ISO/IEC 19795 

Biometric Performance Testing and Reporting

Multipart standard concerned with “technical performance testing” of 

biometric systems. 

Technical performance testing seeks to determine error rates

 (false positive and false negative decisions, 

 failure-to-enrol and failure-to-acquire)

and throughput rates, with the goal of understanding and predicting the 

real-world error and throughput performance of biometric systems. 

Biometric technical performance testing can be of three types: 

technology, scenario or operational evaluation. 

Each type requires a different protocols and produces different types of 

results, and there are further differences due to the wide variety of 

biometric modes, devices, sensors, vendor instructions, data acquisition 

methods, target applications and populations. 

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 Part 1: Principles and framework 

 Part 2: Testing methodologies for technology and scenario evaluation 

 Part 3: Modality-specific testing [Technical Report] 

 Part 4: Interoperability performance testing 

 Part 5: Access control scenario and grading scheme 

 Part 6: Testing methodologies for operational evaluation

 

 Part 7: Testing of on-card biometric comparison algorithms

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ISO/IEC 19795-1: 2006 

Biometric Performance Testing and Reporting

Part 1: Principles and Framework

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19795-1 Scope

 Establishes general principles for testing the performance of biometrics 

systems in terms of error rates and throughput rates

 Specifies performance metrics for biometric systems; 

 Specifies requirements on test methods, recording of data and reporting 

of results; and 

 Provides a framework for developing & describing test protocols, to:

 avoid bias due to inappropriate data collection or analytic procedures

 achieve the best estimate of field performance for the expended effort

 clarify the the limits of applicability of the test results. 

 The standard is applicable to empirical performance testing of biometric 

systems and algorithms through analysis of the matching scores and 

decisions output by the system, without detailed knowledge of the 

system’s algorithms or of the underlying distribution of biometric 

characteristics in the population of interest. 

 Out of scope: Measurement of performance for people deliberately 

trying to circumvent correct recognition by the biometric system (i.e. 

active impostors). 

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ISO/IEC 19795-6:2012

Biometric performance testing and reporting — 

Part 6: Testing methodologies for operational 

evaluation 

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What makes operational evaluation different?

Operational evaluation differs from technology or scenario evaluation

 Subjects, environment, system design are not controlled for the purpose 

of repeatable testing, but vary in accordance with operational use. E.g.

 legitimacy of the subject’s identity claim

 environmental effects from weather or lighting, 

 variability of system use by different individuals

Recognition metrics

 System rejection rate / System identification rate

that do not require “ground truth” on subjects identity

 System rejection rate would include rejections in which the subject did 

not provide an ideal presentation or did not correctly follow instructions

Determining false accept rate / false reject rate from the number of 

system rejections and acceptances requires additional observations or 

controls to determine the legitimacy of identity claims and device 

interactions. 

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Technical report

ISO/IEC PDTR 29189 

Evaluation of examiner-assisted biometric 

applications

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What makes evaluating examiner assisted biometric 

systems different? 

An Examiner assisted biometric system: 

 reliant on the interaction and skill of a human examiner in the biometric 

process, be it data capture, enrolment, template generation or final 

decision

 uses a combination of the Examiner’s input and the functionality of the 

biometric algorithm 

 will likely have inbuilt toolsets to assist the Examiner in enrolling 

biometric samples, and when comparing the top match results provided 

by the biometric algorithm.

The Examiner is typically: 

 a field expert in the biometric modality being exploited

 trained to use the system to an advanced degree of proficiency

 authorised to override the biometric system’s decisions, based on their 

own examination of the biometric samples and the results returned. 

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