National Identity Security Strategy
Statement of Biometric Interoperability
Capability Requirements
National Identity Security Strategy
Purpose
A National Biometrics Interoperability Framework (the Framework) has been developed to outline a
set of principles to guide national efforts to build greater collaboration between agencies using
biometric systems across levels of government. This is intended to help explore potential synergies
(e.g. cost savings for systems design and capability development) and promote information sharing
(where authorised by law).
The Framework works within existing law and promotes the highest standards of privacy and
security protection for biometric uses. The Framework achieves this through a set of high-level
principles to guide efforts towards enhancing the interoperability of biometric systems, covering
issues such as preferred biometric types, data integrity, technical standards, security and privacy.
Current Commonwealth government agency interoperability examples include the Department of
Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) receiving passport information from the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade / Australian Passport Office (DFAT), which is used for border control
purposes and in turn sends citizenship data to the DFAT. DFAT provides a subset of the passport
database to DIBP for border processing purposes.
Agencies working within the Framework need to factor design for interoperability costs into business
processes, so that they are able to transition to a state of biometric interoperability. Cross-agency
procurement of biometric applications and systems should be utilised to enhance efficiency and
interoperability.
Agencies using biometrics are therefore encouraged to reuse biometric assets that may already exist
across Government, rather than invest in new technologies or to enhance existing assets where
possible. The Framework also encourages agencies to work together to eliminate barriers to sharing
biometric and related data, where sharing is necessary in the national interest or appropriate in the
public interest.
The Statement seeks to better articulate to industry and researchers the current biometrics
capability development needs of Australian Government agencies, focussing on facial biometrics.
These requirements are particularly concerned with identification accuracy, throughput, user
acceptance, system security, robustness, and return on investment.
They are also concerned with the ability to handle poor quality and incomplete data, achieve
scalability to accommodate many users, ensure interoperability, and protect user privacy while
reducing system cost and enhancing system integrity. This is particularly as they relate to enabling
interoperability, in the context of maintaining legacy systems.
Capability Development Needs
The following list of capability development requirements have been derived from FABCOE
discussions and presentations made by agencies to the Biometrics Institute Technology Showcase
Australia in November 2013.
Biometric interoperability among different technologies
As biometrics systems are being deployed in a wide range of applications, it is necessary that the
system be interoperable among different biometrics technologies (sensors/algorithms/vendors). A
biometric system can no longer operate under the assumption that the same sensor, same
algorithms, or same operating conditions will always be available during its lifetime. This would
significantly reduce the need for additional software development and bring all the associated
advantages (cost savings and efficiency).
Statement of Biometric Interoperability Capability Requirements
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National Identity Security Strategy
Capability Requirement
1.
Methodologies, technologies, processes or other solutions to:
a) permit interoperability between systems based on different vendor designs and
proprietary information; and
b) enable legacy biometric systems employed within government to operate in an
interoperable way with other systems.
Human factors in facial recognition
Humans play a big part in facial recognition. In a passport workflow, a human makes a final decision
on the identity of a passport applicant based on the facial recognition gallery. It is known that
matching unfamiliar faces is a difficult task.
Capability Requirement
2.
Methodologies, technologies, processes or other solutions to improve the accuracy,
reliability and interoperability of human facial recognition performance, particularly for
matching unfamiliar faces.
Facial comparison training
Currently there is a limited amount of training on facial recognition. Individual government agencies
such as Department of Immigration and Border Protection and DFAT have their own in-house
training. However, there is a need for certified mid-level facial comparison training including
assessment aimed at improving FR operator performance to a minimum standard across agencies
and an Introduction to Biometric Systems for senior government staff.
Capability Requirement
3.
Training programs and/or related support services, accredited by a recognised body, that
that can be applied across agencies in relation to:
a) analysing biometric results, including assisting in gallery design, threshold setting;
b)
facial matching/comparison;
c)
forensic level analysis, including preparation of evidence for court processes;
d)
training in key biometrics concepts, terminology and technologies that is tailored for
senior executives, policy, legal and other practitioners working in non-technical roles
associated with the use of biometric systems.
Improving facial recognition algorithm performance
The performance of facial recognition algorithms can be unreliable when it comes to aging, images
of people with glasses, facial hair, facial jewellery and morphed images. This poses certain difficulties
in various operational circumstances.
Statement of Biometric Interoperability Capability Requirements
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National Identity Security Strategy
Capability Requirement
4.
Methodologies, technologies, processes or other solutions to improve the performance of
facial recognition algorithms, particularly in relation to:
a) matching images of children; and
b) ageing subjects.
Capture Resolution
Facial images that are captured for certain applications, such as immigration visas, passport
applications and drivers licences, have two purposes. The first is for biometric matching, but the
second is for forensic-level examination by specialists to determine if there are existing matches in
the database. As a result, there is a strong push, led by the US FBI, to increase capture resolution to
1200x1600 pixels or greater. Currently, few, if any, FR algorithms make use of images greater than
640x480 pixels.
Capability Requirement
5.
Algorithms that can deal facial images with capture resolutions of 1200x1600 pixels or
greater.
Live facial image capture
Capturing ISO-compliant images is extremely difficult in operational environments such as airports.
Uneven lighting, uncooperative clients and other distractions create significant issues for capturing
quality facial images for either identification or verification.
Capability Requirement
6.
Methodologies, technologies, processes or other solutions to improve agencies’ ability to
live capture facial images in operational environments, including:
a) pose normalisation in real-time for face capture.
b) live 3D face capture (as opposed to static capture traditionally done for access control);
and
c) use of infrared lighting to overcome uneven lighting issues.
Dealing with off axis facial images in real time
Facial images collected using CCTV for identification or verification purposes for example border
processing purposes in an airport or seaport.
Capability Requirement
7.
Methodologies, technologies, processes or other solutions to improve matching accuracy of
‘off axis’ images captured in real time, taking into account and the effect that lighting and
other background noise plays on the matching performance.
Statement of Biometric Interoperability Capability Requirements
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