ABSTRACT
The use of biometric systems has been expanded beyond traditional law enforcement applications to other areas such as identity management, access control, e-commerce, and even healthcarc. With the deployment of biometric systems on the rise, the user bases are also expanding from targeted users such as police to general computer users. This phenomenon challenges biometric researchers and developers to design systems with good usability. This paper evaluated a set of symbols intended for use in biometric systems to help users better understand biometric operations. Six studies with a total of 1 ))6 participants were conducted in the United States and in four Asian countries to investigate the cultural effects on people's perception and understanding or the symbols. Some symbols show culture-tree results, while some have mixed results. The cross-cultural implications ofthe case studies are discussed and future research is recommended.
