From: David Moss
Sent: 04 November 2009 13:45
To: P. Jonathon Phillips
Cc: 'itl_inquiries@nist.gov'
Subject: Face recognition. NIST? Or the FBI? You can't both be right.

Dear Dr Phillips

I refer to the March 2007 report NISTIR 7408 on which you are the lead author,
'FRVT 2006 and ICE 2006 Large-Scale Results'.

This report is always taken to state
that face recognition is as good as fingerprint and irisprint
when it comes to identity verification.
This conclusion is used in the UK to defend the use of face recognition,
particularly when it comes to the use of smart gates at airports.
The authorities here in the UK have no other support for relying on face recognition --
NISTIR 7408 is a lonely report.

At the Biometrics 2009 conference held in London 20-22 October 2009,
http://www.biometrics2009.com/,
Mr James A Loudermilk II of the FBI
announced that the FBI would love to be able to use face recognition,
it would be the killer application of biometrics,
but they can't because the algorithms simply do not exist
to provide the highly reliable verification required.

NIST say yes. The FBI say no.

Which is it, may I ask?

No particular reason why you should answer my question.
I have dealt with Tony Mansfield and Marek Rejman-Greene,
here in the UK,
in the past,
http://dematerialisedid.com/BCSL/Marek%20Rejman-Greene%20002.html
I spend my time trying to stop the UK Government
from wasting taxpayers' money on their National Identity Service.
Please see http://dematerialisedid.com/CIF/cifFBI.html
and the rest of my website http://dematerialisedid.com
for my credentials, such as they are.
But an answer would be appreciated (and publicised).

Yours sincerely
David Moss

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