OASIS seeks comment on biometric device specification

The members of the biometrics technical committee at OASIS have produced an updated committee specification draft and submitted the specification for 15-day public review.

OASIS, known as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, is a global consortium that works on the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business and Web service standards.

OASIS’s specification entitled “WS-Biometric Devices Version 1.0” is a second draft that was released for public review on November 12.

WS-Biometric Devices, or WS-BD, is a command and control protocol for biometric devices. A major design goal of the protocol is to maximize interoperability, by minimizing the required “knowledge of the unique characteristics” of a device that supports WS-BD.

According to technical documentation, each implementation of WS-BD will be realized via mapping of logical to physical components. A distinguishing characteristic of an implementation will be the physical location of the sensor service component. WS-BD is designed to support two scenarios.

The first is physical separation: a sensor service and biometric sensor are hosted by different physical components. A physically separated service is one where there is both a physical and logical separation between the biometric sensor and the service that provides access to it.

The second is physical integration, in which a sensor service and biometric sensor are hosted within the same physical component. A physically integrated service is one where the biometric sensor and the service that provides access to it reside within the same physical component.

Ultimately, the protocol uses a language for the Web where proprietary knowledge of sensor interfaces are not required. Desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone applications can access the defined sensors using the protocol just as easily as they can navigate to a Web site.

Public review of the specification began on December 18 and ends on January 1, 2015. The specification is open to all comment, and OASIS is soliciting feedback from all potential users, developers and others, whether OASIS members or not, for the sake of improving the interoperability and quality of its technical work.

The specification was previously submitted for public review. This 15-day review is limited in scope to changes made from the previous review.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  interoperability  |  secure identification  |  standards