Biometrics Glossary - M

Welcome to the Biometrics Glossary - M - for terms beginning with M

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Match/Matching
The process of comparing a biometric sample against a previously stored template and scoring the level of similarity. An accept or reject decision is then based upon whether this score exceeds the given threshold.

Minutiae
Points corresponding to the ridge endings, deltas, and bifurcations of a finger pattern. Minutiae are described in a fingerprint template.

Minutiae Database
The database that contains all fingerprint templates in the system. The minutiae database is contained within the image database.

Mimic
The presentation of a live biometric measure in an attempt to fraudulently impersonate someone other than the submitter. See also challenge response, liveness detection, spoofing.

Modality
A type or class of biometric system. For example: face recognition, fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, etc. Model A representation used to characterise an individual. Behavioural-based biometric systems, because of the inherently dynamic characteristics, use models rather than static templates. See also template.

Multimodal Biometric System
A biometric system in which two or more of the modality components (biometric characteristic, sensor type or feature extraction algorithm) occurs in multiple.