MINEX II - An Assessment of Match-on-Card technology

MINEX II is the part of the MINEX program dedicated to the evaluation and development of the capabilities of fingerprint minutia matchers running on ISO/IEC 7816 smart cards. MINEX itself is series of NIST coordinated development efforts aimed at improving the performance and interoperability of core implementations of the INCITS 378 and ISO/IEC 19794-2 fingerprint minutia standards.

MINEX II is being conducted concurrently with a separate NIST activity, Secure Biometric Match-on-Card (SBMOC) which is designed to assess feasibility of conducting crytographically secure contactless biometric authentication in less than 2.5s. Participation in SBMOC is not required for MINEX II.

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MINEX II - Phase IV

Final Report

March 31 2011:   NIST is pleased to release results from the latest in its series of tests of fingerprint minutiae match-on-card (MOC) implementations. The report, NIST Interagency Report 7477,  Revision II, details results for 17 MOC implementations submitted by 12 fingerprint-provider card-provider teams.

Start MINEX II test round

November 5, 2009: The next round of testing will begin February 2, 2010. The deadline for submission was February 23, 2010.

Planning next MINEX II test round

October 2, 2009: NIST is working to complete the test plan for the upcoming round of MINEX II testing of on-card comparison algorithms. Please consider the testing and reporting issues and send any comments via email to pgrother AT nist DOT gov. 

Announcement of further round of MINEX II testing 

June 9, 2009: NIST will conduct another round of on-card matching testing in late 2009. The new testing is being conducted in response to requests from five commercial entities. The provisional date for submission of implementations to Phase IV is November 16 2009. Please note that with its initial objectives satisfied, this is likely to be the final round of MINEX II testing.

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MINEX II - Phase III

Release of MINEX II Results

 June 9, 2009: The final results of the Phase III evaluation have been released as a revision of NIST Interagency Report 7477. This includes results for another seven on-card comparison algorithms. The new report supersedes the original 2008 report.

FAQ Update

September 7, 2008: The FAQ has been updated.

Second Public Testing Round Extended 

August 21, 2008: The window for submission for the next round of match-on-card testing has been extended by one month: Participants must now supply their SDK and cards to NIST between September 15 and October 30, 2008.

Requests, comments, and questions should be addressed to minexII [at] nist.gov (minexII[at]nist[dot]gov).

Second Public Testing Round Announced

June 20, 2008: After expressions of interest from industry, NIST will open a new round of match-on-card testing on September 30, 2008. The test will address the same ISO/IEC 17974-2 accuracy and timing measurements as in Phase II, and will use the same evaluation protocol i.e. NIST Interagency Report 7485. The intent is to track progress and to broaden participation. The result will be published as a revision of NIST Interagency Report 7477.

NIST is happy to discuss any proposals to extend the scope.

Participants must supply SDK and cards to NIST between September 15 and September 30, 2008 per the instructions in 7485. In the meantime, Requests, comments, and questions should be addressed to minexII [at] nist.gov (minexII[at]nist[dot]gov).

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Standardization of Match-on-Card Test Protocols

MOC Standardization Project Approved

June 10, 2008: The national bodies of ISO/IEC JTC 1 Subcommitte 37, Biometrics, have voted to initiate standardization of a match-on-card test protocol as ISO/IEC 19795 Biometric Performance Testing and Reporting - Part 7: Testing of ISO/IEC 7816-based verification algorithms. The U.S. national body has contributed the core of NIST Interagency Report 7485 toward a base working draft of the standard.

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MINEX II - Phase II

Formal Release of Test Plan 

February 29, 2008: The MINEX II test plan and concept of operations, finalized August 2007, has been formally released as NIST Interagency Report 7485.

Test Report

February 7, 2007: The results of the MINEX II evaluation are now available as NIST Interagency Report 7477.

Final Test Plan

October 19, 2007: The final Phase II test plan has been modified to include the latest schedule information and to modify the participation agreement to indicate Phase II (not Phase I).

Validation Data and Procedures

October 25, 2007: A page dedicated to SDK validation procedures has been established.

Conference Presentation

October 23, 2007: NIST staff presented the MINEX II program at the Biometrics 2007 Conference in London.

Final Test Plan

October 19, 2007: The final Phase II test plan is now available. There are no material changes to the August 15 document. October 23, 2007: Fixed statement to do with number of minutia before command chaining is needed.

Contact Information

October 8, 2007: All inquiries should be directed to minexII [at] nist.gov (minexII[at]nist[dot]gov).

Test Plan

October 8, 2007: A final draft of the Phase II test plan will be posted here by October 15, 2007. This will be almost identical to the Phase I MOC evaluation plan but will clarify some small technical inconsistencies found in Phase I, and modified logistical information.

Submission Period

October 8, 2007: The window for participation in Phase II of MINEX II opens on October 22, and closes at 23:00 GMT on November 5 (five), 2007. It is critical that participants submit early because NIST expects to iteratively interract with the vendor to validate correct operation of the card and software - such a process might include second and third submissions of replacement cards or PC-based SDKs.

NIST will not test inoperable submissions: Cards and software that remain non-conformant to the test specification at 23:00 GMT on November 15 (fifteen), 2007 will not be debugged, validated, tested or further considered. These deadlines are instituted to establish a fair and effective test process.

NIST intends to publish the results of the Phase II evaluation in December 2007.

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MINEX II - Phase I

Results of Evaluation

October 8, 2007: Per the participation agreement, NIST will provide results to Phase I participants imminently. Results will only be published to a general audience at the conclusion of the Phase II trial (above).

Submission Period

Sep 10, 2007: NIST accepted submissions for MINEX II Phase I during the period from July 11, 2007 until 23:00 GMT September 10, 2007.

Phase I Participation

Aug 15, 2007: Prospective participants must follow instructions in the final MOC evaluation plan. This includes completion of the participation agreement in Annex H.

Final Evaluation Plan

July 11, 2007: A final MOC evaluation plan is available. NIST now welcomes submissions per Annex H. The final plan is the result of development phase in which series of drafts were circulated for comment.