Designing a self-service terminal for capturing biometric data for the German Identity Card and the Electronic Passport

Abstract

Speed Intraproc has developed and is marketing a self-service terminal for capturing biometric data for the German Identity Card and the Electronic Passport. The Speed Capture Station is based on a solution being used in Sweden since 2005 to capture photo, fingerprints and signature for the national passport. In Sweden, the terminal is completely operated by an official, whereas the solution for Germany is a self-service terminal being used by the applicant independently, while the official is just retrieving the captured data during the application process. During the design and the development of the self-service terminal several aspects had to be considered. Among these were the compliance with national regulations like Technical Guidelines by the Federal Office for Information Security and the German Data Privacy Act, but also the requirement to provide an interface allowing an easy integration of the data retrieval into the software in use at the identity card and passport authorities. In this paper the main requirements, their implications and the related solutions which were implemented in the Speed Capture Station are described, followed by a report about the first pilot operation of the terminal during the second half of 2010 in the city of Monheim am Rhein. Final conclusions are drawn based on the information presented herein, including a closer look at the benefits for different stakeholders like citizens, municipalities and others.