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BioAPI Conformance Test Suite

Overview

The BIMA CTS software is a tool developed to verify the conformity of software components to the ANSI INCITS 358-2002 BioAPI Specification (BioAPI 1.1). The purpose of this tool is to provide an increased level of confidence that biometric products correctly and consistently implement the BioAPI Specification and provide some assurance of interoperability between BioAPI based products and systems.

This version of the BTF BioAPI CTS is an implementation based on the Fourth Draft of INCITS Project 1703-D - "Information Technology Conformance Testing Methodology for ANSI INCITS 358-2002, BioAPI Specification" and is intended for conformance testing of BioAPI Biometric Service Providers (BSPs). The test assertions used for BioAPI BSP conformance testing are fully documented in INCITS 1703-D. Additionally, this version of the CTS allows for limited testing of BioAPI conformance of applications using a methodology described in Final Committee Draft (FCD) of ISO/IEC 24709-1: "Conformance Testing for BioAPI -- Part 1: Methods and Procedures." The test assertions for conformance testing of applications are included in this test suite but are not standardized at this time.

The BTF BioAPI CTS was developed in parallel with both INCITS Project 1703-D and ISO/IEC 24709-1 standards projects in order to expedite development for new and existing requirements for BioAPI conformant products. Since this version of the BioAPI CTS is based on two standards in draft form, it is possible that changes to the standards may lead to changes in the CTS software.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Lab (ITL) and the National Biometric Security Project also sponsored a similar project for conformance testing of BioAPI BSPs. BIMA and NIST ITL have performed joint testing of initial versions of both the BIMA BioAPI CTS and the NIST ITL BioAPI Conformance Test Suite in order to cross-validate the test results using a number of vendor BSPs claiming conformance to the BioAPI standard. More information about the NIST ITL BioAPI Conformance Test Suite is available on the NIST ITL website.

Before downloading the BioAPI Conformance Test Suite (January 2006 version 2.2), please review the release notes and disclaimer.

Resources

Download a brief with more information about BioAPI and the BioAPI Conformance Test Suite.

Acknowledgements

The BioAPI CTS was developed and tested by DoD support contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and subcontractor OSS Nokalva. The DoD DMO BioAPI CTS software has dependencies on components from the following third-party software packages:

  • Xerces2 Java Parser
  • Java Runtime Environment v1.4.2
  • Microsoft Runtime C files (msvcp71.dll, msvcr71.dll)

The initial version of the BioAPI Specification was published by the BioAPI Consortium as BioAPI Specification 1.0.

ANSI INCITS 358-2002 BioAPI Specification, was developed by INCITS M1 and approved by the American National Standards Institute in 2002.

Subcommittee 37 (SC 37) of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) / International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) is currently developing an international version of the BioAPI specification as well as the associated conformance testing methodology standard.