Biometrics Task Force reveals 2009 research funding areas

TAMPA, Fla. — The Biometrics Task Force, a unit of the Army that leads Defense Department activities to program, integrate and synchronize biometric technologies, announced its focus areas for research funding proposals under the Biometrics Broad Agency Announcement for 2009.

Speaking at the Biometrics Consortium Conference, BTF spokesman Gregory Alexander said the unit will seek research proposals in two areas of focus: the development of single sensors capable of capturing multiple modalities and the development of multimodal model matching capabilities.

A multimodal sensor was described as a single unit capable of capturing multiple types of biometric input, such as finger and palm prints and vein patterns. Multimodal model matching capabilities were described as applications having the abilities to process multiple biometrics — such as fingerprints, iris captures or voice captures – for analysis.

Alexander said there will be an official announcement of the request for proposals by the end of September. The process will conclude with the announcement of awards for 2009 in early February.

The Biometrics Broad Agency Announcement is a two-year process that began in 2008. This year’s focus represents a distinct narrowing of focus from the previous year, which included five broad focus areas: collection systems, suboptimal data enhancement, match-generation algorithms, biometrics data fusion and biometric architectures. Of the 175 proposals received in 2008, 10 were selected for funding.

The Biometrics Consortium Conference sponsored by a number of federal agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Security Agency and Homeland Security Department.