ITL hosts Biometric Image Quality Workshop

The Information Access Division held a Biometric Image Quality Workshop November 7-8, 2007 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, supported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US-VISIT office and the Science and Technology Directorate, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Defense Biometric Task Force, and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Biometrics and Identity Management. This Workshop provided a forum for biometrics experts to share their research, to discuss problems, new developments, and capabilities vis-a-vis operational requirements, and to identify research needs, testing requirements, and standardization gaps in biometrics image quality.

This was a sequel to the Biometric Quality Workshop hosted by NIST in March 2006.  The goal was to help improve accuracy of biometric systems by incorporating quality assessment technologies into the sample acquisition process. It aims to assess current quality measurement capabilities and to identify technologies, factors, operational paradigms, and standards that can measurably improve quality.  

Over 150 attendees from ten countries representing academia, industry and government participated.  The forty one presentations covered the role of biometric sample quality in operational identification and verifications system, biometric quality capabilities, research and development, and standardization.  Attendees included representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Army Biometric Task Force, UK National Physical Laboratory, Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI)-Germany and Bundeskriminalamt (BKA)-Germany, University of Maryland, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, University of West Virginia, University Autonoma de Madrid (Spain), Carleton University (Canada), University of Bologna (Italy), University of Brno (Czech Republic), Inha University (Korea), and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.  Industry participants included Sagem Morpho, NEC, Cogent Systems, Motorola, CrossMatch, L-1 Identity, LG Electronics, Iritech, Aware, Authenti-Corp, Noblis, and Bearing Point. 

Biometric sample quality assessment algorithms are increasingly being used to improve performance of operational systems. For example, the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology (US-VISIT), Personal Identity Verification (PIV), and the European Union Visa Information System (EU VIS) programs each mandate the measurement and reporting of quality scores of captured images. Accordingly, quality assessment is the subject of active research, and standardization is underway in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/IEC 29794) to support uniform interpretation and interoperability of quality scores,  

Proceedings and additional details are available at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/quality/workshop07. 

Contact: Elham Tabassi (ITL), ext. 5292

              Patrick Grother (ITL), ext. 4157