Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies

(ELFT)

 

March 2011: ELFT-EFS Evaluation #1 Final Report Released 

ELFT-EFS Evaluation #1 Final Report (NISTIR 7775)        
NISTIR 7775 Appendix A       
NISTIR 7775 Appendix B       
NISTIR 7775 Appendix C

This report describes the design, process, results, and conclusions of ELFT-EFS Evaluation #1; an accuracy test of latent fingerprint searches using features marked by experienced human latent fingerprint examiners, in addition to automatic feature extraction and matching (AFEM).

April 2010: ELFT-EFS Evaluation 2 Announced

ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2 will commence 21 June 2010. The evaluation is open to all developers of latent fingerprint identification systems. All results will be made public and anonymous participation will not be permitted.

The latent and exemplar images and features in Evaluation #2 will be similar but not identical to those in Evaluation #1. The API and test protocols used by for Evaluation #2 will closely follow (but are not limited to) those specified in Evaluation #1. A major change from Evaluation 1 is that participants may specify the subtests on which NIST will execute their SDKs.

The purpose of ELFT-EFS Evaluation #2 is the continued performance evaluation of AFEM (image-only) and latent fingerprint examiner assisted (image+manual feature markup) based latent fingerprint identification technologies. Technological progress will be measured with respect to prior evaluations with the expectation that participants in previous tests may incorporate lessons learned from previous results and/or miss analysis conducted at NIST, while opening registration to new participants.

January 2010: ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 Preliminary Report Available

Most, but not all of the data processing for ELFT-EFS Evaluation #1 has been completed and is reported in this document. Some of the data processing, most notably the multi-encounter galleries, will be completed and included in the final report. This document provides an opportunity to present the results available to date without awaiting additional processing and the final report. To see the report click here

July 2009: ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 Announced

The ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 will commence 2 August 2009 and is limited to all ELFT-EFS Public Challenge participants that submitted results by the 28 June 2009 ELFT-EFS Public Challenge deadline. Anonymous participation in ELFT-EFS Evaluation 1 will not be permitted.

ELFT_EFS Evaluation 1 will evaluate the accuracy of latent matching using features marked by experienced human latent fingerprint examiners. The purpose of this test is to evaluate the current state of the art in latent feature-based matching, by comparing the accuracy of searches using images alone with searches using different feature sets. The features sets will include the current IAFIS latent feature set, and different subsets of the Extended Feature Set (EFS) features proposed by CDEFFS . A key result of the test is to determine when human feature markup is effective. Because human markup is expensive in terms of time, effort, and expertise, there is a need to know when image-only searching is adequate, and when the additional effort of marking minutiae and extended features is appropriate.

April 2009: The ELFT-EFS Public Challenge Is Now Open

The ELFT-EFS Public Challenge is a practice evaluation: an open-book test on public data to validate formats and protocols. The results are not for substantive analysis, and participants will remain anonymous in their results. The public challenge will be conducted from 15 April 2009 through 15 June 2009. The ELFT-EFS Public Challenge instructions and datasets will be finalized on 15 April.

April 2009: ELFT Phase II Final Report Released

NIST announces the publication of ELFT Phase II - An Evaluation of Automated Latent Fingerprint Identification Technologies (NISTIR 7577) which is available here.

**NOTE: Peoplespot is a subsidiary of Eastern Golden Finger Technology Beijing Co., Ltd. - D.B.A.: GFS Systems.

February 2009: Announcing NIST Latent Fingerprint Testing Workshop (2009)

We are pleased to announce NIST Latent Fingerprint Testing Workshop 2009, to be held on March 19 and 20 at NIST. This workshop will present and discuss the results of the recently completed NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT) Phase II -- which evaluated the performance of "lights-out" encoding and matching of latent images. This workshop will also provide a venue for the upcoming NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets (ELFT-EFS).

November 2008: NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets

We are pleased to announce ELFT-EFS - the FBI-sponsored NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of human latent examiner marked fingerprint features on latent fingerprint search accuracy, specifically with respect to the comparative accuracy of image-only searches, image+minutiae searches, and image+e xtended feature searches.

November 2007: Evaluation of Latent Fingerprints Technologies (ELFT) Phase II

Phase II testing commences December of 2007 and expands on Phase I through the use of improved software and larger datasets to give refined estimates of capability. Performance will be explored at both 500 and 1000 ppi, with and without supplementary Regions-of-Interest (ROI) markup. Phase II is limited to those participating in Phase I,

November 2006: Evaluation of Latent Fingerprints Technologies 2007 (ELFT07)

NIST is pleased to announce the NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprints Technologies, ELFT07. The test is aimed at assessing the core capabilities of current automatic latent matching algorithms. The test is described in the the evaluation concept document. The evaluation will assess technologies submitted to NIST as software development kits which implement the Latent Testing API.

Both documents are open for public comment until December 15, 2006. Comments should be submitted using the standard template.

November 2006: Release of NISTIR 7377

NIST is pleased to announce the publication of NISTIR 7377 Summary of NIST Latent Fingerprint Testing Workshop which summarizes the April 2006 workshop held at NIST.

April 2006: Latent Testing Workshop

NIST successfully hosted the first Latent Testing Workshop in April 2006. This workshop was conducted to canvas expert opinion in the area of evaluation of automated latent fingerprint matching algroithms. The full scope is described here and the archived presentations are now available.