ANSI/NIST Standard Update 

Brad Wing 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 
Why use Standards? 

• 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) 
An Example: The ANSI/NIST-ITL 

Standard 

Focused on law Enforcement, Military, 

Intelligence, Border Management and 

Homeland Security applications 
Blue: National and International System Use 

Red: State / Provincial / Local System Use 

Locations of systems with the ANSI/NIST-ITL 

standard installed for data transfer 

(known to NIST) 
The Existing ANSI/NIST-ITL Standard 

• 1986, 1993, 1997 versions obsolete 

• 2000 version (Traditional format) still used in 

some applications: fingerprints & palm prints 

(images and minutiae), face images, scarmark-tattoo images 

• 2007 version (Traditional format) added iris 

and some new fingerprint minutiae fields 

• 2008 version (XML format) – same content as 

2007 version 
ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011

• New (General): 

– modalities and data formats : DNA, Plantar (footprint), 

Iris compact formats, Images of additional body parts 

(besides face) 

– data: geo-positioning location; information assurance 

features; associated contextual images, audio or visual 

clips, and data 

– logs: data handling logs and original representation, 

audio or visual clips, electropherograms and data 

(used to prepare the biometric samples) 
ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011

• Forensics: 

– Latent friction ridge print Extended Feature Set 

markups 

• cores, deltas, distinctive characteristics, minutiae, dots, 

incipient ridges, creases & linear distortions, ridge edge 

features, pores & ridge edge 

– Universal latent workstation automated annotation 

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

ridges) 

– 3D anthropomorphic facial image markup fields 
New projects in ANSI/NIST-ITL 

for later addition to the standard 

• Voice Biometrics 

• Dental Forensics 

• Conformance Testing 
Voice 

• Working Group chaired by Alvin Martin of 

NIST 

• First Draft of proposed Record Layout being 

reviewed by Working Group 

• Goal is to create Record Type 11 as a 

supplement to ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011

• For more information, listen to the talk 

presented by Mark Przybocki immediately 

following this presentation 
Dental Forensics 

Slide 1 

• Used to identify bodies 

– Disaster Victim Identification 

– Murder Victims / Missing Persons 

• Several Techniques 

– Ante mortem / postmortem x-ray comparison 

– Analysis of pictures (with smiles showing the 

upper teeth) 

– Bite marks / molds of the teeth 
Dental Forensics 

Slide 2 

• Need to transmit information in a standard 

way that is understood by odontologists 

• American Dental Association developed the 

Forensic Dental Data Set (ANSI/ADA 1058) 

• Scientific Working Group for Disaster Victim 

Identification is developing guidelines for 

handling bodies at disaster scenes 

• INTERPOL has a working group 
Dental Forensics 

Slide 3 

• ANSI/NIST-ITL Working Group bringing 

together specialists 

• Meeting Scheduled to coincide with the 

February meeting of the American Academy 

of Forensic Science 

• Membership open to all interested parties 

• Goal is to create a new record type for 

inclusion in ANSI/NIST-ITL (Record Type-12)
Conformance to ANSI/NIST-ITL

• Covered by Presentation by Fernando Podio 

and Dylan Yaga on Tuesday 

• Working Group established and initial test 

assertion list consturcted for selected Record 

Types. 

• Goal: Incorporate as a supplemental Annex in 

ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 
Contact Information 

• Brad Wing 

 (301) 975 5663 

 Brad.Wing@NIST.GOV

Standard Homepage: 

http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/ansi_standard.

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