Biometric identification and verification

Abstract

In real biometric systems, false match rates and false non-match rates of 0% do not exist. There is always some probability that a purported match is false, and that a genuine match is not identified. The performance of biometric systems is often expressed in part in terms of their false match rate and false non-match rate, with the equal error rate being when the two are equal. There is a tradeoff between the FMR and FNMR in biometric systems which can be adjusted by changing a matching threshold. This matching threshold can be automatically, dynamically and/or user adjusted so that a biometric system of interest can achieve a desired FMR and FNMR.

1 . A method for setting a threshold in a biometric system using imposter match score data to derive a match threshold score that results in a desired false match rate and false non-match rate comprising:
 creating a database of match scores between all unique impostor biometric sample pairs;   creating a cumulative histogram data table recording for each possible match score outcome a number of match scores observed greater than that value divided by the total number of samples; and   selecting a desired false match rate and applying the threshold that will result in the desired false match rate.   
     
     
         2 .- 60 . (canceled)