printer friendly version

Virdi wins fingerprint competition

Since its inception in 2000 the FVC establishes a common benchmark, allowing companies and academic institutions to unambiguously compare performance and track improvements in their fingerprint recognition algorithms (verification algorithms). The competition, held every two years, is a joint venture between the Biometric System Laboratory (University of Bologna), Pattern Recognition and Image Processing Laboratory (Michigan State University), Biometric Test Centre (San Jose University) and the Biometric Recognition Group – ATVS (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid).

Virdi Biometric Technology, manufactured by Union Community and distributed in Southern Africa by Virdi Distribution SA, achieved the top score.

The two major factors considered during the Biometric Technology evaluation process are;

1 - False acceptance rate (FAR), and

2 - False rejection rate (FRR).

The equal error rate (EER) is a combination of these two factors and is a deciding factor along with construction of the actual biometric access control unit. The verification algorithms are also tested against an ISO standard fingerprint template (ISO/IEC 19794-2(2005)) and the algorithm with the lowest EER emerges as the winner.

Virdi emerged with an EER rate of 0,405% with the nearest competitor able to achieve an EER of only 0,598% on the FMISO-STD-1.0 benchmark.

Virdi uses a patented three step fingerprint verification process to achieve maximum security:

* Detection of electrostatic capacitance of the user.

* Infra-red scan and analysis of the user’s finger.

* A patented algorithm.

Share this article:

Further reading: