National Institute of 

Standards and Technology

Bradford Wing

Biometric Standards Coordinator

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology
 Ensure consistency in data definition

– Meaning of the data

– Usefulness of the data

 Transfer relevant information with the biometric 

sample(s)

 Enable data to be collected and used by different types 

of systems using systems from multiple vendors 

(facilitate interoperability)
 Original focus: 

– law enforcement organizations

 sending fingerprint minutia to the 

FBI (starting in 1986) 

 Expanded to include other law 

enforcement

– Military

– Intelligence 

– Homeland Security 

 INTERPOL

 RCMP (Canada)

 Bundeskriminalamt (Germany),

 US DoD

 US-VISIT

 EU Visa

 Others
Data Sent

–Mugshots 

–Scar Images

–Needle Marks 

–Tattoos 

–Fingerprint 

–Palmprint 
Revisions (Traditional 

binary 

encoding) 

– 1993

– 1997

– 2000

– 2007 

Revisions (XML encoding)

– 2008

– 2011
Blue: National and International System Use

Red: State / Provincial / Local System Use
 Tailoring of a standard to meet a specific user’s needs

 Make optional fields / subfields / information items 

mandatory or state they not to be used

 Add specific user-defined fields

 Specify combinations of records to be used for 

standard transmissions, such as enrolling a criminal 

suspect into a database


Biometric Center of Excellence

The BCOE is the FBI program for 

exploring new and advanced 

biometric capabilities to solve crimes 

and protect national security.

Biometric Interoperability 

Program 

The Biometric Interoperability 

Program establishes 

interoperability between the FBI 

IAFIS and other biometric 

systems.

The NGI program will enhance 

the current IAFIS and offer state-

of-the-art biometric identification 

services.

Next Generation 

Identification 
New Modalities 

–DNA 

– Plantar (Footprint)

– Iris Compact 

Formats 

– Images Of 

Additional Body 

Parts (Besides 

Face) 
 New Data Formats 

– Geo-Positioning Location

– Information Assurance 

Features

– Associated Contextual Images

– Audio Clips 

– Visual Clips

– Electropherograms 

– Metadata

 Logs: 

– Data Handling Logs 

– Original Representation(s) 
 Latent Friction Ridge 

Extended Feature Set 

Markups 

– Cores

– Deltas

– Distinctive Characteristics

– Minutiae

– Dots

– Incipient Ridges

– Creases & Linear Distortions

– Ridge Edge Features

– Pores & Ridge Edgefields
 Forensics:

– Universal latent workstation automated annotation

– Images of the body (beyond face, iris and friction ridges)

– 3D anthropomorphic facial image markup fields
 Type-98 (Information Assurance record) Best 

Practices document

 EFS Profile Specifications

 DNA list instructions

 DNA kit ID list

 DNA loci (expanded beyond CODIS)

 XML Biometrics domain (Note: This is part of the 

National Information Exchange Model – NIEM)

(http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/ansi_standard.cfm)
 Voice Biometrics

– March 9 Full-day session at 

NIST

– First draft of Type 11 record 

completed based upon work of 

the FBI/NIST Investigatory 

Voice Biometrics Interagency 

Group

– FBI to do the update to the 

ANSI/NIST-ITL XML 

schema

– Will be presented as a 

supplement to ANSI/NISTITL 1-2011 for voting
 Conformance Testing 

– NIST developing test 

assertions for selected 

record types

– Will be published as a 

reference document 

available on the home 

page for the standard: 

http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/ansi_standard.cfm
 Dental Forensics

– Working with the American 

Dental Association to base Type12 record upon their Spec 1058

– Meetings held in Argentina, 

Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, 

Georgia

– Coordinated with the SWGDVI 

(Scientific Working Group for 

Disaster Victim Identification)

– FBI to do the update to the 

ANSI/NIST-ITL XML schema

– Will be presented as a supplement 

to ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 for 

voting
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: 

Brad Wing, NIST, Information Technology Laboratory

Brad.Wing@NIST.GOV

301 975 5663