Overview
ISO/IEC TR 24722:2024 - a third‑edition Technical Report from ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37 - provides a comprehensive, application‑oriented description of current practices in multimodal and multibiometric fusion. Rather than prescribing mandatory requirements, the report documents high‑level concepts, fusion strategies and analytical guidance to help practitioners design, evaluate and compare systems that combine multiple biometric measurements (for example, face, fingerprint, iris, voice) to improve performance, resilience and usability.
Key topics and technical coverage
The report explains and analyzes core multibiometric concepts and approaches, including:
- Multibiometric categories: multi‑characteristic‑type, multi‑instance, multi‑sensorial, multialgorithmic and multipresentation.
- Presentation modes: simultaneous and sequential capture of biometric samples and their implications for fusion.
- Correlation considerations when combining dependent biometric sources.
- Levels of combination (fusion):
- Decision‑level fusion (simple and advanced) - combining final comparator decisions.
- Score‑level fusion - including rank‑level approaches, score normalization and common score fusion methods.
- Feature‑level (template) fusion - combining extracted features or templates prior to matching.
- Characterization data for multibiometric systems and how it supports normalization and fusion choices.
- Normative reference to ISO/IEC 2382‑37 for biometrics vocabulary to ensure consistent terminology.
Practical applications and benefits
ISO/IEC TR 24722:2024 is focused on practical value: it documents fusion techniques that have enabled large‑scale systems (for example, AFIS/ABIS) and guides the use of fusion to:
- Reduce false acceptance and false rejection rates.
- Improve enrolment robustness and lower failure‑to‑enrol (FTE) rates.
- Maintain decision capability when some biometric sources are unavailable.
- Balance usability, security and computational efficiency through multialgorithmic or multi‑sensor approaches.
Typical application areas:
- National identity and civil registration programs
- Border control and airport security checks
- Law enforcement and criminal identification (AFIS/ABIS)
- Video surveillance and access control systems
- Research and evaluation of biometric fusion algorithms
Who should use this Technical Report
- Biometric system architects and integrators
- Algorithm developers and researchers in multimodal biometrics
- Standards bodies and implementers developing biometric specifications
- Procurement specialists and policy makers evaluating multibiometric solutions
Related standards
ISO/IEC TR 24722:2024 is a practical reference for understanding fusion approaches, selecting appropriate fusion levels (decision, score, feature) and applying multibiometric techniques to real‑world deployments.