Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence

This project will continue the Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric (SSB) Technologies Center of Excellence within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System. The Center will provide scientific and technical support to NIJ's research and development efforts in the areas of sensor and surveillance and biometric technologies. The Center will also provide technology assistance, information, and support to criminal justice agencies in these areas. Specific tasks that the Center will perform include identifying technology and operational requirements; supporting NIJ's research and development programs; testing, evaluating, and demonstrating technologies; supporting the adoption of new technology; developing technology guidelines and standards; and providing technology assistance and support to criminal justice agencies nationally. nca/ncf

This cooperative agreement was competitively awarded in 2010 under the Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence solicitation. This project was only partially funded with the initial award. The purpose of this supplement is to enable ManTech to continue to host the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System's Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence (Sens/Bio COE).
The principal role of the COEs is to support NIJs research programs. They assist NIJ in identifying the technology needs of the criminal justice community with respect to the portfolios that they support and conduct related research, test, and evaluation activities. They also develop the equipment performance standards that underpin the NIJ compliance-testing program as well as best practices guides. They provide active Technology Assistance (TA); assisting agencies to address specific technology issues in a relevant area, for example, in implementing a new communications system.

The COE's activities will include:

- Test and evaluation of the NIJ-funded facial feature recognition classification software developed by Notre Dame.
- Test and evaluation of the NIJ-funded Michigan State University fingerprint extended feature set software.
- Preparation for third-party technical evaluation of Michigan State University, University of Southern California, and the University of South Carolina research and development products.
- Conduct test and evaluation of the NIJ-funded final StereoVision prototype device.
- Support a nationwide survey of automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS).

nca/ncf

This award supplements funding for award 2010-IJ-CX-K024. This award was competitively made in response to a proposal submitted by ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc. to an NIJ FY2010 solicitation, "Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies for Criminal Justice Applications." That solicitation sought applications to establish a technology center of excellence within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center system. The center was established, in part, to assist NIJ to conduct focused studies related to the viability of specific biometric and sensor technology solutions.

The purpose of this supplemental funding is to enable this center to conduct a technology assessment and market research of existing and emerging gun safety technologies that would be of interest to the law enforcement and criminal justice communities and others with an interest in gun safety. This will result in a report, "Assessment of Gun Safety Technologies," which will include a technical summary of each gun safety technology approach, a summary of available products with technical and/or performance specifications, operational use and limitations specified by vendors and third party testing (if available), and a technology readiness level (TRL) assessment of prototype R&D efforts. This report is intended to inform the on-going public policy discussion concerning how gun violence might best be addressed. nca/ncf

This award was competitively made under the Sensors, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence Solicitation. The purpose of that solicitation was to establish a Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence ( SSBT COE) within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System (the "NLECTC System"). The principal purpose of the NLECTC COEs is to conduct research, test, and evaluation activities to inform NIJ technology research and development (R&D) efforts. So, for example, the COEs routinely conduct technical assessments of the technology products resulting from NIJ-funded R&D work. They also conduct research to assist NIJ in identifying the technology needs of the criminal justice community. They develop equipment performance standards and guides.

This award provides funds to ManTech International Corporation to: (1) complete the Latent Fingerprint Interoperability Survey (LFIS) and (2) to undertake a technical assessment of a body cavity screening prototype for corrections. The first task will complete the LFIS, a nationwide survey of state and local criminal justice agencies that operate Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) to support criminal investigations, background checks, etc. The survey will aid in identifying strengths of and barriers to state and local AFIS interoperability. The second task will entail a technical assessment of an NIJ-funded body cavity screening prototype being developed for corrections applications. This device addresses the need of law enforcement personnel at correctional facilities for screening persons for metallic and non-metallic contraband concealed in body cavities. The SSBT CoE will conduct an independent assessment of the technology to determine commercial maturity, current and projected capabilities, and overall value to the criminal justice community. nca/ncf

This award was competitively made under the Sensors, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence Solicitation. The purpose of that solicitation was to establish a Sensor, Surveillance, and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence ( SSBT COE) within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System (the "NLECTC System"). The principal purpose of the NLECTC COEs is to conduct research, test, and evaluation activities to inform NIJ technology research and development (R&D) efforts. So, for example, the COEs routinely conduct technical assessments of the technology products resulting from NIJ-funded R&D work. They also conduct research to assist NIJ in identifying the technology needs of the criminal justice community. They develop equipment performance standards and guides. The additional funding provided with this supplement would support ManTech conducting research into the potential of contactless fingerprint technology for criminal justice and other applications. Specifically, ManTech would expand its analysis of fingerprint match performance and interoperability issues associated with the use of contactless fingerprint scanners and outline future research to support operational assessment and deployment of this technology. In 2012, the SSBT CoE undertook a biometric collection of fingerprint data from traditional scanners and next generation contactless devices. This data was the first of its kind across the two classes of scanners using the same subject population. The data was used to evaluate the match performance and interoperability of contactless versus contact fingerprint data. These results are contained in a report "Contactless Fingerprint Technologies Assessment (Version 2)," which was published February 7, 2014 on NCJRS. However, this previous work did not explore the more detailed aspects of the captured fingerprints, such as the minutia markings. This task will investigate match performance of contactless data subsets as a function of minutia deviations to better understand and quantify the differences and challenges in using contactless fingerprint scanners with legacy fingerprint systems and databases. nca/ncf