The International Labour Organization (ILO is a Specialized Agency of the United Nations (UN). In June 2003, the ILO adopted the Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 (Convention No. 185). A companion technical document, ILO SID-0002 Finger Minutiae-Based Biometric Profile for Seafarers’ Identity Documents, defines a two fingerprint minutiae template to be stored on a two dimensional barcode contained in each SID. In order to successfully implement ILO Convention No. 185, Seafarers’ Identity Documents (SIDs) issued in each ratifying State must be able to be used for verifying a seafarer’s identity in every other State to which that seafarer travels in the course of his or her duties. This is done using fingerprint matching based on the two fingerprint minutiae template and constitutes the world’s first globally interoperable biometric verification system.

As more and more countries deploy ILO SID systems, there is a continuing need to ensure that all of the biometric technologies they employ are interoperable. Three biometric conformance and interoperability tests have been carried out. In each test a number of biometric products, each consisting of a fingerprint enrolment and verification algorithm coupled with a specific fingerprint sensor, have been evaluated for conformance to the technical standards specified in ILO SID-0002 and for interoperability with one another. The ILO publishes an approved products list that includes only those products that are fully conformant and can obtain an average equal error rate of 1% when they match fingerprints using templates from all other qualified products and when all other qualified products match fingerprints using templates that they have produced. So far, in the three previous tests, a total of nine products have achieved this goal.

With new technologies becoming available and more companies from different parts of the world entering the market, there is now a need for a fourth ILO SID Biometric Interoperability Test (ISBIT-4). Companies participating in this test will benefit from the feedback provided on their conformance and interoperability results and, if they are successful in meeting the interoperable performance criterion, from the ability to sell products for the ILO SID market and to position their products for other markets requiring fingerprint interoperability with ISO standardized minutiae templates. Since there is an interactive tuning period before the formal test begins, vendors will be given an opportunity to improve their products to enhance interoperability if required. Once the data acquisition begins, however, the products may not be modified as fingerprint capture software tends to be one of the most important contributors towards fingerprint quality and thus interoperable performance.

The timeline envisaged for this test is shown below: