OBIM looks for next-gen ID data processing
The Office of Biometric Identity Management’s customers include DHS components such as CBP, CIS, ICE, FEMA, TSA and the Coast Guard.
WHAT: A request from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Biometric Identity Management for information on next-generation biometric identification data processing technologies.
WHY: OBIM, established in late March, 2013, operates and maintains the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). It provides identity services expertise and is a service provider for customers across DHS, at other federal agencies, state and local law enforcement, and overseas, providing up-to-date identity information and helping identify known or suspected terrorists and other national security threats, immigration violators, and criminals.
As of September 2014, IDENT contained more than 170 million biometric identities, and handled approximately 290,000 transactions per day in support of DHS component agencies and mission partners. Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Coast Guard use its services. More recent additions to the customer list include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Office of the Chief Security Officer and the Transportation Security Administration.
OBIM wants ideas on how to take its massive system into the next-generation, with an eye toward scalable storage, matching and analysis of complex biometric databases, and biometric cross-relationship functions. The request for information also wants to know how commercial off-the-shelf products might be modified for the job.
The capabilities OBIM wants to investigate include architectures that can leverage multiple biometric modalities in very large-scale systems; methods to reduce computational requirements of biometric matching without decreasing accuracy, including ways to decrease the need for full gallery searches; ways to speed up search responses and bump up the capacity of already-massive data storage capabilities; and techniques that can provide lasting linkage of unique identities to some data, along with the ability to accrete new information in searches.