Morpho (Safran) announced recently that its fingerprint matching technology placed first in the ongoing Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Test (MINEX) sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)*. Results published by NIST reveal that Morpho ranked first in all 3 major categories. All tests are done with fingerprint "templates" which are digital representations of fingerprint images created for matching and storage.
Over 30 companies submitted technology for NIST testing. Morpho achieved top performance in the following areas:
- First in fingerprint matching accuracy using Morpho templates and matching algorithms. Morpho's matching results are 60% higher than the next closest vendor.
- First in template interoperability in which Morpho templates out performed all other templates no matter which vendor's matcher was used. Morpho's template interoperability results are 10% higher than the next closest vendor.
- First in matcher interoperability, where Morpho's matcher out performed all other matchers no matter which vendor template was used. Morpho's matching interchangeability scored 44% better than the next closest vendor.
"The 2014 MINEX benchmark results confirm Morpho's leadership in the field of biometric identification," observed Celeste Thomasson, CEO of the U.S. company MorphoTrak. "For government agencies tasked with ensuring security and safety, using superior technology helps avoid security lapses, missed identifications and other serious vulnerabilities for law enforcement, border control, access control, traveller safety, etc. The results of Morpho's continuing R&D investments are apparent in these tests and in our growing list of worldwide customers who choose security as their top priority."
Interoperability among various vendors and deployed systems is key to the exchange of records, and accuracy in matching for meaningful identification. Morpho-encoded fingerprints provide the greatest number of accurate matches, under the broadest range of conditions.
*The NIST program's mandates are to measure and publish performance and interoperability of template and matching capabilities, and to establish compliance standards for template encoders and matchers for the U. S. Government's Personal Identity Verification (PIV) program. Test results for all compliant ongoing MINEX vendors are published on the NIST website at http://biometrics.nist.gov/cs_links/minex/ominex/test_status_table2a.pdf. In this table, Morpho is represented as 4S.
