NGI Face Component
Definition
The face recognition module within the FBI's Next Generation Identification system, which searches a gallery of over 600 million images, including driver's licence photographs, for criminal investigation leads.
- Parent system
- FBI Next Generation Identification
- Gallery size
- Over 600 million images
- Includes
- Driver's licence photographs
- Purpose
- Investigative leads, not court identification
Common questions
Why does the NGI face component's gallery include driver's licence photos?+
State agreements allow the FBI to search driver's licence photo databases in addition to criminal mugshot repositories, which greatly expands the pool of candidates but also means many people in the gallery have no criminal record, raising civil-liberties concerns.
How is an NGI face component result used in an investigation?+
It returns a ranked candidate list, not a positive identification, and investigators are expected to treat a match as one lead among others requiring independent corroboration before it informs charging or arrest decisions.
What accuracy concerns are specific to this face gallery?+
Because driver's licence photos are captured under varied lighting, pose, and camera conditions compared to controlled mugshot photography, match accuracy can be lower and demographic disparities in false-positive rates have been documented in comparable large-scale face-search systems.
Related terms
- AFRS (India)
- Automated Facial Recognition System, the face recognition module within India's CCTNS, operated by the NCRB and used for searching against mug shots,...
- Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) Embedding
- The face descriptor produced by a neural network trained to map face images into a metric space where same-person images cluster together;...
- ENFSI BPM
- The ENFSI Best Practice Manual for Forensic Comparison of Speech (2015, rev. 2022); the operational standard for speaker comparison in European forensic...
- False Positive Identification Rate (FPIR)
- In 1:N identification, the rate at which a probe image of an individual not in the gallery generates a top-rank match. Critical...
- IPD Pixels
- Inter-pupillary distance measured in pixels, the primary resolution metric for face recognition; NIST FRVT finds reliable recognition requires approximately 50+ IPD pixels;...
- Morphological Analysis
- The systematic comparison of qualitative facial feature shapes from a standardised feature list; the primary method in ENFSI BPM facial image comparison,...
- NIST FRVT
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology Face Recognition Vendor Testing programme, the primary independent benchmark for facial recognition algorithms, publishing ongoing...
- Photo-Anthropometry
- The measurement of anatomical facial landmark ratios (scale-invariant) from face images; sensitive to head pose differences and requires geometric correction for images...
- Verbal Likelihood Ratio (VLR)
- The scale used by ENFSI and the UK Forensic Science Regulator for forensic comparison conclusions, running from 'No support for the proposition...