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MINEX II FAQs

September 8, 2008

Q: What information is available on the NIST fingerprint database used in MINEX II?

A: The images are referred to a POEBVA, the BVA referring to enrollment samples collected in consular offices, and the POE referring to recognition samples submitted in border crossing ports of entry. The images are acquired using two different single finger optical sensors. See the original MINEX 04 report specifically the entry for POEBVA in the Annex B.

September 8, 2008

Q: Has NIST pre-selected the MINEX II fingerprints in order to reject the bad quality ones?

A: No. The dataset is a large random sample of the operational data. Note that the images were collected with an "auto-capture" process, with review by an attending official.

September 8, 2008

Q: What is the maximum finger rotation angle in MINEX II?

A: We do not know this value. The operational data can be expected to exhibit the natural range of angles produced when largely non-habituated users attempt recognition with a single-finger optical sensor.

August 2, 2008

Q: Your report suggested the MINEX II would be sent for standardization. What is the status of that project?

A: Yes the MINEX II protocol was submitted as a contribution toward the development of ISO/IEC 19795 - Biometric performance testing and reporting - Part 7: Testing of ISO/IEC 7816-based verification algorithms. The decision of the Working Group 5 in JTC 1 / SC 37 in July 2008 was to widen the scope to include the testing generic for all biometric modalities, and to allow proprietary formats. The standard is at the Committee Draft stage.

August 14, 2007

Q: Is it required for the card to decrement the retry counter after a failed verify?

A: No.

July 25, 2007

Q: How can I get updates on MINEX II?

A: Please send an email asking to be added to the MINEX II mailing list. Updates will be sent bcc.

July 23, 2007

Q: Will MINEX II support command chaining for sending large templates to the card?

A: Yes, if a card indicates a capability to process ISO-CC templates containing more than 84 minutiae, NIST will execute the appropriate APDUs.

Q: Where can I find NIST's code for manipulation of fingerprint templates?

A: The ISO/IEC 19794-2 and INCITS 378 software is part of the Biometric Data Interchange (BiomDI) project.

Q: To enter MINEX II, do I also have to participate in the SBMOC demonstration?

A: No, participation in sBMOC is not a pre-requisite for MINEX II. July 18, 2007

Q: How do I participate in MINEX II?

A: Follow the instructions in Annex H of the MINEX II test plan accordingly.

Contacts

Created May 13, 2010, Updated June 2, 2021