Overview of the Multiple Biometrics Grand Challenge

Published

July 23, 2009

Author(s)

P J. Phillips, Patrick J. Flynn, J. R. Beveridge, Kevin W. Bowyer, W T. Scruggs, Alice O'Toole, David Bolme, Bruce A. Draper, Geof H. Givens, Yui M. Lui, Hassan A. Sahibzada, Joseph A. Scallan, Samuel Weimer

Abstract

The goal of the Multiple Biometrics Grand Challenge (MBGC) is to improve the performance of face and iris recognition technology from biometric samples acquired under unconstrained conditions. The MBGC is organized into three challenge problems. Each challenge problem relaxes the acquisition constraints in different directions. In the Portal Challenge Problem, the goal is to recognize people from near-infrared (NIR) and high definition (HD) video as they walk through a portal. Iris recognition can be performed from the NIR video and face recognition from the HD video. The availability of NIR and HD modalities allows for the development of fusion algorithms. The Still Face Challenge Problem has two primary goals. The first is to improve recognition performance from frontal and off angle still face images taken under uncontrolled indoor and outdoor lighting. The second is to improve recognition performance on still frontal face images that have been resized and compressed, as is required for electronic passports. In the Video Challenge Problem, the goal is to recognize people from video in unconstrained environments. The video is unconstrained in pose, illumination, and camera angle. All three challenge problems include a large data set, experiment descriptions, ground truth, and scoring code.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 7607

Report Number

7607

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

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Citation

Phillips, P. , Flynn, P. , Beveridge, J. , Bowyer, K. , Scruggs, W. , O'Toole, A. , Bolme, D. , Draper, B. , Givens, G. , Lui, Y. , Sahibzada, H. , Scallan, J. and Weimer, S. (2009), Overview of the Multiple Biometrics Grand Challenge, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=903086 (Accessed October 27, 2025)