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                            Funding & Awards
 Reference Ballistic Toolmark Database for Research and Development of Identification Systems and Confidence Limits
Note:
              This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Awardee
              National Institute of Standards and Technology
Award #
              2013-R2R-4843
Funding Category
              Competitive

Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2013
Total funding (to date)
              $534,093
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY 13 Applied Research and Development in Forensic Science for Criminal Justice Purposes
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2013, $256,079)
The project objective is an open-access research database of bullet and casing reference data, consisting of traditional reflectance microscopy images and three-dimensional surface topography. The database will foster the development and validation of advanced algorithms, mathematical similarity criteria, and quantitative confidence limits for objective ballistics identification. In 2009, a report by the National Academies called into question, amongst other issues, the objectivity of visual toolmark identification by firearms examiners. The National Academies recommended development of objective toolmark identification criteria and error rate estimates. Industry, academia, and government laboratories are pursuing two promising approaches towards this goal: 1) development of mathematical criteria and advanced algorithms for the objective and automated identification and scoring of potential matches, and 2) supplementing traditional reflectance microscopy images with three-dimensional surface topography measurement data. Development and validation of both these approaches to objective toolmark identification are hindered by a lack of access to toolmark data sets that 1) represent the large variety of ballistic toolmarks encountered by toolmark examiners, and 2) represent challenging identification scenarios, such as those posed by consecutively manufactured firearms components. It is not economically feasible for individual companies or institutions to generate their own data sets. This makes it difficult for these entities to objectively evaluate their solutions. During the symposium held at NIST entitled “Measurement Science and Standards in Forensic Firearms Analysis 2012,” one of the priority requests from the attendees was the construction of a website and database where bullet, cartridge case and toolmark surfaces could be shared between researchers, whereby new systems, methods, and algorithms could be tested, refined, and compared.

The proposed database will provide the representative variety of toolmark data required, ranging from crime lab test fires to test fires conducted using consecutively manufactured barrels, firing pins, slides and other firearm surfaces. The database will contain both reflectance microscopy images and three-dimensional surface topography data. The database and associated web site will consist of two parts: 1) an open “read-only” site consisting of indexed data acquired at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) using state-of-the-art instruments and measurement procedures, and 2) a secure “sandbox” site that consists of shared, indexed, user-supplied, acquisitions in a common format. Some of the data collected will be stored in a closed database for possible future application to the validation and comparison of correlation software. The proposed database will enable researchers to test and validate new approaches to objective, mathematics-based, toolmark identification while easing the transition to three-dimensional surface topography data. The database will provide a foundation for a scientific knowledge base on the degree of similarity that can be found between marks made by different firearms and the variability in marks made by an individual firearm. The current, ‘fairly limited,’ knowledge base is a fundamental barrier to the development and validation of objective mathematical similarity criteria, and associated confidence limits, applicable to a broad range of firearms and ammunition brands.

Although not addressed in this project, the database will provide opportunities for: 1) quality control of crime lab measurements and instrumentation development through supplementary toolmark replicas corresponding to reference images in the database, and 2) Government-organized competitions between instrument or software vendors with the goal of advancing the technology as quickly as possible. This is similar to the approaches taken for the development of systems for fingerprint identification and for facial recognition. The project builds on expertise at NIST in the measurement and analysis of ballistic toolmark data and the development of data standards and databases for various biometric modalities (fingerprint, face, iris, voice, and DNA).
Supplemental Award 1 (Fiscal Year 2013, $278,014)
This 2014 modification provides additional funding to expand the work of developing a research database of bullet and cartridge case toolmark data, consisting of traditional reflectance microscopy images and three-dimensional surface topography. NIST will build on this initial effort and work to improve the relevancy and utility of the database. Under this modification, NIST will perform the following additional work: (1) Collection of at least 500 additional test fire specimens, including specimens from studies involving persistence firings and consecutively manufactured gun components; (2) Measurement and pairwise correlation of the surface topography of the additional specimens (breech face, firing pin, and land impressions); (3) Design, development, testing, and deployment of a searchable web database that provides public access to bullet and cartridge case measurement data acquired by NIST and enables users to share their own data; (4) Population of the web database with the topography measurement data acquired by NIST during the project; and (5) Dissemination of results. NIST will further expand the original project by providing the following additional deliverable items: (1) A minimum of 500 additional test fire specimens; (2a) Optical intensity images and three-dimensional topography data of the additional test fire specimens; (2b) Pairwise similarity values for the topography of the additional test fire specimens; (3) Searchable web database hosted by NIST that provides public access to bullet and cartridge case measurement data acquired by NIST during the project and enables users to share their own data sets; and (4) Conference presentation and journal paper describing the project and results obtained.


  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      NIST Ballistics Toolmark Research Database

  
Date Created: December 15, 2020
    
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