Innovatrics update improves biometric matching accuracy for children’s fingerprints

Innovatrics has announced the availability of a new algorithm aimed at closing the accuracy gap in fingerprint biometric matching between children and adults on its ABIS platform.

The ‘age agnostic’ biometric algorithm cuts the error rate of children fingerprint matching by six times, bringing the accuracy level quite close to that of adult fingerprint matching, the company said in an announcement.

Innovatrics said the innovation was developed in response to demands from ABIS customers who have expressed worries that same biometric registers used for children and adults have generated either a significant number of false positives or false negatives in identifying the fingerprints of children.

The algorithm maintains the compatibility of biometric templates, and also allows for the continuous installation of accurate fingerprint comparison in children into ABIS installations currently in use.

Innovatrics also explained the difficulties encountered in performing accurate fingerprint matching for children, due to the changes in relative position of minutiae points as their fingers grow.

The is expected to help save up cost and time for customers of Innovatrics ABIS who are adding child fingerprint matching into their systems.

The algorithm is designed to estimate the shape of an adult fingerprint from a child’s scan, and the matching algorithm uses the same biometric template for datasets of children, adults or mixed, with high level accuracy and low latency.

The company said the move also comes within a context where some countries have set fingerprint matching requirements for passports to include children from 12 or 13 years old, with some EU countries setting the limit for residence permits fingerprint checks at 6.

Below that age, research is ongoing to make infant fingerprint biometrics viable, possibly with specialized hardware.

Article Topics

ABIS - Automated Biometric Identification System  |  accuracy  |  algorithms  |  biometric identification  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  children  |  fingerprint recognition  |  Innovatrics