Introduction

Telecommunication and biometric devices (telebiometric devices) can potentially bring about hazards affecting human beings in various ways:

• physical (lesions or cellular damage);
• psychological (stress);
• social (breach of the right to privacy);
• and ecological (environmental damage).

Knowledge of currently-accepted safe levels for various aspects of the use of telebiometric devices is essential to protect the vendor of such devices from later claims of negligence in their provision and use.

Purpose of the database

This database aims to provide a comprehensive list of known and accepted thresholds and standards, indexed according to the modalities of the Telebiometric Multimodal Model (TMM) - see below, for the safe operation of telebiometric devices, enabling an analysis of the risks inherent in use of these devices.

The database is currently only sparsely populated, but it aims to collect data from a wide range of authorities and from existing standards to provide absence-of-risk thresholds.

The database will be accessed and updated on the Web by experts in various specialisms, with their input indexed according to the TMM modalities and subject areas (e.g. physics, biology, chemistry, etc), and using the Système International d'Unités - SI units - (e.g. Kg, Db, etc) in the definition of quantities related to safety. application (e.g. physics, biology), and measurements units (e.g. Kg. Db.).

The Telebiometric Multimodal Model (TMM)

The (generic) standard ITU-T Rec. X.1081 defines a Telebiometric Multimodal Model that provides a taxonomy for recording risks from telebiometric devices.

The TMM is based on an analysis of the ways in which a human being can be detected and measured by sensors (the OUT modalities), and the ways in which a human being can be affected by its environment (the IN modalities). These interactions with the environment are broken down into five main areas: VIDEO (light radiation), AUDIO (sound), TANGO (touch and pressure), CHEMO (chemical effects, including taste and smell), and RADIO (ionising radiation), and there are sub-divisions for scientific disciplines.

Future work

The database, once populated, is expected to be published in a more compact form in an ITU-T Recommendation.

The taxonomy of the TMM used for indexing the database enables areas in which safety levels are not yet known or agreed to be identified, encouraging further research activity in these areas, and leading to the development of further specific standards to meet the needs for risk reduction in the use of devices.

Updating and interrogation instructions

For instructions on how to update and interrogate the database, see the Help section.

Last modified: 21Aug05