International study of NIST pictograms, icons and symbols for use with biometric systems - the case of South Korea

With the importance of the protection of personal information and system security emphasized, the use of biometric system including a fingerprint scanner is being sharply extended. The biometric recognition technology can prevent the illegal use or access of ATM, Mobile Phone, Smartcard, Desktop PC, and Workstation & Computer Networks, so they are being used as an alternative to the existing forgetful PIN or password, and OTP (One Time Password). Such a biometric system is extending its scope of use to the fields requiring personal information in daily life including visa issuance and immigration. Due to the usc of the biometric system on behalf of a keyboard or mouse, there comes up the necessity of making changes even to the icon and symbol that we are used to at a viewpoint of a user's interface. In other words, it is required that there should be a research work on Icon and Symbol that can prevent the violative situations in the use of biometric system by conveying a consistent meaning to the users with different cultural backgrounds. The Nation Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Biometrics Usability Group made plans for international cooperative work that can convey a common meaning regardless of cultural differences in the use of fingerprint scanning systems with the aim of preparing the international standard plan. This research was executed as an international cooperative work as to the results of research on icons and symbols whose usability was proved for Americans. This research conducted users' evaluation targeting Koreans in relation to the 24 symbols consisting of 8 categories in total and pictogram suggested through NIST-led research results. Selection of 14 subjects, 7males and 7 females, was proceeding with background knowledge on human engineering and different disciplines. The research was proceeded with a users' evaluation and analysis on a matching stage where subjective interpretation of individual signs & pictograms had to be matched with the individual symbols and meaning..