Information Access Division Highlights - 2011

Information Access Division Highlights - 2011

NOVEMBER 2011

The NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) was selected for recognition as an Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government for 2011 by Government Computer News (GCN). Available here, the DLMF is the online interactive successor to the classic NBS Handbook of Mathematical Functions (M. Abramowitz and I. Stegun, eds.) published in 1964. The DLMF provides reference data on the special functions of applied mathematics in a concise, usable form needed in a wide variety of fields, from the physical sciences to engineering, biology and finance. The online reference features interactive graphics, math-aware search capabilities, and a rich set of internal and external links.

According to GCN, these awards "have come to symbolize the best and most notable IT accomplishments in advancing the work of government agencies." Ten projects were selected for recognition this year from more than 200 nominations. The selection was based on "the degree of innovation in the technology plan carried out, the quality of the leadership that carried the project to fruition, and the degree to which a given IT project improved an agency's ability to operate more efficiently or serve the public more effectively." Other awardees this year include an app from the City of Boston that enables citizens to request city services from their smart phones and the IT infrastructure that supports the Transportation Security Administration's secure flight program.

NIST staff members cited for this achievement are Daniel Lozier, Frank Olver, Ronald Boisvert, Bruce Miller, Bonita Saunders, Marjorie McClain, Abdou Youssef, Qiming Wang, and Brian Antonishek of the Information Technology Laboratory and Charles Clark of the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory. The project team was formally honored at the 24th Annual GCN Awards Gala, October 19, 2011, at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia.

The Nineteenth Text REtrieval Conference (TREC 2010) Proceedings

E. M. Voorhees and Lori P. Buckland, Editors

NIST Special Publication 500-297 October 2011.  This document presents the proceedings of the Nineteenth Text REtrieval Conference (TREC 2010) held in November 2010 at NIST.

NIST Special Database 32 – Multiple Encounter Dataset II (MEDS-II)

By Craig I. Watson and N. Orlans
NISTIR 7807
August 2011

This document and associated dataset is an update to the Multiple Encounter Dataset I (MEDS-I), originally published by ITL in May 2010. The MEDS is a test corpus organized from an extract of submission files of deceased persons with prior multiple encounters. A submission file is an electronic file containing biographic and biometric data recorded during an encounter with an individual. The submission files conform to the specifications defined by the Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS) extension to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/NIST Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)-1-2007 standard.

Defining AFIS Latent Print "Lights-Out"

By Vladimir Dvornychenko and S. Meagher
NISTIR 7811
September 2011

The term "lights-out" has been used within the AFIS 10-print fingerprint operations to suggest that no human intervention is involved. Before this term can be applied in the forensic latent print operation, a more in-depth under-standing is required. The end-to-end latent print examination process is presented and seven tiers are described for potential "lights-out" scenarios. A major objective of this paper is to define these seven tiers and establish a common understanding for each. Doing so will enable future testing of latent print "lights-out" scenarios to be clearly defined and operational implementations and consequences associated with each tier to be fully understood.

Iris Quality Calibration and Evaluation (IQCE): Evaluation Report

By Elham Tabassi, Patrick Grother, and Wayne Salamon
NISTIR 7820
September 2011

Iris is rapidly gaining acceptance and support as a viable biometric. United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT), Personal Identity Verification (PIV) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UID) programs are either using or considering iris as their secondary or primary biometric for verification. While there are several academic publications addressing the problem of iris image quality, NIST Iris Quality Calibration and Evaluation (IQCE) is the first public challenge in iris image quality aimed at identifying iris image quality components that are algorithm- or camera-agnostic. This evaluation supports homeland security, counter-terrorism, and border control applications by enhancing reliability and accuracy of iris recognition, and significantly improves requirement planning and system design.