Overview
ISO/IEC 19794-2:2005/Cor 1:2009 is a Technical Corrigendum to the international standard for finger minutiae data interchange. It updates and corrects portions of Part 2 of the ISO/IEC 19794 series so that biometric systems, smart-card applications and interchange formats for fingerprint minutiae remain interoperable and unambiguous. Changes include revised format-type codes, modified clause numbering, and clarified encoding guidance for card-related minutiae formats.
Key Topics
- Format type definitions: Table 16 was replaced to explicitly define ten finger minutiae format types (decimal 001–028 / hex ‘0001’–’001C’) covering:
- Record formats (with/without extended data)
- Card formats (normal vs compact; with or without record header)
- Two representations of ridge endings: valley skeleton bifurcation points and ridge skeleton end points
- Card-related encodings (Clause 8): The corrigendum reworks Clause 8 (renumbering subclauses) and defines two card encodings - normal size and compact size - that can embed series of minutiae as TLV DOs (per ISO/IEC 7816-11) or within finger minutiae records instead of fixed-length 6‑byte entries.
- Zonal quality data (card formats without header): A modified header for zonal quality data is specified when image dimensions are not present. Header fields include:
- resolution (cells per decimetre; permissible 20–255; recommended 125)
- number of cells in X and Y (1–255)
- cell quality bit depth (0, 1, 2, 4 or 8)
- Match-on-card guidance: Notes clarify that compact card formats without record headers are optimized for match-on-card scenarios (minutia data compared inside smartcard), and that TLV encoding per ISO/IEC 19785-3 is recommended for card formats without headers.
- Normative reference updates: References to related standards were updated/added (e.g., ISO/IEC 19784-1:2006, ISO/IEC 19785-2:2006, ISO/IEC 19785-3:2007).
Applications
- Biometric system developers and fingerprint template vendors implementing minutiae template storage, interchange and verification.
- Smart-card and secure element integrators using match-on-card fingerprint verification.
- Identity management, law enforcement AFIS/ABIS integrators, and government ID programs requiring standardized fingerprint interchange formats.
- Systems requiring CBEFF-compatible TLV encoding for efficient biometric data transmission.
Related Standards
This corrigendum ensures clearer, interoperable rules for biometric minutiae formats, particularly in card-based and constrained-storage environments.