Identix Incorporated demonstrated strong performance in Round Four of International Biometric Group's (IBG) Comparative Biometric Testing. The latest comparative study from IBG evaluated fingerprint technology from eight vendors including Identix. The test was conducted in 2002 and the results were released last week.

The strong performance demonstrated by the Identix algorithm was especially apparent in the measurement for False Rejection Rate (FRR) after an extended period of time after initial enrollment. This important metric measures the likelihood of an authorized user being denied access as time passes beyond the initial enrollment and hence is very relevant to real-world performance.


Identix President & CEO Dr. Joseph J. Atick said that a low FRR that remains low with time is indicative of a genuine biometric that keys in on stable and immutable characteristics of the human body. While many biometrics today may be able to deliver reasonably low FRR for same session or for fresh enrollments, their performance seems to deteriorate as time passes, which questions their long-term viability as a biometric.

This is particularly relevant when discussing performance of minutia-based versus pattern-based algorithms for fingerprints Minutia-based algorithms analyze the points at which the ridges on the fingerprints split, intersect or end, while pattern-based algorithms create a graphical comparison similar to a photograph of the fingerprint image. Identix believes that its minutia-based algorithm outperforms pattern-based algorithms by consistently delivering the lowest FRR after an extended period of time after initial enrollment. Identix also believes that minutia-based algorithms are significantly less sensitive to physical changes and are more stable over time and hence represent a more genuine biometric than pattern-based systems. Moreover, for the majority of the applications, Identix believes that its algorithms outperform all competing algorithms regardless of whether they are pattern- or minutia-based.