FBI studies biometrics to plan its future research

The FBI released on Tuesday a detailed study of the advancement of different kinds of biometrics -- from fingerprints to ear scans -- to lay out how the bureau might pursue the identification of individuals in the future.

The FBI plans to use the independent assessment, which Mitre Corp. completed in June 2008, to provide a common understanding of biometric technologies, suggest potential related areas the bureau and its partners can investigate, and solve issues related to technologies identified by the National Science and Technology Council, which coordinates policy across federal agencies. The FBI Biometric Center of Excellence funded the study.

"We want to be able to leverage the [biometric] technology, without repeating activities being done elsewhere in the community, whether in other agencies, academia, industry or internationally," said Thomas Bush III, assistant director of the FBI criminal justice information services division. "At the same time, we're trying to define our lane. Everyone is jockeying for a position in this market. We're not going to be all things biometric, but we've been in this business a long time. We don't want to be [marginalized]."

The first volume of the technology assessment, 127 pages in all, analyzes technologies used for fingerprints and palm print collection and vascular pattern recognition. Mitre recommends which technology advancements and research the FBI should pursue, dividing the suggestions into goals ranging from immediately to two years, two to five years and five to 10 years.

The 121-page second volume analyzes technologies used for face, iris and ear scans, and voice and handwriting identification. It also provides a set of recommendations for each technology. For example, Mitre reported, "Face recognition depends on successful face segmentation (or face detection), which is known to suffer performance degradation due to imaging and orientation factors. The FBI should evaluate the use of research tools for face detection against relevant media to include video sources, uncontrolled images, mug shots and civil identification photos."

The third volume, which the FBI is completing, analyzes methods used for collecting DNA.

The assessment is part of the State-of-the-Art Biometrics Excellence Roadmap, an FBI initiative to plan and implement the technology. Among the goals of SABER is to help establish governmentwide biometric standards.

The assessment is based on 10 months of research, which included an extensive survey of biometric technologies, independent performance evaluations; an overview of select research activities; and an analysis of the market and how biometric methods are currently applied.

Supplementing the technology assessment is a document evaluating the potential for expanding the list of products that are certified by the FBI as compliant with required quality standards for biometrics technologies.

"The results of the SABER study represent an important plank in our biometrics efforts, one that will help us strategically prioritize the FBI's biometric research and funding activities," wrote Louis Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, in the assessment. "As we move forward, it is critical to ensure a coordinated effort across our community to effectively harness the benefits of emerging biometric technologies to support our nation's law enforcement and intelligence missions."