Database on Korean People’s Faces and Fingerprints Will Be Opened to the Public Starting from the 17th.

The Database of the Korean People’s Faces and Fingerprints will be opened to the public soon. The Ministry of Information and Communications clarified on 11th that as the construction of the database of faces and fingerprints gets completed, the developing companies and research centers of the biometric technology will open this database to the public to use at the free of charge starting from this coming 17th.

In the meantime, the biometric technology businesses have experienced difficulties in developing products because there was a shortage of related databases on Korean people’s fingerprints and faces for the testing even if they develop the biometric technology. Therefore, since last July, the Ministry of Information and Communication have invested a total amount of 700 million won on the construction of this database. The Ministry explains that the various variables of age, sex, occupation, expression, attitude, life and etc have been reflected in the database that there will not be a big problem in collecting the fingerprints and the faces of the ‘Standard Korean People’. The fingerprint database is 2000 persons with 300,000 cases and the face database is 1000 persons with 2000 cases.

“It has been produced to provide a suitable environment for the related businesses to test the technologies in various situations”, stated personnel from the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The Ministry of Information and Communication also has decided to actively promote the database construction in new biometric technology fields of the iris of the eye, as well as the veins on the hands. To use this database, you can visit the Korean Information Security Agency in person to request or you can even request over the phone. You also can request on line at the following web address: (www.kisis.or.kr).

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com