Biometric System Integration

Abstract

Much of the literature on biometric system design (as opposed to algo-rithmic, hardware or test design) has focused on system error rates and scaling equations [1–5]. In this chapter, I would like to step back a bit and ask " What are the operational goals and requirements of the system? " It sounds obvious, but before one can design and implement a successful bio-metric system, one must have a crystal-clear view of the requirements and how the operational processes will fit within the existing business pro-cesses and structures [6, 7]. It is tempting to get carried away with the tech-nology and think of all the things we could do with biometrics and related technologies, when really we should concentrate on what we need to do in order to satisfy the requirements at hand, identifying how and where biometrics will be used to support the overall objective. 10.1 Understanding, Describing and Documenting the Requirements The first step then, is to identify and clearly describe the problem. If we are considering the use of biometrics, then part of the problem presumably lies in personal identity verification. It would help also to check our under-standing of the current process for identity verification (if one exists) and to document this accordingly. We can then examine this process in some detail and identify precisely where and how we can integrate biometrics, or indeed, redesign the process from the ground up if required. We shall assume for the purposes of this chapter that a sound business case has already been made for the adoption of biometrics and any supporting tech-nologies required for the application. I stress again how important it is to start off with a clearly identified and documented requirement. It is sur-prisingly easy to lose sight of the original objective when evaluating inter-esting technologies, and end up with a cleverly designed system which fails to deliver the fundamental requirements. Another item to consider in this context is exactly how we describe and document those requirements. Naturally this is important if we intend to issue an RFI (Request for Information) or RFP (Request for Proposal) to sys-tems integrators and/or biometric vendors to help us with our application.