Ross Wilkers
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has added DNA and footprint information to its biometric standard, which details the type and amount of information that forensic scientists can share across their networks.
NIST said in its announcement that this is the first international standard to address sharing of DNA data. NIST also added an extended set of features that allow for the marking and exchanging of information such as fingerprints, palmprints and footprints.
Other new capabilities include sharing images of all body parts and markups of face and iris images.
The standard includes directions on specifying and sharing geographical coordinates of biometric sample collection. Information on how the samples were collected, including pictures found at crime scenes, can be included as well.
The departments of Defense, Homeland Security, the FBI, the government of Argentina and others are already in the process of adopting the new standard
Researchers are working on adding to the standard:
- voice biometrics
- dental forensics
- conformance testing
- imaging and analysis of traumatic injuries including bitemarks
“The additions to this version of the standard represent a great leap forward,” said NIST Biometrics Standards Coordinator Brad Wing.
