About CDEFFS: the Committee to Define an Extended Fingerprint Feature Set
Last updated 12 June 2009

The purpose of CDEFFS is to define a quantifiable, standard method of characterizing the information content of a fingerprint or other friction ridge image, resulting in a revision of the ANSI/NIST ITL-1 2007 standard "Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Scar Mark & Tattoo (SMT) Information". The ANSI/NIST ITL standards are the basis for the FBI's EFTS/EBTS and Interpol's INT-I, among others.

"Data Format for the Interchange of Extended Friction Ridge Features"
A proposed Addendum/Revision to ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2007 Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Other Biometric Information

Abstract The purpose of this document is to define a quantifiable, standard method of characterizing the information content of a fingerprint or other friction ridge image. This document is a draft addendum to the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2007 standard, “Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Other Biometric Information” and defines a series of updated fields for that standard. Uses may include definition of the information content of a single friction ridge impression during analysis, for archiving, interchanges with other examiners, validation and quality assurance, and quantitative analysis; definition of the information content and determination of a comparison of two friction ridge impressions for archiving, interchanges with other examiners, validation and quality assurance processing, and quantitative analysis; interoperable interchange format for automated fingerprint or palmprint systems, for human-initiated searches, fully automated searches, data interchange between automated systems, and feedback to examiners from automated processing. This document is the result of more than three years of detailed interactions among the members of CDEFFS (the Committee to Define an Extended Fingerprint Feature Set).

Background

At the ANSI/NIST ITL 1-2000 Standard Workshop I in April 2005, SWGFAST (Scientific Working Group on Friction Ridge Analysis, Study, and Technology) was tasked to identify, define and provide guidance on additional fingerprint features beyond the traditional ending ridges and bifurcations currently defined in the ANSI/NIST ITL-2000 standard (which is the basis for the FBI's EFTS, and Interpol's INT-I).

At their Fall 2005 meeting, SWGFAST drafted a memo to Mike McCabe at NIST in response, enumerating the features used by expert human latent examiners that are not currently addressed in fingerprint feature standards.

As a follow-on to this, at the ANSI/NIST ITL 1-2000 Standard Workshop II in December 2005, Steve Meagher (FBI) and Austin Hicklin (Mitretek) gave a presentation entitled “Extended Fingerprint Feature Set”, and proposed these next steps:

In response, this committee was chartered. The committee includes representatives from a broad spectrum of federal, state, and local law enforcement and forensic agencies, SWGFAST and the latent fingerprint community, US and international academics, and senior engineers from each of the major AFIS vendors.

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Created May 9, 2006.