.2) NC A Nose on vertical centerline 

62. Position of Eyes (8.3.3) NC A Above horizontal centerline 

63.

Full Frontal 

(section 8)

Photogr

aphic 

Width of Head (8.3.4) NC A See Note 7 

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

INCITS 385-2004 PIV 

Conformance Section title and/or field name

(Numbers in parentheses are 

[FACESTD] clause numbers) Field or

content 

Value 

Reqd 

Values 

Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

64. Length of Head (8.3.5) NC A See Note 7 

65. Digital Resolution (8.4.1) NC CC ≥ 240 See Note 7 

66. Inheritance (8.5.1) NC A

67.

Format 

Image Information (8.5.2) NC A

END OF TABLE 

Acronym Meaning 

FAC Face Information Record Facial header + facial info + repetition of (image info + image data) 

MF mandatory field [FACESTD] requires a field shall be present in the FAC

OF optional field [FACESTD] allows a field to be present in record 

MV mandatory value [FACESTD] requires a meaningful value for a field 

OV optional value [FACESTD] allows a meaningful value or allows 0 to be used to connote "unspecified"

NC normative content [FACESTD] gives normative practice for PIV. Such sections do not define a field in the FAC. 

A as required For PIV, value or practice is as specified in [FACESTD] 

MIT mandatory at time of 

instantiation 

For PIV, mandatory value that shall be determined at the time the record is instantiated and shall follow 

the practice specified in [FACESTD]

OIT optional at time of instantiation For PIV, optional header value that may be determined at the time the record is instantiated 

NORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. If facial imagery is stored on the PIV Card, the length of the entire record shall fit within the container size limits 

specified in [800-73]. These limits apply to the entire CBEFF wrapped and signed entity, not just the [FACESTD] 

record. Key lengths and signing algorithms are specified in [800-78]. The size of the digital signature scales with

the key length; it does not scale with the size of the biometric record. 

2. More than one image may be stored in the record. It may be appropriate to store several images if appearance

changes over time (beard, no beard, beard) and images are gathered at re-issuance. The most recent image shall 

appear first and serve as the default provided to applications. 

3. When facial imagery is stored on the PIV Card, only one image shall be stored. 

4. PIV facial images shall conform to the Full Frontal Image Type defined in Section 8 of [FACESTD].

5. Facial image data shall be formatted in either of the compression formats enumerated in Section 6.2 of

[FACESTD]. Both whole-image and single-region-of-interest (ROI) compression are permitted. This document

([800-76]) recommends that newly collected facial image should be compressed using ISO/IEC 15444 (i.e. JPEG

2000). This applies when images will be input to automated face recognition products for authentication, and 

when images are stored on PIV Cards. In this latter case, ROI compression should be used. The older ISO/IEC

10918 standard (i.e. JPEG) should be used only for legacy images. 

6. Facial images shall be compressed using a compression ratio no higher than 15:1. However, when facial images 

are stored on PIV Cards JPEG 2000 should be used with ROI compression. The innermost region should be

centered on the face and compressed at no more than 24:1. 

7. Face recognition performance is a function of the spatial resolution of the image. [FACESTD] does not specify a

minimum resolution for the Full Frontal Image Type. For PIV, faces shall be acquired such that a 20 centimeter 

target placed on, and normal to, a camera's optical axis at a range of 1.5 meters shall be imaged with at least 240 

pixels across it. This ensures that the width of the head (i.e. dimension CC in Figure 8 of [FACESTD]) shall have

sufficient resolution for the printed face element of the PIV Card. This specification and Section 8.3.4 of 

[FACESTD] implies that the image width shall exceed 420 pixels. This resolution specification shall be attained 

optically without digital interpolation. The distance from the camera to the subject should be greater than or equal 

to 1.5 meters (for distortion reasons discussed in [FACESTD, Annex A.8]). The size specification is a minimum:

When images are to be used for automated face recognition higher resolution is likely to yield lower error rates. 

8. Facial image data shall be converted to the sRGB color space if it is stored. As stated in Section 7.4.3.3 of

[FACESTD] this requires application of the color profile associated with the camera in use. 

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6. Common header for PIV biometric data 

All PIV biometric data shall be embedded in a data structure conforming to Common Biometric Exchange 

Formats Framework [CBEFF]. This specifies that all biometric data shall be digitally signed and uniformly 

encapsulated. This covers: the PIV Card fingerprints mandated by [FIPS]; any other biometric data agencies 

elect to place on PIV Cards; any biometric records that agencies elect to retain (including purely proprietary, or 

derivative, elements); and any biometric data retained by, or for, agencies or Registration Authorities. The 

EFTS transaction data described in section 3.6 is exempt. 

All such data shall be signed in the same manner as prescribed in [FIPS 201] and [800-73] for the mandatory 

biometric elements. The signature is present for integrity and shall be stored in the CBEFF signature block. 

The overall arrangement is depicted in Table 7. 

Table 7: Simple CBEFF structure 

CBEFF STRUCTURE

CBEFF_HEADER CBEFF_BIOMETRIC_RECORD CBEFF_SIGNATURE_BLOCK

Section 6 Sections 3.4, 3.5 and 5.2 FIPS 201 

INCITS 398 5.2.1 INCITS 398 5.2.2 INCITS 398 5.2.3 

The CBEFF Header specified in Table 8 and its notes will be established by NIST as Patron Format "PIV". This 

format will be established as a formal Patron Format per the provisions of [CBEFF, 6.2]. It adds definitive data 

types and the FASC-N field mandated by [FIPS] to a subset of the fields given in Patron Format A [CBEFF, 

Annex A]. It exists independently of Patron Format A. All fields of the format are mandatory. 

Table 8: Patron format PIV specification 

Patron Format PIV Field 

(Numbers in parentheses are [CBEFF] 

clause numbers) 

Length 

Bytes 

PIV 

Data 

Type

PIV Conformance 

Required Value 

1. Patron Header Version (5.2.1.4) 1 UINT 0x03 

2. SBH Security Options (5.2.1.1, 5.2.1.2) 1 Bitfield See Note 2 

3. BDB Length 4 UINT Length, in bytes, of the biometric data CBEFF_BIOMETRIC_RECORD 

4. SB Length 2 UINT Length, in bytes, of the CBEFF_SIGNATURE_BLOCK. See Note 3 

5. BDB Format Owner (5.2.1.17) 2 UINT See Note 4 

6. BDB Format Type (5.2.1.17) 2 UINT See Note 5 

7. Biometric Creation Date (5.2.1.10) 8 See Note 6 for data type 

8. Validity Period (5.2.1.11) 16 See Note 7 for data type 

9. Biometric Type (5.2.1.5) 3 UINT See Note 8 

10. Biometric Data Type (5.2.1.7) 1 Bitfield See Note 9 

11. Biometric Data Quality (5.2.1.9) 1 SINT See Note 10 

12. Creator (5.2.1.12) 18 Note 6 See Note 11 for data type 

13. FASC-N 25 Note 7 See Note 12 for data type 

14. Reserved for future use 4 0x00000000 

END OF TABLE 

NORMATIVE NOTES: 

1. Unsigned integers are denoted by UINT. Signed integers are denoted by SINT. Multi-byte integers shall be in Big

Endian byte order.

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Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

2. The security options field has two acceptable values. The value b00001101 indicates that the biometric data block 

is digitally signed but not encrypted; the value b00001111 indicates the biometric data block is digitally signed and

encrypted. For the mandatory [MINUSTD] elements on the PIV Card the value shall be b00001101. 

The fourth bit (mask 0x08) is set per prior versions of this document. The third bit (mask 0x04), which in each

case is set, implements the [CBEFF, 5.2.1.2] requirement that digital signature is differentiated from message 

authentication code. The second bit (mask 0x02) indicates the use of encryption. The first bit (mask 0x01) 

indicates the use of a digital signature. Specifications for the computation of digital signatures are set forth in

[FIPS, 4.4.2] and [800-78]. 

3. The signature shall be computed over the concatenated CBEFF_HEADER and CBEFF_BIOMETRIC_RECORD 

in Table 7. The CBEFF_HEADER is given in Table 8. This includes the signature block length (on line 4) which

may not be known before the signature is computed. This problem may be solved by conducting a two phase 

computation: First a dummy SB length value is inserted, the signature is computed, the signature length is written

into the SB length field, and the signature recomputed. 

4. For fingerprint and facial records defined sections 3.4, 3.5 and 5 the Format Owner shall be 0x001B denoting M1, 

the INCITS Technical Committee on Biometrics. Otherwise see [CBEFF, 5.2.1.17]. 

5. For fingerprint image data defined above the Format Type shall be 0x0401. For the mandatory fingerprint

minutiae data this value shall be 0x0201. For face data this value shall be 0x0501. For other biometric records on

the PIV Card, or otherwise retained by agencies, this field shall be assigned in accordance with the procedures of 

[CBEFF, 5.2.1.17]. 

6. This is the date that the biometric sample was acquired. For processed samples (e.g. templates) this data should be

the date of acquisition of the parent sample. Creation Date shall be encoded in eight bytes using a binary

representation of "YYYYMMDDhhmmssZ". Each pair of characters (for example, "DD") is coded in 8 bits as an

unsigned integer. Thus 17:35:30 December 15, 2005 is represented as: 00010100 00000101 00001100 00001111 

00010001 00100011 00011110 01011010 where the last byte is the binary representation of the ASCII character Z 

which is included to indicate that the time is represented in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The field "hh" 

shall code a 24 hour clock value. 

When multiple samples (e.g. two single finger minutiae views) are included in one record (e.g. an INCITS 378

record) and the Creation Dates are different, the Creation Date shall be the earliest of the multiple views. 

7. The Validity Period contains two dates each of which shall be coded according to Normative Note 6. 

8. For fingerprint images and any kind of fingerprint template the type shall be 0x000008, for facial images the type

shall be 0x000002. The value for other biometric modalities shall be that given in [CBEFF, 5.2.1.5]. For 

modalities not listed there the value shall be 0x0.

9. [CBEFF, 5.2.1.7] establishes three categories for the degree to which biometric data has been processed. These

are encoded in Table 9. For the mandatory [MINUSTD] PIV Card templates this value shall be b100xxxxx. 

Table 9: CBEFF biometric data type encoding 

Data Type PIV Required Value Examples of biometric data falling into category 

Raw b001xxxxx [FACESTD] and [FINGSTD] images 

Intermediate b010xxxxx 

Processed b100xxxxx [MINUSTD] templates

10. For single [FINGSTD] fingerprint images or [MINUSTD] templates extracted from them, the quality value shall 

be Q = 20*(6 - NFIQ) where NFIQ is computed using the method of [NFIQ]. When multiple views or samples of 

a biometric are contained in the record the largest (i.e. best) value should be reported. For all biometric data

whether stored on a PIV Card or otherwise retained by agencies the quality value shall be a signed integer between 

-2 and 100 per the text of INCITS 358. A value of -2 shall denote that assignment was not supported by the 

implementation; a value of -1 shall indicate that an attempt to compute a quality value failed. Values from 0 to

100 shall indicate an increased expectation that the sample will ultimately lead to a successful match. The zero 

value required by [FACESTD] shall be coded in this CBEFF field as -2. 

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11. For PIV the Creator field has length 18 bytes of which the first K ≤ 17 bytes shall be printable ASCII characters, 

and the first of the remaining 18-K shall be a null terminator (zero). 

12. This field shall contain the 25 bytes of the FASC-N component of the CHUID identifier, per [800-73, 1.8.{3,4}]. 

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7. Performance testing and certification procedures 

7.1 Scope 

This section gives normative specifications for tests used to certify implementations that generate and/or match 

the mandatory biometric elements specified by [FIPS], i.e. the two fingerprint minutiae templates placed on the 

PIV Card. That is, this section regulates the test itself, and the testing laboratory, not the products under test, 

and the data specifications here should not be confused with those given in Section 3 for fielded PIV 

implementations. For additional scope context, see section 7.6. 

7.2 PIV authentication 

The fingerprint templates conform to [MINUSTD] as profiled in section 3.4. The use cases given in [800-73, 

Appendix C] detail how the templates and the PIV Card are used for interoperable authentication. 

Authentication may involve one or both of the PIV Card templates. These will be compared with newly

acquired (i.e. live) fingerprint images of either or both of the primary and secondary fingers. The inclusion of 

the finger position in the [MINUSTD] header allows the system to prompt the user for one or more specific 

fingers. 

Authentication performance is quantified in terms of both the false reject rate (FRR) and the false accept rate 

(FAR). In PIV, FRR is the proportion of legitimate cardholders incorrectly denied access; the latter would be 

the proportion of impostors incorrectly allowed access. The error rates depend on a number of factors including: 

the environment, the number of attempts (i.e. finger placements on the sensor), the sensor itself, the quality of 

the PIV Card templates' parent images, the number of fingerprints invoked, and the familiarity of users with the 

process. The use of two fingers in all authentication transactions offers substantially improved performance 

over single-finger authentication. The intent of the [FIPS] specification of an interoperable biometric is to 

support cross-vendor and cross-agency authentication of PIV Cards. This plural aspect introduces a source of 

variation in performance. 

7.3 Test overview

This section specifies procedures for the certification of generators and matchers of [MINUSTD] templates. 

Interoperability testing requires exchange of templates between products, which shall therefore be tested as a 

group. Accordingly, the testing laboratory shall conduct a first round of testing to establish a primary group of 

interoperable template generators and matchers. Certification shall be determined quantitatively at the 

conclusion of the test. Thereafter certification requires interoperability with previously certified products. 

The certification procedure shall be conducted offline. This allows products to be certified using very large 

biometric data sets, in repeatable, deterministic and therefore auditable evaluations. Offline evaluation is 

needed to measure performance when template data is exchanged between all pairs of interoperable products. 

Large populations shall be used to quantify the effect of sample variance on performance. A template generator 

is logically a converter of images to templates. A template matcher logically compares one or two templates 

with one or two templates to produce a similarity score. Template generators and template matchers shall be 

certified separately. This aspect is instituted because: 

1. Template generation is procedurally, algorithmically and physically distinct from matching. 

2. Template generation is required by [FIPS], but matching is not. 

3. Fingerprint template interoperability is dependent on the quality of the PIV Card templates. The full 

benefits of an interoperable template will not be realized if a supplier is required to produce both a high

performing generator and a high performing matcher. 

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4. Once a template generator is certified and deployed, its templates will be in circulation. It is necessary

for all matchers to be able to process these templates. Subsequent certification rounds will be 

complicated if generators and matchers are certified together. 

Separate certification means that a supplier may submit one or more template generators and zero or more 

matchers for certification. Zero or more of the submitted products shall ultimately be certified. 

This test design conforms to the provisions of the currently draft ISO/IEC 19795-4 [ISOSWAP] standard, as 

profiled by this document. One clause of that standard deals with blind testing. For PIV testing the template 

matcher shall not be able to discern the source of the enrollment templates. 

7.3.1 Template generator 

A template generator shall be certified as a software library. For PIV, a template generator is a library function 

that shall convert an image into a minutiae record. The input image represents a PIV enrollment plain 

impression. The output template represents a PIV Card template. A supplier's implementation, submitted for 

certification, shall satisfy the requirements of an application programming interface (API) specification to be 

published by the test organizer. The API specification will require the template generator to accept image data 

and produce [MINUSTD] templates conformant to Table 11. Where values or practices are not explicitly stated 

in Table 11, the specifications of section 3.4.2 and Table 3 apply (e.g. on minutiae type). The CBEFF header 

and CBEFF signature shall not be included. 

The testing laboratory shall input images to the generator using either the Option A or Option B data element 

specifications given in Table 11. The input data shall be prepared by the testing laboratory.

The test specification shall require that template generators produce a conformant template regardless of the 

input. Such a template may contain zero minutiae. This provision transparently and correctly accounts for 

failures to enroll. In a deployed system, if quality assessment or image analysis algorithms made some 

determination that the input was unmatchable a failure to enroll might be declared. In an offline test such a

determination shall result in at least a template containing zero minutiae. However, because in PIV other 

suppliers' matchers may be capable of handling even poor templates, it is recommended that a template 

generator submitted for testing should deprecate any internal quality acceptance mechanism, and attempt 

production of a viable template. 

Table 10: INCITS 381 specification for PIV Card template generator certification 

Required Data Element 

PIV 

Certification 

Values 

Informative Remarks 

Option A: Parsed INCITS 381 container, provided as separate parameters to template generator function call 

1. Finger image data MIT

Uncompressed pixel data, stored left to right, top to bottom, with one 8-bit 

byte per pixel. The number of bytes in an image is equal to its height 

multiplied by its width as measured in pixels. 

2. Finger image quality 20,40,60,80,100 Fingers for which [NFIQ] failed will not be used in certification tests. 

These values differ from those used in [MINEX]. 

3. Finger position MIT

4. Impression type 0

5. Vertical line length MIT Height 

6. Horizontal line length MIT Width 

Option B: Un-parsed INCITS 381 container

1. Format Identifier (7.1.1) 0x46495200 i.e. ASCII "FIR\0" 

2. Version Number (7.1.2) 0x30313000 i.e. ASCII "010\0"

3. Record Length (7.1.3) MIT

4. CBEFF Product Identifier (7.1.4) 0 

5. Capture Device ID (7.1.5) 0 

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Required Data Element 

PIV 

Certification 

Values 

Informative Remarks 

6. Image Acquisition Level (7.1.6) 30 or 31 

7. Number of Images (7.1.7) 1

8. Scale units (7.1.8) 0x02 Pixels per centimeter

9. Scan resolution (horz) (7.1.9) 197 

10. Scan resolution (vert) (7.1.10) 197 

11. Image resolution (horz) (7.1.11) 197 

12. Image resolution (vert) (7.1.12) 197 

13. Pixel Depth (7.1.13) 8 

14. Image compression algorithm (7.1.14) 0 Uncompressed 

15. Reserved (7.1.15) 0 Two bytes, see Note 12 below Table 4 

16. Finger data block length (7.2.1) MIT

17. Finger position (7.2.2) MIT

18. Count of views (7.2.3) 1 

19. View number (7.2.4) 1 

20. Finger image quality (7.2.5) 20,40,60,80,100 Fingers for which [NFIQ] failed will not be used in certification tests. 

These values differ from those used in [MINEX]. 

21. Impression type (7.2.6) 0 Live-scan plain impression only

22. Horizontal line length (7.2.7) MIT 

23. Vertical line length (7.2.8) MIT

24. Reserved (FINGSTD, Table 4) 0 One byte, See Note 11 below Table 4

25. Finger image data (7.2.9) MIT

Uncompressed pixel data, stored left to right, top to bottom, with one 8-bit 

byte per pixel. The number of bytes in an image is equal to its height 

multiplied by its width as measured in pixels. 

END OF TABLE 

Table 11: INCITS 378 specification for PIV Card template generator and matcher certification 

Section title and/or field name 

(Numbers in parentheses are [MINUSTD] 

clause numbers) 

PIV Conformance 

Values Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

1. Format Identifier (6.4.1) 0x464D5200 i.e. ASCII "FMR\0"

2. Version Number (6.4.2) 0x20323000 i.e. ASCII " 20\0". 

3. Record Length (6.4.3) 26 ≤ L ≤ 800 26 byte header, max of 128 minutiae. See row 18.

4. CBEFF Product Identifier Owner (6.4.4) 0 

5. CBEFF Product Identifier Type (6.4.4) 0 

6. Capture Equipment Compliance (6.4.5) 0 

7. Capture Equipment ID (6.4.6) 0 

8. Size of Scanned Image in x direction (6.4.7) MIT

9. Size of Scanned Image in y direction (6.4.8) MIT

10. X (horizontal) resolution (6.4.9) 197 

11. Y (vertical) resolution (6.4.10) 197 

Inherited directly from input data 

12. Number of Finger Views (6.4.11) 1 

13. Reserved Byte (6.4.12) 0 

14. Finger Position (6.5.1.1) MIT Inherited directly from input data 

15. View Number (6.5.1.2) 0

16. Impression Type (6.5.1.3) 0 or 2 Inherited directly from input data 

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Section title and/or field name 

(Numbers in parentheses are [MINUSTD] 

clause numbers) 

PIV Conformance 

Values Allowed 

Informative Remarks 

17. Finger Quality (6.5.1.4) MIT Inherited directly from input data 

18. Number of Minutiae (6.5.1.5) 0 ≤ M ≤ 128 M minutiae data records follow 

19. Minutiae Type (6.5.2.1) 01b, 10b, or 00b See Note 1 below Table 3 

20. Minutiae Position (6.5.2.2) MIT See Note 7 below Table 3 

21. Minutiae Angle (6.5.2.3) MIT See Note 8 below Table 3 

22. Minutiae Quality (6.5.2.4) 0

23. Extended Data Block Length (6.6.1.1) 0 No bytes shall be included following this field.

END OF TABLE 

Acronym Meaning 

MIT mandatory at time of instantiation For PIV Certification, a mandatory value that shall be determined at the time the record is 

instantiated and shall follow the practice specified in [FINGSTD] 

7.3.2 Template matcher 

A template matcher shall be certified as a software library. For PIV, a matcher is a software function that 

compares enrollment templates with authentication templates to produce a similarity score. The similarity score 

must be an integer or real value quantity. The enrollment templates represent the PIV Card templates. The 

authentication templates represent those extracted from live authentication fingerprints. A supplier's 

implementation, submitted for certification, shall satisfy the API specification published by the test organizer. 

The API specification will support at a minimum the comparison of one authentication template (from an 

individual's primary or secondary fingers) with one enrollment template (from either the same or another 

individual's same finger). Both templates shall conform to the Table 12 profile of [MINUSTD].

The test shall neither prescribe nor prohibit methods whereby fingers' material shall be employed in the core

comparison. The only constraint is that all invocations of the matching function shall yield a similarity score 

regardless of the input templates. Larger scores shall be construed as indicating higher likelihood that the input 

data originate from the same person. A failure or refusal to compare the inputs shall in all cases result in the 

reporting of a score. This document recommends implementers report a low score in this case. 

The input [MINUSTD] enrollment templates shall be prepared by the test agent using software from a supplier. 

The input [MINUSTD] authentication templates shall be the output of the template generation software provided 

by the supplier of the matcher under test. 

7.4 Test procedure 

The testing laboratory shall publish a test specification document. This document shall establish deadlines for 

submission of products for certification. 

The supplier of a template generator shall submit a request for certification to the testing laboratory. The testing 

laboratory shall provide a set of samples to these suppliers. This set shall support debugging and shall consist of 

images conformant to either the A or B specifications of Table 10. The supplier shall submit templates from this 

data to the testing laboratory. The supplier shall submit the template generator to the testing laboratory. The 

testing laboratory shall execute it and check that it produces identical templates to those submitted by the 

supplier. The testing laboratory shall apply a conformance assessor to the templates. The testing laboratory 

shall report to the supplier whether identical templates were produced and whether the templates are conformant 

to the specifications in Table 11. This validation process may be iterative. 

The supplier of a template matcher shall submit a request for certification to the testing laboratory. The testing 

laboratory shall provide a set of samples to these suppliers. This set shall support debugging and shall consist of 

images conformant to either the A or B specifications of Table 10 and templates conformant to the specification 

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of Table 11. The supplier shall submit similarity scores from this data to the testing laboratory. The supplier 

shall submit the template matcher to the testing laboratory. The testing laboratory shall execute it and check that 

it produces identical scores to those submitted by the supplier. The testing laboratory shall report to the supplier 

the result of the check. This validation process may be iterative. 

The testing laboratory shall apply all template generators to the first biometric sample from each member of the 

test corpus. The testing laboratory shall invoke all template matchers to compare the resulting enrollment 

templates with second authentication templates from each member of the corpus. The authentication template 

shall be generated by the matcher supplier's generator (i.e. not by another supplier's generator). This shall be 

done for all pair wise combinations of template generators and template matchers. The result is a set of genuine 

similarity scores for each combination. 

The testing laboratory shall invoke all template matchers to compare enrollment templates with second 

authentication templates from members of a disjoint population. The authentication template shall, in all cases, 

be generated by the matcher supplier's generator. This shall be done for all pair wise combinations of template 

generators and template matchers. The result is a set of impostor similarity scores for each combination. The 

order in which genuine and impostor similarity scores are generated shall be randomized (i.e. it is not implied by

the order of the last two paragraphs). 

The testing laboratory shall sum the similarity score obtained from matching of the image of a primary finger 

with that obtained from matching of the image of a secondary finger. This sum-rule fusion represents twofinger authentication. 

7.5 Determination of an interoperable group 

The testing laboratory shall compute the detection error tradeoff characteristic (DET) for all pair wise 

combinations of the template generators and template matchers. The testing laboratory shall generate a 

rectangular interoperability matrix (see [ISOSWAP]). The matrix has rows corresponding to the generators and 

columns corresponding to the matchers. Each element of the interoperability matrix shall be the false reject rate 

at a fixed false accept rate. This value corresponds to one operating point on the DET. As described in section 

7.3.1, the DET automatically includes the effect of failure to enroll and acquire. 

An interoperable group of template generators and matchers shall be established as the largest subgroup of 

products submitted in an initial certification round for which all elements of the interoperability sub-matrix (i.e. 

FRR values) are less than or equal to 1% at a fixed 1% FAR operating point. The condition that all pair wise 

product combinations should be below this threshold is instituted because the PIV application is intolerant of 

non-interoperable pairs. 

7.6 Performance of biometric systems in PIV 

The test of section 7 is intended only to identify products demonstrating core minutiae-based interoperability. In 

particular, the error rate specification of section 7.5 serves only to establish minutiae-generation and matching 

competencies in this test. Indeed, regarding the use of biometric products (fingerprint minutiae-based or 

otherwise), this standard does not: 

⎯ establish error-rate specifications for fielded biometric systems, 

⎯ require the use of multiple samples (e.g. two fingers), 

⎯ preclude agencies from setting operating thresholds to target false acceptance or false rejection rates 

different than those given in section 7.5 (e.g. FAR = 0.4%, or FRR = 1.25%), 

⎯ preclude agencies from conducting their own supplementary tests. These might be performance tests of 

single products or interoperability tests, and might be used to estimate application-specific performance. 

24 

Note that accuracy measured in this test is likely to differ from that of a fielded system because performance

will generally vary with factors such as usage policy (e.g. three-attempts), the number of fingers used (e.g. one, 

sometimes two), environmental factors (e.g. humidity), image quality, and population effects (e.g. age). 
Special Publication 800-76-1 Biometric Specification for Personal Identity Verification

8. Conformance to this specification 

8.1 Conformance 

Conformance to this specification will be achieved if an implementation and its associated data records conform

to the normative ("shall") sections of sections 3 through 6. The following text summarizes these statements. 

8.2 Conformance to PIV registration fingerprint acquisition specifications 

Conformance to Section 3.2 requires the use of an [EFTS, Appendix F] certified scanner to collect a full set of 

fingerprint images and the application of a segmentation algorithm and the [NFIQ]-based quality assurance

procedure. Images shall be conformant to this specification if: 

1. The acquisition procedures of 3.2 are followed. This may be tested by human observation. 

2. The images are conformant to [FINGSTD] as profiled by Table 4 and its normative notes. 

8.3 Conformance of PIV Card fingerprint template records 

Conformance to Section 3.4 is achieved by conformance to all the normative content of the section. This 

includes production of records conformant to [MINUSTD] as profiled in Section 3.4. Conformance shall be 

tested by inspection of the records and performing the test assertions of the "PIV Conformance" column of 

Table 3. Performance certification according to Section 7 is necessary. 

8.4 Conformance of PIV registration fingerprints retained by agencies 

Conformance to Section 3.5 is achieved by conformance to all the normative content of the section. This 

includes production of records conformant to [FINGSTD] as profiled in Section 3.5. Conformance shall be 

tested by inspection of the records and performing the test assertions of the "PIV Conformance" column of 

Table 4. Quality values [NFIQ] shall be checked against the NIST reference implementation. 

8.5 Conformance of PIV background check records 

Conformance to Section 3.6 is achieved by conformance to all the normative content of the section. This 

necessitates conformance to the normative requirements of the FBI for background checks. These shall be 

tested by inspection of the transactions submitted to the FBI. This inspection may be performed either by

capturing the transactions at the submitting agency or at the FBI. 

8.6 Conformance to PIV authentication fingerprint acquisition specifications 

Conformance to Section 4.2 shall be achieved if certification according to [SINGFING] is achieved, and if the 

resolution and area specifications are met. The [SINGFING] certification process entails inspection of output 

images. 

8.7 Conformance of PIV facial image records 

Conformance to Section 5 shall be achieved by conformance to all the normative content of the section. This 

includes production of records conformant to [FACESTD] as profiled in Section 5.2. Conformance shall be 

tested by inspection of records and performing the test assertions of the "PIV Conformance" column of Table 6. 

8.8 Conformance of CBEFF wrappers

A PIV implementation will be conformant to section 6 if all biometric data records, whether or not mandated by

this document or [FIPS], are encapsulated in conformant CBEFF records. CBEFF records are conformant if: 

1. the fields of the Table 8 header are present; 

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2. the fields of Table 8 contain the allowed values as governed by its normative notes; 

3. a digital signature conformant to [800-78] is present; 

4. the values are consistent with the enclosed biometric data and the trailing digital signature. 

An application that tests conformance of PIV biometric data shall be provided with appropriate keys to decrypt 

and check the digital signature. 

8.9 Conformance of template generators 

A template generator shall be certified on the basis of the conformance of its output, its speed of computation, 

and on the error rates observed when its templates are matched in an interoperability test conformant to Section 

7. 

A template generator shall be certified if: 

1. it converts all input Table 10 [FINGSTD] instances to Table 11 [MINUSTD] templates and these pass 

the template conformance test suite established by NIST, and 

2. it converts 90% of Table 10 [FINGSTD] instances in fewer than 1.3 seconds4

 each, and 

3. all certified matchers verify its output templates with FRR less than or equal to 1% at a FAR of 1%. 

8.10 Conformance of template matchers 

A template matcher shall be certified on the basis of its speed of computation, and on the error rates observed 

when it matches templates in an interoperability test conformant to Section 7. 

A template matcher shall be certified if:

1. it converts all input Table 11 [MINUSTD] templates to scalar scores, and 

2. it executes 90% of the Section 7.4 template matches in fewer than 0.1 seconds each, and 

3. it matches templates from all certified template generators, and the template generator accompanying 

the matcher, with FRR less than or equal to 1% at a FAR of 1%.

 

4 This specification applies to a commercial-off-the-shelf PC procured in 2005 and equipped with a 2GHz processor and 512 MB of main memory. This

specification shall be adjusted by the testing organization to reflect significant changes of the computational platform.

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9. References 

Citation Document 

800-73 NIST Special Publication 800-73-1, Interfaces for Personal Identity Verification 

800-78 NIST Special Publication 800-78, Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Sizes for Personal Identity Verification 

CBEFF INCITS 398-2005, American National Standard for Information Technology - Common Biometric Exchange 

Formats Framework (CBEFF) 

EFTS IAFIS-DOC-01078-7.1 CJIS-RS-0010 (V7.1) – Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification, Criminal Justice 

Information Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, May 2, 2005. Linked from here 

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis.htm 

The material at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis/efts71/cover.htm may not be fully up to date. Implementers should

request the full EFTS documentation, including Appendix N, from the FBI. 

FFSMT ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000 – Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Scar Mark & Tattoo (SMT) 

Information, NIST Special Publication 500-245, 2000. 

FINGSTD INCITS 381-2004, American National Standard for Information Technology - Finger Image-Based Data 

Interchange Format 

FIPS FIPS 201, Personal Identity Verification, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2005. 

MINUSTD INCITS 378-2004, American National Standard for Information Technology - Finger Minutiae Format for Data 

Interchange 

FACESTD INCITS 385-2004, American National Standard for Information Technology - Face Recognition Format for Data 

Interchange 

ICS Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) Proforma style guide. 

EG 201 058 V1.2.3 (1998-04) 

ISOSWAP ISO/IEC 19795:2005 Information Technology — Biometric Performance Testing and Reporting — Part 4:

Interoperability Performance Testing 

MINEX Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test, Evaluation Report: NISTIR 7296 http://fingerprint.nist.gov/minex04

NFACS IAFIS-DOC-07054-1.0, Criminal Justice Information Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of

Justice, April 2004. 

NFIQ NISTIR 7151 - Fingerprint Image Quality, NIST Interagency Report, August 2004 

SINGFING See "Personal Identity Verification (PIV): Image Quality Specifications For Single Finger Capture Devices". 

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis/piv/pivspec.pdf 

 

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