Biometric Systems & 

Interoperability 

Kevin Mangold National Institute of Standards and Technology September 27, 2011 
Any mention of commercial products within is f

information only; it does not imply recommendaendorsement by NIST. 
Core Team 

Matt Aronoff 

Kayee Kwong 

Kevin Mangold Karen Marshall Ross J. Micheals 
Usability Support 

Yee-Yin Choong Kristin Greene Brian Stanton Mary Theofanos 
in∙ter∙op∙er∙a∙bil∙i∙ty 

the ability to work together with

unique knowledge 

interoperability specifications 

formally describe how both par

the whole can work together 

The National Biometrics Challen

National Science and Technology C

(NSTC) Subcommittee on Biometri

Identity Management, 2006 
“Preeminent challenge[:] Establis

standards for plug-and-play perform

biometric systems interoperability.” 
Biometric Recognition: Challeng

Opportunities. National Academie

2010. 
“Biometric systems should be desi

anticipate the development and adonew advances and standards, modcomponents that are likely to becomobsolete, such as biometric senso

matcher systems, so that they can easily replaced.” 
“Biometric systems should be desi

anticipate the development and adonew advances and standards, modcomponents that are likely to becomobsolete, such as biometric senso

matcher systems, so that they can easily replaced.” 
What if a special forces team wan

use different software? 
How should a border control age

manage the short lifecycle of CO

digital cameras? 
What if a local police department 

to use a different mobile fingerpr

scanner? 
Cost/Benefit of Providing 

Interoperability 
All changes have a cost of time o

money. 

There is a cost to including interoperability up front. 
Interoperability reduces the cost 

adding new components. Savings through reuse. 
Raze teardow
Cost to automotive supply chain 

Interoperability Cost Analysis of the U.S. AutomChain, (Planning Report #99-1), 1999, http://www.nist.gov/director/prog-ofc/report99-1

$1B 
$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $15

Cost to construction indusCost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in Capital Facilities Industry. NIST GCR 04-867. 2http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build04/PDF/b0
$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B 

$1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $1B $77

Cost to Health Care Industry J. Walker, E. Pan, D. Johnston, J. Adler-Milstein, D. Bates and B. Value Of Health Care Information Exchange And InteroperabilityJanuary 2005. 
1998 

BioAPI Consortium 
operating system 

architectures (processor) programming environment 
BioAPI BIP 

BioAPI C Version (Native) BioAPI C# Version BioAPI COM BioAPI Java Version Tenprint Capture Using BioAPI ... 
operating system 

architectures (processor) 

programming environment physical connections communications protocols 
Thousands upon thousands of d

possible combinations Each combination requires its owsignificant investment Dependencies create roadblocks improving or changing particular components 
2011 
www 
“The web services framework has, 

essence, begun to create a standasoftware ‘communication bus’” Jamie Lewis, Burton Group 
Windows 

Unix Mac 
Cellular Phones 

Tablet Computers Printers & Peripherals Video Game Consoles Digital Video Recorders High Definition Video Players Television “Set Top Boxes” Children’s Toys 
http://www.nist.gov 


Simple Mail Transport Prot
App 

OS 

biometric sensors 

WS-Biometric Devices 
Expose biometric devices to vari

clients via web services 
initialize 

configure capture download 
NIST Special Publication 500-288 

Specification for WS-Biometric D500-288comments@nist.gov 
FBI 

DHS NIST DoD 
matcher systems 

Biometric Identity Assuran

Services (BIAS) 
“provide the biometrics and sec

industries with a documented, oframework for deploying and invidentity assurance capabilities tbe readily accessed as service
enrollment 

identification verification 
Booz Allen Hamilton 

Daon National Institutes of Health 

NIST DoD DHS 
Timeline of OASIS Biometric Iden

Assurance Services (BIAS) TechCommittee 
2006 2007 

OASIS BIAS TC BIAS Messaging Scope changed to Info

Chartered protocol drafted SOAP profile rev

Co

2008 
2010 

Q2 

2010 

Q1 

2010

Q3 

NIST becomes Comactive participant NIST rewrites WSDL and updates CBEFF XML 
2011 

Q2 

2011 

Q1 

2011 

Q3 

Committee Draft 3 Committee Draft 4 Com

NIST Reference PubImplementation Com

Spe

Initia
2012 

and beyond 

Official Committee BIAS 

Specification beco

Stand

NIST assists stakeholders to 

provide the statements of use CBEF

approstand
Related Projects 
Programmable 3D Surface Gener

SBIR Phase II PHT Aerospace 
Video-based Automatic System f

Recognition (VASIR) 

iris.nist.gov 
Best Practices for Biometric Sen

Integration 
“Prism” 

Automatically Generate Code for & Writing ANSI/NIST & Related F
NBIS.Net: Use NBIS software fro

modern Microsoft development t
wsabi 

Web Services for Acquiring Biomet

Information 

Usability tested touch & gesture intWS-Biometric Devices sensors 
kevin.mangold@nist.gov 

http://bws.nist.gov