Revision 2013
Annex 1. SC 37 History
In February 2002, the US National Body, ANSI, submitted a proposal to JTC 1 for the establishment of a new JTC 1 subcommittee on Biometrics. A letter ballot was issued to JTC 1 National Bodies and in August 2002, SC 37 was established. The Secretariat of SC 37 is assigned to ANSI.
The goal of SC 37 is to ensure a high priority, focused, and comprehensive approach worldwide for the rapid development and approval of formal international biometric standards. These standards are necessary to support the rapid deployment of significantly better, open systems standard-based security solutions for purposes such as homeland defense and the prevention of ID theft.
Scope
Standardization of genetic biometric technologies pertaining to human beings to support interoperability and data interchange among applications and systems. Generic human biometric standards include: common file frameworks; biometric application programming interfaces; biometric data interchange formats; related biometric profiles; application of evaluation criteria to biometric technologies; methodologies for performance testing and reporting and cross jurisdictional and societal aspects.
Excluded is the work in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 to apply biometric technologies to cards and personal identification.
Excluded is the work in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 for biometric data protections techniques, biometric security testing, evaluations, and evaluations methodologies.
Since its inception, Fernando Podio (NIST) has served as SC 37 Chairman and Lisa Rajchel (ANSI) has served as Secretary.
SC 37 has six Working Groups as follows:
SC 37 WG 1: Harmonized Biometric Vocabulary
Terms of Reference
1. Document concepts, terms and definitions to be used throughout SC37 International Standards, interacting as needed, with other SC 37 WGs.
2. Articulate concepts, terms and definitions based on appropriate ISO/IEC standards for the development of ISO terminology.
3. Identify sources of terms and definitions for possible use in an SC37 vocabulary (e.g., those drawn from existing standards, as well as other sources).
4. Minimize ambiguity in terms and definitions in SC37 Standards arising from differences in cultures and languages.
5. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of SC 37/WG 1.
6. Develop a standard on biometric vocabulary based on the concepts, terms and definitions developed above to be proposed as a part of the ISO 2382 multi-part standard.
7. Serve as a source of expertise in this field to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to the area of expertise in biometric vocabulary initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
SC 37 WG2: Biometric Technical Interfaces
Terms of Reference:
1. Address the standardization of all necessary interfaces and interactions between biometric components and sub-systems, including the possible use of security mechanisms to protect stored data and data transferred between systems.
2. Consider the need for a reference model for the architecture and operation of biometric systems in order to identify the standards that are needed to support multi-vendor systems and their application.
3. Consider, during the development of these standards, the interaction of these standards with other standards under development in other SC 37 WGs.
4. Work with other SC 37 WGs to address inter-related issues of specific projects under development in WG 2 or in another SC 37 WG that might extend across the ToR of the WGs.
5. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of SC 37/WG 2.
6. Serve as a source of expertise in the field of biometric technical interfaces to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to this area initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
7. Develop conformance testing methodology standards for the standards developed in WG2.
8. Develop other standards as assigned by SC 37.
SC 37 WG3: Biometric Data Interchange Formats
Terms of Reference:
1. Address the standardization of the content, meaning, and representation of biometric data formats which are specific to a particular biometric technology or technologies. Within the development of these standards:
a) ensure a common look and feel for biometric data structures
b) provide platform independence
c) separate transfer syntax from content definition.
2. Consider, during the development of these standards, the interaction of these standards with other standards under development in other SC 37 WGs.
3. Work with other SC 37 WGs to address inter-related issues of specific projects under development in WG 3 or in another SC 37 WG that might extend across the ToR of the WGs.
4. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of SC 37/WG 3.
5. Serve as a source of expertise in the field of biometric data interchange formats to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to this area initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
6. Develop conformance testing methodology standards for the standards developed in WG3.
7. Develop other standards as assigned by SC 37.
SC 37 WG4: Biometric Functional Architecture and Related Profiles
Terms of Reference:
1. Address the standardization of biometric functional architecture and related profiles that bind together the various biometric-related base standards in a manner consistent with functional blocks of operation of biometric systems.
2. These profiles will identify the pertinent biometric-related base standards. They will also define which optional fields of the base standards shall be used, as well as how to set the configurable parameters, in order to achieve interoperability within a set of pre-defined constraints.
3. Consider, during the development of these standards, the interaction of these standards with other standards under development in other SC 37 WGs.
4. Work in collaboration with other SC 37 WGs to address inter-related issues of specific projects under development in WG 4 or in another SC 37 WG that might extend across the ToR of the WGs.
5. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of SC 37/WG 4.
6.Serve as a source of expertise in the field of biometric profiles to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to this area initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
7. Develop other standards as assigned by SC 37.
SC 37 WG5: Biometric Testing and Reporting
Terms of Reference:
1. Address the standardization of testing and reporting methodologies and metrics that cover biometric technologies, systems and components.
2. Encourage studies and submissions of new work items related to biometric testing and reporting and related issues.
3. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of SC 37/WG 5.
4. Consider, during the development of these standards, the interaction of these standards with other standards under development in other SC 37 WGs.
5. Work in collaboration with other SC 37 WGs to address inter-related issues of specific projects under development in WG 5 or in another SC 37 WG that might extend across the ToR of the WGs.
6. Serve as a source of expertise in the field of biometric testing and reporting to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to this area initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
7. Where appropriate, develop conformance testing methodology standards.
8. Develop other standards as assigned by SC 37.
SC 37 WG6: Cross-Jurisdictional and Societal Aspects of Biometrics
Terms of Reference:
1. Address standardization in the field of cross-jurisdictional and societal aspects in the application of ISO/IEC biometrics standards.
2. Within this context, include the support of design and implementation of biometric technologies with respect to:
• accessibility
• health and safety
• support of legal requirements and acknowledgement of cross jurisdictional and societal considerations pertaining to personal information.
Specification and assessment of government policy are excluded from the ToR of WG6.
3. Encourage studies and submissions of new work items in support of cross-jurisdictional and societal aspects.
4. Develop draft technical reports or standards for approved projects in support of cross jurisdictional and societal aspects of biometrics.
5. Identify and enlist the support and participation of experts to promote and progress the objectives and activities of the WG.
6. Develop NPs for submission to SC37 for ballot, as needed and appropriate.
7. Consider, during the development of these standards, the interaction of these standards with other standards under development in other SC 37 WGs.
8. Serve as a source of expertise in the field of cross-jurisdictional and societal aspects of biometrics to other WGs of SC 37. Support SC 37’s goals by responding in a timely fashion to requests pertaining to this area initiated by SC 37, its WGs or other organizations such as JTC 1 SCs, ISO TCs and other SC 37 Liaison organizations.
9. Develop other standards as assigned by SC 37.
The following plenary meetings of SC 37 have been held since 2002:
• 11-13 December 2002 in Orlando, Florida
• 11-12 September 2003 in Rome, Italy
• 14-15 June 2004 in Seoul, Korea
• 04-05 July 2005 in Sun City, South Africa
• 10-11 July 2006 in London, UK
• 25-26 June 2007 in Berlin, Germany
• 14-15 July 2008 in Busan, Korea
• 13-14 July 2009 in Moscow, Russian Federation
• 19-20 July 2010 in Melaka, Malaysia
• 11-12 July 2011 in Kyoto, Japan
• Xx-xx 2012 in New Orleans, USA
Each of the six SC 37 Working Groups have met in conjunction with the Plenary meeting and additionally, since 2004, in between plenary meetings, in January.
Below are pictures of the SC17 parade in New Orleans in 2012, with a police escort:
ISO/IEC JTC 1 