{ "model": { "rank": 4758, "code": "thing-q177765", "model_id": "vr.tr.biometrics", "name": "biometrics", "purpose": "Enable an agent to recognise, evaluate and govern a biometric recognition practice by recording how bodily or behavioural characteristics become identity-related evidence and what actions that evidence supports.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q177765/", "tier": 2, "score": 72, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "History of anthropemetry#Bertillon, Galton and criminology", "gait analysis", "biometric technology", "biometric identification", "vein matching", "palm vein matching", "eye vein verification", "finger vein recognition", "mofiria" ], "aliasCount": 9, "merged": 9, "knownIn": 72, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.biometrics", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q177765", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q177765", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-09T20:56:44Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 22.5, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a087f4-5b54-7e71-b085-c95cef9e058f\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: biometrics\nSense to describe: (none recorded)\nDomain code: ACT.ACT\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:\n# Batch 005: 1001 regi", "usd": 0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 71.2, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a087f4-5b58-78a3-beff-9cd84bd1bdda\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: biometrics\nRegistry id: vr.tr.biometrics\nPlane / domain: ACT / ACT.ACT\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\n\nCo" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q177765", "registryId": "vr.tr.biometrics", "name": "biometrics", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q177765/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.biometrics", "name": "biometrics", "purpose": "Enable an agent to recognise, evaluate and govern a biometric recognition practice by recording how bodily or behavioural characteristics become identity-related evidence and what actions that evidence supports.", "definition": "Biometrics is the automated recognition of individuals based on biological or behavioural characteristics, typically by comparing captured samples with previously enrolled reference data.", "scope_statement": "This model owns biometrics in the sense of automated recognition of individuals from biological or behavioural characteristics, including enrolment, comparison, evaluation and permitted use; the broader statistical study of living organisms is a neighbouring sense requiring registry clarification.", "in_scope": [ "The recognition purpose, target population and distinction between verification, identification and duplicate-enrolment detection", "Biometric modalities, acquisition conditions and transformation of samples into reference representations", "Comparison scores, thresholds, candidate selection and handling of uncertain or unsuccessful outcomes", "Performance evidence, presentation attacks and other threats to biometric evidence", "Reference lifecycle, linkability, affected-person recourse and boundaries on use" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Biometry as statistical analysis of biological populations without individual recognition", "Clinical measurements and diagnoses that do not serve a recognition purpose", "General identity proofing and credential issuance beyond their interfaces with biometric enrolment", "Complete sensor hardware specifications and manufacturing processes", "General surveillance operations, policing policies and access-control systems beyond their use of biometric evidence" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The practice uses a biological or behavioural characteristic to recognise an individual; merely measuring pulse, height or movement does not establish that it is biometrics in this model's sense.", "Verification compares a probe against a claimed identity's reference, while identification searches a reference population; the declared comparison task must distinguish these cases.", "A biometric comparison supplies evidence of correspondence between observations; establishing a person's civil identity additionally requires an evidenced identity binding.", "Possession of a card or knowledge of a password is not itself biometric, even when the same transaction also includes a biometric comparison.", "Detection of a face, voice or fingerprint without individual recognition belongs to an adjacent sensing task, although it may be a component of a biometric workflow." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Recognition task", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "verification; identification; duplicate-enrolment detection; other explicitly defined task", "why_it_matters": "Determines what is compared and what a successful result can establish." }, { "name": "Biometric modality", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "fingerprint; face; iris; voice; gait; other specified modality; multimodal combination", "why_it_matters": "Connects recognition to its acquisition requirements, variability and potential attack methods." }, { "name": "Identity binding", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "reference linked to a verified identity, claimed identity, pseudonym or unknown individual, with supporting provenance", "why_it_matters": "Separates recognition of the same individual from assurance about who that individual is." }, { "name": "Acquisition context", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "cooperative or noncooperative; attended or unattended; contact or contactless; sensor and environmental conditions", "why_it_matters": "Defines the circumstances under which capture and evaluation evidence apply." }, { "name": "Reference representation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "retained sample; extracted template; protected representation; combination, with format and version", "why_it_matters": "Affects compatibility, exposure, migration and possibilities for replacement after compromise." }, { "name": "Comparison score and operating threshold", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "implementation-defined score scale and direction; threshold values tied to task and version", "why_it_matters": "Makes the rule translating a comparison into an outcome inspectable without treating a score as an identity probability." }, { "name": "Evaluation error profile", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "task-appropriate error rates with denominators, uncertainty, population, conditions and operating point", "why_it_matters": "Allows assessment of erroneous matches, missed matches and the limits of reported performance." }, { "name": "Capture and enrolment failure", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "failure-to-acquire and failure-to-enrol rates, each with a stated denominator and retry policy", "why_it_matters": "Records people and attempts excluded before comparison metrics are calculated." }, { "name": "Reference lifecycle status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "pending; active; superseded; suspended; compromised; deletion pending; deleted with verification", "why_it_matters": "Controls whether a reference remains usable and whether lifecycle actions have actually completed." }, { "name": "Permitted decision", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "recognition outcome linked to an allowed action, governing authority, review requirement and fallback", "why_it_matters": "Prevents a matching result from silently becoming unrestricted authority to act." } ], "affordances": [ "Classify a proposed use as verification, identification or duplicate-enrolment detection and test whether its identity claims exceed the evidence.", "Assess whether a sample and reference are suitable for comparison under the documented acquisition and compatibility conditions.", "Evaluate a proposed operating threshold against task-specific error evidence and consequences.", "Route failed capture, ambiguous matches and suspected attacks to defined retry, review or alternative procedures.", "Trace and manage biometric references through enrolment, updates, compromise response and deletion.", "Check whether a proposed search, linkage or downstream action falls within the recorded permitted use." ] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "recognition-meaning-and-identity", "name": "Recognition meaning and identity", "description": "Establishes which sense of biometrics is intended and what identity-related proposition a deployment attempts to support.", "rationale": "A model must distinguish biological measurement, individual recognition and proof of identity before interpreting any match.", "layers": [ { "id": "recognition-task", "name": "Recognition task", "description": "Defines the comparison problem and the population against which it operates.", "findings": [ { "id": "task-and-search-boundary", "name": "Task and search boundary", "description": "Record whether the operation checks a claimed identity, searches for an individual or detects repeated enrolment, including whether an individual may be absent from the reference population.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does this use verify a claimed identity, identify a person in a gallery or detect duplicate enrolments?", "kind": "definition", "id": "task-and-search-boundary-q01" }, { "text": "Can the observed individual be absent from the gallery, and how is that possibility represented in the result?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "task-and-search-boundary-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "identity-binding", "name": "Identity binding", "description": "Separates biometric correspondence from the identity assertion attached to a reference.", "findings": [ { "id": "reference-identity-provenance", "name": "Reference identity provenance", "description": "Record how the enrolled reference became associated with a person, account or pseudonym and which assertions that association supports.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence links the enrolled biometric reference to its identity label, and who established that link?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "reference-identity-provenance-q01" }, { "text": "Does a match support continuity with an enrolled individual, a named identity claim or another explicitly limited assertion?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "reference-identity-provenance-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "biometric-acquisition-and-representation", "name": "Biometric acquisition and representation", "description": "Describes the characteristic observed, the capture process and the representation used for recognition.", "rationale": "A modality name alone cannot establish that an observation is usable or comparable with an enrolled reference.", "layers": [ { "id": "modality-and-capture", "name": "Modality and capture", "description": "Records the physical or behavioural signal and conditions that shape its acquisition.", "findings": [ { "id": "capture-suitability", "name": "Capture suitability", "description": "Record modality-specific acquisition conditions, quality criteria and barriers to obtaining a usable sample.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which characteristic is captured, using which sensor and protocol, and with what required participation from the person?", "kind": "definition", "id": "capture-suitability-q01" }, { "text": "How is sample quality assessed, and which environmental, bodily or behavioural conditions cause rejection or require an alternative?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "capture-suitability-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "samples-and-templates", "name": "Samples and templates", "description": "Traces captured observations into stored references and comparison inputs.", "findings": [ { "id": "representation-lineage", "name": "Representation lineage", "description": "Record retained samples, feature extraction, template protection and version dependencies, including the lineage of each reference update.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which raw samples and derived representations are retained, and which extraction and protection versions produced them?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "representation-lineage-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence establishes compatibility between the enrolled reference and the current probe-processing pipeline?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "representation-lineage-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "comparison-and-performance", "name": "Comparison and performance", "description": "Makes biometric decision rules and the evidence for their performance explicit.", "rationale": "An agent needs task-specific error evidence and an operating point to judge what a recognition result warrants.", "layers": [ { "id": "scores-and-outcomes", "name": "Scores and outcomes", "description": "Connects comparisons to thresholds, candidate lists and unresolved results.", "findings": [ { "id": "operating-rule", "name": "Operating rule", "description": "Record score semantics, thresholds and any fusion or ranking rules that determine the reported outcome.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the comparison score mean, which direction indicates stronger correspondence, and what threshold produces each outcome?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "operating-rule-q01" }, { "text": "How are multiple modalities, repeated attempts, competing candidates and inconclusive comparisons combined or resolved?", "kind": "action", "id": "operating-rule-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "evaluation-and-transfer", "name": "Evaluation and transfer", "description": "Assesses whether measured performance applies to the intended deployment.", "findings": [ { "id": "task-specific-error-evidence", "name": "Task-specific error evidence", "description": "Record evaluation provenance, metric definitions and uncertainty across relevant populations, capture conditions and gallery sizes.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the task-appropriate false-match, missed-match and acquisition or enrolment failure measures, with their denominators and uncertainty?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "task-specific-error-evidence-q01" }, { "text": "How do the evaluation population, gallery size, sensor conditions and system version differ from the proposed deployment?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "task-specific-error-evidence-q02" }, { "text": "Which population groups and operating conditions were evaluated separately, and where is evidence insufficient to assess performance differences?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "task-specific-error-evidence-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "biometric-evidence-integrity", "name": "Biometric evidence integrity", "description": "Examines whether samples, references and results can be trusted under the relevant attack conditions.", "rationale": "A strong similarity score does not by itself establish an authentic capture, an intact pipeline or participation by the intended person.", "layers": [ { "id": "presentation-and-capture-attacks", "name": "Presentation and capture attacks", "description": "Records attacks at acquisition and the evidence supporting capture safeguards.", "findings": [ { "id": "presentation-attack-coverage", "name": "Presentation attack coverage", "description": "Record tested attack presentations and the limits of presentation attack detection, distinguishing these from broader claims about identity or willingness.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which modality-specific attack presentations were tested, against which sensor and detector versions?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "presentation-attack-coverage-q01" }, { "text": "What attack acceptance and bona fide rejection measures were observed, and which attack types remain untested?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "presentation-attack-coverage-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "pipeline-and-reference-attacks", "name": "Pipeline and reference attacks", "description": "Addresses substitution or manipulation beyond the sensor surface.", "findings": [ { "id": "end-to-end-evidence-integrity", "name": "End-to-end evidence integrity", "description": "Record safeguards and evidence for enrolment integrity, sample transport, reference access and delivery of comparison results.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where could a sample, reference or match result be injected, replayed or substituted, and what verified controls cover those points?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "end-to-end-evidence-integrity-q01" }, { "text": "What response is available when a reference is exposed or manipulated, and what evidence shows that a replacement limits reuse of the compromised representation?", "kind": "action", "id": "end-to-end-evidence-integrity-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use-lifecycle-and-recourse", "name": "Use, lifecycle and recourse", "description": "Connects biometric processing to permitted purposes, reference management and consequences for affected people.", "rationale": "Recognition evidence becomes actionable only within a defined use, with workable handling of exclusion, error and retained biometric data.", "layers": [ { "id": "purpose-retention-and-linkage", "name": "Purpose, retention and linkage", "description": "Records which biometric uses and data relationships are authorised throughout the reference lifecycle.", "findings": [ { "id": "permitted-biometric-processing", "name": "Permitted biometric processing", "description": "Record the authority for collection and comparison, permitted galleries and linkages, and enforceable retention and deletion conditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What recorded authority permits this collection, comparison and gallery search for the stated purpose?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "permitted-biometric-processing-q01" }, { "text": "May samples or templates be reused or linked across services, and what technical and organisational limits enforce that boundary?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "permitted-biometric-processing-q02" }, { "text": "When must samples, references and copies be updated or deleted, and how is completion verified?", "kind": "action", "id": "permitted-biometric-processing-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "decision-consequences-and-recourse", "name": "Decision consequences and recourse", "description": "Defines what follows a biometric outcome and how people can recover from failure or contest an error.", "findings": [ { "id": "bounded-actions-and-alternatives", "name": "Bounded actions and alternatives", "description": "Record which outcomes permit an automated action, require additional evidence or trigger an accessible alternative and review.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which actions may follow a match, non-match or candidate list, and which require independent evidence or human review?", "kind": "action", "id": "bounded-actions-and-alternatives-q01" }, { "text": "What usable alternative and correction process exists for a person who cannot enrol, repeatedly fails capture or contests a biometric association?", "kind": "action", "id": "bounded-actions-and-alternatives-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "The registry supplies no sense; this answer selects automated personal recognition rather than the historical biological-statistics sense.", "Standards are named from recall; editions, current status and applicability require checking.", "Performance claims require task-specific testing; comparison error rates cannot be directly substituted for end-to-end authentication or identification error rates." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Fingerprint recognition", "Face recognition", "Iris recognition", "Voice recognition", "Behavioural recognition using gait, typing or interaction patterns", "Multimodal recognition combining multiple biometric characteristics" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "ISO/IEC 2382-37, issued by ISO and IEC, provides biometric vocabulary.", "ISO/IEC 19795 series, issued by ISO and IEC, addresses biometric performance testing and reporting.", "ISO/IEC 30107 series, issued by ISO and IEC, addresses biometric presentation attack detection.", "ISO/IEC 24745, issued by ISO and IEC, addresses biometric information protection.", "ISO/IEC 39794 series, issued by ISO and IEC, specifies extensible biometric data interchange formats." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Verifying an enrolled user when unlocking a device or accessing a service.", "Comparing travellers with passport or border-control reference records.", "Searching fingerprint or face collections to generate investigative candidates.", "Detecting duplicate enrolments in identity systems.", "Controlling access to workplaces and restricted facilities." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "False match rate", "typical_range": "No universal typical range; depends on modality, threshold, population and test conditions.", "unit": "Proportion of non-mated comparisons incorrectly declared matches" }, { "quantity": "False non-match rate", "typical_range": "No universal typical range; depends on modality, threshold, sample quality and test conditions.", "unit": "Proportion of mated comparisons incorrectly declared non-matches" }, { "quantity": "Failure-to-enrol rate", "typical_range": "Application-dependent; requires an explicit enrolment protocol and population.", "unit": "Proportion of enrolment attempts that fail" }, { "quantity": "Recognition latency", "typical_range": "System-dependent; identification searches also depend on gallery size.", "unit": "Milliseconds or seconds per transaction" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "False matches can associate a person with another identity; false non-matches can deny legitimate access.", "Presentation attacks, such as artificial fingerprints or replayed speech, and digital sample injection can defeat inadequately protected systems.", "Performance can vary with demographics, disability, ageing, sensor quality and capture conditions.", "Compromised biometric data can enable tracking or impersonation, while the underlying bodily characteristic is difficult to replace.", "A biometric match can be mistaken for proof of legal identity, consent or culpability, although it establishes none of these by itself." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Legal treatment varies across jurisdictions and uses, particularly for policing, workplace monitoring, consent and retention.", "National identity and border systems differ in the modalities they collect and the extent to which reference data are centralised." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Biometry", "difference": "Biometry concerns quantitative analysis of biological phenomena; this model covers recognition of individuals, not biological statistics generally." }, { "name": "Biometric verification", "difference": "Verification tests a claimed identity against its reference data, usually one-to-one; biometrics also includes identification." }, { "name": "Biometric identification", "difference": "Identification searches across enrolled identities, usually one-to-many; it is one biometric task rather than the whole field." }, { "name": "Authentication", "difference": "Authentication can use passwords, cryptographic keys or possession factors; biometrics specifically uses biological or behavioural characteristics." }, { "name": "Physiological monitoring", "difference": "Monitoring measures bodily state; a measurement becomes biometric recognition when used to distinguish or recognise an individual." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of biometrics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does the registry intend biometrics exclusively as automated individual recognition, or does it also include biometry and non-identifying biological measurement?", "Which standards and disciplinary definitions should anchor the boundary between biometric recognition, behavioural profiling and continuous authentication?", "Which modality-specific evidence is needed to assess stability over time, distinctiveness and accessibility without assuming that every person can enrol?", "What independent evaluations establish the deployment limits of accuracy, template protection and attack resistance across populations and operating conditions?", "Which contextual authorities, consequences and available alternatives determine acceptable error tradeoffs, retention and opportunities for recourse?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 18, "questions": 30 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a biometrics, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an agent to recognise, evaluate and govern a biometric recognition practice by recording how bodily or behavioural characteristics become identity-related evidence and what actions that evidence supports.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: History of anthropemetry#Bertillon, Galton and criminology, gait analysis, biometric technology, biometric identification, vein matching, palm vein matching, eye vein verification, finger vein recognition, mofiria.", "9 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a biometrics, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "History of anthropemetry#Bertillon, Galton and criminology", "gait analysis", "biometric technology", "biometric identification", "vein matching", "palm vein matching", "eye vein verification", "finger vein recognition", "mofiria" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 9 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one biometrics from another, and a biometrics from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a biometrics sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a biometrics from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a biometrics passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a biometrics between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a biometrics, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a biometrics is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a biometrics proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a biometrics, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a biometrics and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a biometrics consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a biometrics takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What biometrics is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of biometrics are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is biometrics operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of biometrics and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of biometrics?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as biometrics?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a biometrics came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a biometrics and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a biometrics is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a biometrics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a biometrics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a biometrics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }