'Europe leads the world in developing the ability to test and improve the interoperability of fingerprint biometrics
'World Leaders in fingerprint technology join for the MIT Project'

A major European project to test and improve the interoperability of fingerprint biometrics and undertaken by world leaders in fingerprint technology is being launched today. The project, known as MIT, Minutiae Template Interoperability Testing, will bring together experts in biometric technology from Research, Public and Commercial areas. The MIT Project team is also launching the MIT website, mitproject.com with information and up-to-date news on its progress.

Project Co-ordinator, Tony Mansfield of National Physical Laboratory, explained the importance of MIT; "This project is crucial to addressing one of the major obstacles for any large-scale deployment of fingerprint technology - the need to ensure that components from different suppliers will work well together."

The MIT project has stemmed from the growing use of biometrics by governments for security applications in immigration and border control which has focused the importance of interoperability, where software and hardware on multiple machines from multiple vendors have the ability to communicate with each other. There is an urgent need to test and improve the interoperability of fingerprint biometrics which is essential to the deployment of biometrics internationally.

The European Commission has specific requirements to use fingerprints for future visas, non-resident permits formats, passports and travel documents and is co-funding the MIT Project within the Sixth Framework Programme.

Most fingerprint systems compare minutiae, i.e. characteristic points of the dermal ridges, rather than full fingerprint images. If minutiae templates could provide for interoperability, there could be a move from storing fingerprint images as reference to storing minutiae templates instead. The use of minutiae based templates enables solutions to be more privacy sensitive and saves time in memory and computations.

The MIT project, which will be completed next year, brings together key players with all the required expertise to deliver strategic research targeted at testing and improving the interoperability of minutiae-based fingerprint systems within a timescale to meet the needs of EU policy legislation.

The MIT project has the following partners;

As its starting point, the project takes the existing work on fingerprint minutiae data interchange standards, the problems of interoperability identified in the recent test for the seafarers ID card, and the current NIST benchmark of minutiae interoperability, and will extend this existing work to improve the standards, the test methods and the interoperability of fingerprint minutiae systems. The MIT project will take 14 months to complete.

The Scientific Objectives of MIT are;

to conduct effective research and progress to deliver encoding algorithms which are able to provide interoperability and
to deliver a framework and a certification process which allow future interoperability

The outputs of this project will be of great value to solution providers as well as government end users in the implementation of complex large scale identity solutions using fingerprint biometrics.

For more information:

MIT Project Website
www.mitproject.com

Or Contact

Cathy McKone
MIT Project Communication
E: cathy.mckone@mitproject.com

Tony Mansfield
MIT Project Co-ordinator
E: tony.mansfield@mitproject.com

Max Snijder
MIT Project Management Support
E: max.snijder@mitproject.com

About Daon
Daon is a leading provider of identity assurance software products focused on meeting the needs of governments and commercial organisations worldwide. Daon supports customers and system integrators in building enterprise solutions requiring the highest level of security, performance, scalability, reliability and privacy. Daon’s multi-modal authentication infrastructure, DaonEngine, integrates seamlessly with IT platforms and applications, manages the identity life-cycle of small and large populations and delivers a clear return-on-investment. Privately held, Daon’s offices are located in Dublin, London and Washington DC. For further information please visit www.daon.com.

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