Possible Conditions of FTE and FTA in Fingerprint Recognition System and Countermeasures

Biometric fingerprint recognition has been used since the 18th century to identify and verify a person’s identity. One of the most important factors in the success of a biometric system implementation is its capabilities of performing identification and verification process with accuracy (biometric accuracy) and meeting user expectation. Over the years, it still remains as a focal point of discussion in several research papers. Measurements of biometric accuracy validations such as Failure to Enroll (FTE) and Failure to Acquire (FTA) play a vital role in determining the final success of the system. It is impossible to achieve hundred percent accuracy or zero percent error rate due to the nature of the uniqueness of biometric template. Although the percentage is small, it might cause a huge impact on the relevant biometric deployment parties. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a collection of the possible reasons for high FTE and FTA. Ongoing countermeasures used to mitigate the effects are also described in this paper. The focus is on the touch-based fingerprint-based system as it is widely used in a large-scale identification system. At the end of this paper, the data collection gathered from journals, standards and best practices will be useful as a guide for relevant parties.