A new protocol for multi-biometric systems' evaluation maintaining the dependencies between biometric scores

We address the problem of measuring the dependency of multibiometric systems' scores, using Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Mutual Information criteria, and studying the validity of performance evaluation on chimeric persons. On the NIST-BSSR1 database, we formalize a common assumption in the literature: for independent scores, multibiometric systems can be evaluated on “random chimeric” persons. We show that this is not valid for dependent scores and propose a novel protocol for building “cluster-based chimeric” persons maintaining the level of dependency between scores. Finally, we show that performance evaluation for dependent modalities on such persons is equivalent to that obtained on “real” persons.

► Measuring dependency of multibiometric systems' scores, using statistical criteria. ► Validity of multibiometric systems' performance evaluation on chimeric persons. ► Novel protocol for building chimeric persons maintaining dependency between scores. ► Evaluation on such chimeric persons is equivalent to that obtained on real persons.